Five Tannic Native Italian Grapes Anybody who knows me and my wine-drinking habits knows that I really enjoy tannic red wines. I seem to gravitate towards grape varieties that offer a lot of natural tannin, and I tend to prefer my reds a little younger than many of my colleagues. I enjoy a couple of […]
Coravin Test Round Three – The Vintage Needle
Coravin Test Round 3 – The Vintage Needle Now this was exciting. Coravin has, in their arsenal, a smaller-bore needle that is specially-designed for use with “older” wines. The corks of said wines are more likely to have lost some of their resiliency, and the wines themselves are perhaps more delicate than younger versions, requiring […]
A Surprise from South Africa – “Seriously Cool Cinsault” from Waterkloof
If you think about wines from South Africa, chances are good that a grape called Cinsaut (or, if you prefer, CinsauLt) isn’t the first thing that crosses your mind. No worries, I won’t judge you for that; it wouldn’t be the first thing I thought of, either. There are plenty of better-known grapes emerging from […]
Montecucco: Sangiovese’s best-kept secret
What is Montecucco? We are in the warm south of Tuscany. Here, sandwiched between two well-known denominations specialising in Sangiovese, you will discover a third – much newer and very much less well-known – that benefits from similar advantages to its well-heeled neighbours, and which is producing some very characteristic, Sangiovese-based wines of high quality. […]
Anteprima Amarone 50° – the 2014 Vintage
Anteprima Amarone 50° – Presentation of the 2014 Vintage It was a tough year, 2014, and not only in Valpolicella. Nearly every wine region in Europe had difficulties. Simpler wines requiring no long ageing before release have already long since moved on to succeeding vintages, including the universally-acclaimed 2015, the challenging but interesting 2016 – […]
Natural Wines: Two Obstacles
The Obstacles for Natural Wines Before I launch into a long, nasty tirade about this very misunderstood area of wine, indulge me for a moment and permit me to say that I think the premise of “natural” wines is likely the most appealing of all the possibilities open to us for winemaking and viticulture: wines […]
Can Amarone Age?
Can Amarone della Valpolicella age? It isn’t as strange a question as it might seem. Not all wines age well, and most of the Amarone more than ten years old that I have tried have been more tired than lively. Nevertheless, over the past 70 years Amarone has rightly secured a place as one of […]
Barolo: tasting across seven decades
Barolo at its best: the epic tasting event Nebbiolo is the name of the grape responsible, in the right hands and conditions, for some of Italy’s – and the world’s – greatest red wines. Although planted in many places around the globe, nowhere else – so far – does it reach the heights to which […]
Champagne’s Best Side: Cuvée des Crayères
“Cuvée des Crayères” Ambonnay Grand Cru Brut – Champagne Rodez Every now and again I get to try a wine that is so compelling, so wonderful that I am driven to my laptop to write about it. The Cuvée des Crayères from Champagne Rodez is such a wine. I was alternating between savouring every mouthful […]
Coravin Test Round Two – Three Reds
Coravin Test Round Two – Three Reds For Round Two of the Coravin Test, I chose three fairly different red wines: a beautifully clean, organic Swiss wine from the Lavaux region at Lake Geneva, made with a relatively new hybrid called Diolinoir; an unusual, non-vintage, multi-state American blend; and a raspy, biodynamic Monastrell from the […]