Now that winemakers all around the world treat rosé with as much respect as red and white wines, there are so many good rosés in such a diversity of styles that I'm dividing this year's round-up into two posts, with a cross section of styles, grape varieties and origins in each. And in a break with the past, I'm going from high to low in price this year because I don't want the more expensive pink wines (the first five in particular) to be missed. Scroll to the bottom and go

£13.95, The Wine Society If you're about to move on because you think that Nebbiolo isn't a summer wine, please give me a moment. It's true that the grape famous for Barolo and Barbaresco has a savoury, autumnal side to its flavour and goes well with lots of autumn foods - game, mushrooms, truffles – but that's only part of the story. It also has a wonderful fragrance – ethereal and haunting, as so often described – and in the Langhe hills it has notable elegance, as it does

Two things came together for Frescobaldi's Luce in 2018, a model vintage without any of the extremes of the previous year and the opening in June of a purpose-built Tenuta Luce winery. The previous 25 vintages of Luce, a Sangiovese-Merlot blend from the south of Montalcino, originally conceived and created in partnership with the Mondavi family, had all been made in Frescobaldi's Castelgiocondo winery. I've written more about it and a retrospective tasting I did in November 2

£13.50–£17.49, The Wine Society, The Wine Reserve, Old Bridge Wine Shop, The Fine Wine Company, Valvona & Crolla, Theatre of Wine, Cambridge Wine, Noble Green Wines Sometimes. Often. Chianti just hits the spot. I drank this Chianti Rufina, courtesy of the importer Liberty Wines, while attending, virtually, the André Simon Food and Drink Book Awards 2020 (no, no relation). Maybe it was the wine, but it seemed to me that the quality of the shortlisted books this year was on an

£14.50, Tanners Wines An enchanting example of Piemonte's flagship white grape variety, Arneis, from Monica and Daniela Tibaldi, young sisters who took over the family vineyards in the heart of the Roero hills in 2014. It has the prettiest of scents – floral, fresh, citrusy, delicately herbal – leading into a medium-full, soft-textured palate of fragrant white peach with a twist of lemon peel, minerals and preserved lemon. It hits the spot as an aperitif and could be matched

Paolo Bianchini, winemaker and former cycling pro, raising a glass of his Brunello di Montalcino at the tasting lunch in London in 2020 One of the things I shared with my first section editor on The Sunday Times many moons ago was a love of a good rags-to-riches story. The rise of the Bianchini family at Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona in Brunello di Montalcino would have been perfect. It isn’t quite rags to riches, but it’s a heart-warming story and all the more so because of t

£8.99/£9.99, Majestic Winemakers in southern Italy have been using the appassimento tecnique to make their red wines smoother and more concentrated, but a white given the treatment is a rarity. Perhaps it won’t be once more producers taste this Sicilian Grillo – a mouthwatering riot of passion fruit, candied grapefruit peel, pineapple, dried pear and spiced apricot, with succulent texture and pivotal acidity. The man behind the wine is the ever-creative Stefano Girelli, who h

Monterosola's stylishly labelled wines: two whites on the left, then four of the five reds I haven’t visited Monterosola in Tuscany, but having seen photos and tasted six of the eight wines I’m keen to go when we’re all travelling again. Geographically, it's very neatly located. The estate sits high up at 430m on a plateau to the east of the Etruscan city of Volterra in the Province of Pisa, between Bolgheri 50km to the south-west, San Gimignano and its DOC area to the east a

£9.99–£10.75, Ocado, Vintage Roots I recommended an earlier incarnation of this organic wine a few years ago as a perfect spring red. In August this year, in searing heat, I had the 2019 and thought it was the ideal summer red. I've just had it again on a dark, chilly November evening and come to the conclusion that it's a delicious all-seasons red. With its gem-bright, pale colour and medium body, it doesn't have that hearty winter look, but trades it for suppleness, freshne

Normally the Conti Contini Bonacossi family get through about 70 litres of their own organic extra virgin olive oil a year, but this year is different. Beatrice Contini Bonacossi says it’ll be nearer 100 litres because they’ve all been lunching at home. Lucky them: the oil in question is Capezzana, an estate north-west of Florence that, in addition to producing beautiful Carmignano wine, has been making olive oil since Etruscan and Roman times. No wonder they know a thing or

£16.76, Jeroboams Etna wines have become hugely trendy in the last few years, and rightly so. From soaring vineyards on the volcanic soils of an active volcano, they've got everything – quality, character and singularity. The Costantino family's 10 hectares lie at about 450–550 metres in Contrada Blandano on the south-eastern slopes, from where, they say, they can see the sea and taste the windblown tang of salt. Some of Etna's vineyards are twice as high again. Red wine heav

Before lockdown I visited the Cavit co-operative group in Trentino to see how it applies cutting edge technology to improve its wines and the environment. Last week I caught up with the head of agronomy on zoom to find out about its impact in a year like this. Colour-coded vineyard parcels, including Schiava Gentile, on the PICA app on a Cavit agronomist's smartphone In the tiny village in deeply rural France where I’m often based, we always know when a storm is about to whip

Gnocchi with girolles, chanterelles and black truffle paired with the 2011 vintage of Castello di Fonterutoli's super-Tuscan Siepi, at a dinner hosted by Giovanni Mazzei at The Petersham restaurant in London The text of this article was first published in The World of Fine Wine issue 64 The first person I met at the Siepi winemaker dinner at The Petersham restaurant in London’s Covent Garden was an engagingly conversational Jermyn Street shirtmaker. He didn’t say whether he c

£14.50, The Daily Drinker This is the first time I've mentioned Müller Thurgau on my website; never mind recommended it. Extraordinary. And yet not so extraordinary. As a grape variety, its reputation rests on early ripening pretty well anywhere and all too plentifully. As a white wine, its past reputation in Germany, England and New Zealand is best forgotten. But in Italy's Alto Adige (aka Sud Tirol or South Tyrol) it's something else. The delightful Müller Thurgau from Kell

Another summer, another round-up of delicious dry rosés, plus a featherweight, lightly sparkling sweet wine from Italy and a pink Champagne that I wasn't familiar with and which hugely impressed me recently. There are lots of different styles, shades, flavours and grape varieties, but it has turned out to be an almost all-European selection this year, reflecting the limitations the pandemic has imposed on tastings, travel and trade. The one exception (perhaps ironically) is f

£9.74, Majestic I shall be posting this summer’s rosé round-up soon, but another pink as Wine of the Week is well overdue, so here it is: a delightful, copper-tinged salmon pink organic wine from southeast Sicily – and a timely reminder that rosés don’t have to be off-the-scale-pale to be sophisticated. Some of the most interesting and authentic are anything but. Sporting a pretty name and label as well as a pretty colour, Rosa di Santa Tresa is made from half and half Nero d

The imposing medieval Castello Poggio alle Mura with just below (on the right of the picture) part of the luxury Castello Banfi Il Borgo hotel When John Mariani bought the Poggio alle Mura estate just south of Montalcino in 1978, it had had only two previous owners, the Sicilian family living in Venezuela that he bought it from and a Sienese family. In itself, it’s not necessarily remarkable, but the Castello dates from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, so it was a big c

These two singular and rare dry white wines, one from France and one from Italy, could hardly be more different in style – a textbook compare-and-contrast study. Domaine Jones On The QT Bin 23 Carignan Gris 2019 is very pale, delicately perfumed, lively and medium-light with a fine, faintly chalky texture, fresh pear and apple, hints of apricot and ginger root, and herb (including fennel) and mineral flavours. It's a Vin de France from a vineyard in Languedoc close to the Rou

£8.58, Jascots Pinot Grigio has to work hard to earn itself a place as Wine of the Week. It's not that I don't like the grape variety. I do – very much – but not the neutral, light style that northern Italy has made its own. This single-vineyard, organic wine is miles away from that: not remotely powerful but with delicious liveliness and intensity and a creamy, lees-enriched texture, plus leafy, lime and delicate bread-crust notes on the nose and a mouthwatering, saline, min

Looking across the Luce vineyards to Frescobaldi's Tenuta di Castelgiocondo in southwest Montalcino in the November sunshine The text of this article was first published in The World of Fine Wine issue 63 There must have been no shortage of potential candidates for Lamberto Frescobaldi to choose from for the newly created post of technical director and oenologist at the new, all-singing, all-dancing, no-expense-spared Tenuta Luce winery in Montalcino. It was surely a red-hot