#Italy

Mar 1, 2019

4 top Italian reds – from Tuscany, Trentino and Lombardy

Tasting notes on another four impressive Italian recent releases, following on from my Caiarossa blog The four wines – San Leonardo from Trentino, Conte Vistarino Pinot Nero Bertone (awaiting its proper label) from Lombardy and the two Tuscans, Poggio Valente from the Maremma and Le Serre dell'Ornellaia from Bolgheri San Leonardo 2013, Vigneti delle Dolomiti, Trentino San Leonardo is the flagship wine of the eponymous tenuta (estate) in Trentino and is one of Italy’s iconic r

Feb 28, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Antonelli Montefalco Rosso 2015, Umbria, Italy

£12.75 (on offer), Jeroboams Montefalco Rosso is one of my go-to Italian reds when I'm in Italy, an approachable alternative to Umbria's Sagrantino Montefalco, the monumental cult red that gets its tannic power and longevity from the Sagrantino grape. The Rosso is Sangiovese-based but has to include 10–15% Sagrantino, enough for its perfume, intensity and backbone to make an impact. Antonelli's blend of 70% Sangiovese and 15% each of Sagrantino and Montepulciano is a lovely e

Feb 15, 2019

Caiarossa – fusing complexity with approachability in Tuscany

The past six months have been particularly rich in tastings of top Tuscan wines. Two of them, Luce and Siepi, I’ve written about in forthcoming articles for The World of Fine Wine. Others I’ll be covering in a blogpost soon, but today it's Caiarossa The estate's flagship wine I’m starting with Caiarossa because I don’t get to taste the wines as often as some other top Tuscan estates and, when I do, I’m always struck by the way the reds fuse complexity and seriousness of purpo

Feb 5, 2019

Affordable Italians from the south and Tuscany

My latest Wine of the Week was one of six Italian wines I tasted from Tanners. I could happily have chosen any of the other five, so I'm posting notes on them. The first two are new in and from the same Abruzzo producer as my Wine of the Week. The other three are described as "old faithfuls" by Tanners. Tenuta del Priore Col del Mondo Sunnae Abruzzo Bianco 2017, £10.95 You don't see white Abruzzo very often – a shame if this lees-matured blend of Trebbiano, Passerino and Peco

Jan 31, 2019

WINE OF THE WEEK: Tenuta del Priore Campotino Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2017, Abruzzo, Italy

£8.95, Tanners This is just the sort of uncomplicated but delicious Italian red that cheers up any chill winter evening or Sunday lunch. Full of juicy cherry, damson and hedgerow berry fruit against a backdrop of light peppery, herbal notes, it's that bit more polished than most Montepulciano d'Abruzzo at under £10 and is one of a trio of wines from the Mazzocchetti family of Tenuta del Priore that Tanners has just listed. I could as happily have chosen either of the other tw

Aug 16, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Nicosia Fondo Filara Etna Bianco 2017, Etna, Sicily, Italy

£12.50, The Wine Society This mouthwatering, mineral dry white combines two of my enthusiasms: wines from volcanic soils and island wines. They come together on the slopes of Etna as they do on the Greek island of Santorini, but Etna has its own grape varieties, red as well as white. The whites are steered by the high-quality, late-ripening Carricante, filled out here with Sicily’s most widely planted white, Catarratto, both planted at 700–750m. Aside from the mineral charact

Jun 14, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Alovini Le Ralle Basilicata Rosato 2017, Basilicata, Italy

£8.95, The Wine Society Provence rosés have done such a clever job of persuading people that pale rosés are both drier and more sophisticated than dark rosés that deep pink wines are beginning to look like an endangered species. Don’t let it happen! There’s room for all shades of pink, and vibrant pinks aren’t necessarily less dry. Take this amply proportioned, dark rosato made from Aglianico and Montepulciano grapes in southern Italy. It’s dry but not bone dry and delivers a

May 30, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Paolo Leo Primitivo di Manduria 2016, Puglia, Italy

£8.24 on offer, Waitrose and Ocado I originally chose a new Argentine Malbec for this week, Tabu 2016 made by Luigi Bosca (fragrant, briary, lightly oaked, £11.99, Waitrose), but this Primitivo, a perennial favourite and a great barbecue wine, is temptingly on offer, down from £10.99 until 12 June when you buy any 6 bottles. Genetically, Primitivo, which originated in Croatia, is the same as California's Zinfandel, but at home in Puglia in southern Italy, way down in the heel

May 17, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Campo di Sasso Insoglio del Cinghiale 2016, Toscana, Italy

£21.50, Corney & Barrow I’ve drunk earlier vintages of this opulent, satin-smooth red at the estate with wild boar (the local cinghiale of the label) and it’s a seamless pairing, but it’s such a supple, ample and well–tuned wine it’s a match for all sorts of food – darker meat, lighter meat, vegetable dishes, cheese... Campo di Sasso is a 46-hectare estate near Bibbona in coastal southwest Tuscany that was established by, and belongs to, Lodovico Antinori, one of the famous F

Apr 4, 2018

White Beauty: a Tuscan debut

Wine exam question: Explain what is meant by white Sangiovese. When I first heard about a Sangiovese bianco, I didn’t know if we were talking about a white mutation of the Sangiovese grape (like the white Cabernet Sauvignon found in an Australian vineyard in the 1980s and now propagated under the name Shalistin) or a Blanc de Noirs, a white wine made from red Sangiovese grapes. It didn’t take long to find out that it’s the latter. The debut vintage of Reimitz Sangiovese bianc

Mar 6, 2018

Expanding wine drinkers' horizons: The Daily Drinker

As it was so hard choosing between the five Daily Drinker wines for my Wine of the Week, I'm writing up the other four here (and looking forward to tasting more). The Daily Drinker is an online wine shop and club with a mission to get wine drinkers to go off-piste and try some of the myriad affordable, but little-encountered wines from around the world. They (Caspar and Victoria Bowes who also own Bowes Wine – wine-portfolio management for private clients) introduce two new w

Mar 1, 2018

WINE OF THE WEEK: Venea Trebbiano d'Abruzzo 2015, Abruzzo, Italy

£9.50, or £8.55 club members' price, The Daily Drinker I’ve tasted only five of The Daily Drinker’s wines, so can hardly claim knowledge of the range, but I was excited by the five and hard pushed to pick just one for Wine of the Week. The idea behind the Daily Drinker is to introduce people to delicious but affordable wines that they wouldn’t otherwise encounter or which look dauntingly unfamiliar – wines from little known grape varieties and/or obscure regions. The one I’ve

Dec 21, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: *finest Greco Beneventano 2016, Campania, Italy

£8 until 1 January, Tesco Since I included this southern Italian in my Festive White Wine Guide last week, I've discovered that it's on offer, down from £9, until January 1, making it an even better buy. It's also in a large number of stores (864), so it's a useful wine to have on your list in the frantic run-up to Christmas and the quiet days before New Year (and the Tesco *finest label can be peeled off). The wine itself is crisp, dry and unoaked and should pass muster with

Dec 12, 2017

Antinori Guado al Tasso 1998–2011 and Matarrochio 2007–2011

This article originally appeared in The World of Fine Wine, issue 51 A tasting billed as a UK first is tempting by any standard, but when presented by Renzo Cotarella it is doubly so. Cotarella – he hardly needs an introduction – is CEO and chief winemaker of Antinori, a youthful 60-year-old who has been with the company since 1979 and says he has no understudy but a team of 40 technicians. “I think what will be very difficult in future will be a single winemaker and a single

Nov 16, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: Taste the Difference Barbaresco 2014, Piedmont, Italy

£11, Sainsbury's Barbaresco and bargain aren't words that usually go together, but £11 is a very good price for a Barbaresco of this quality. It's even got a track record for reliability: two previous vintages were equally good. It’s classic, medium-bodied Nebbiolo, quietly assured, savoury and food-friendly. The perfume and flavours criss-cross from rose potpourri, dark plums and cherries, to autumnal undergrowth and forest floor, to tobacco, nutmeg, espresso and liquorice.

Oct 19, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: Bel Colle Verduno Pelaverga 2016, Piedmont, Italy

£15.95, Jeroboams This red is sheer pleasure: not demanding, not challenging, just delicious. It’s pale garnet in colour, has a perfume of roses and wild strawberries and flavours of strawberries and freshly ground white pepper. It’s soft, juicy, dry, oak-free and very low in tannin, making it as good a partner for tuna and other fish as for cured and air-dried hams, bresaola, or chicken. Now for the background: Verduno is in the north west corner of Barolo, but Verduno Pelav

Sep 26, 2017

Incestuous vines: the curious case of the long lost – and now found – Sirica

One of the three huge old Sirica vines discovered in Taurasi Aglianico vineyards in 2005; a glass of Sirica 2014 So what do you know about Sirica? No, me neither until the end of June, but I do like a good vine mystery and am full of admiration for people who track down forgotten or unknown grape varieties, whether intentionally or inadvertently, and bring them back from the brink. Having been to Irpinia, Campania, I now know that Sirica is an Italian red grape variety. And I

Sep 18, 2017

Age shall not wither them: 150-year-old Aglianico vines and a vertical tasting

Antonio Capaldi, president of Feudi di San Gregorio (left) with agronomist and CEO Pierpaolo Sirch; I wasn't the only one to photograph the 17-vintage line-up (right) I was in Campania recently for a vertical and horizontal tasting of Aglianico, “the Barolo of the south”, but no less fascinating than the tasting were some of the vines I encountered. The wines were from the Capaldo family’s Feudi di San Gregorio estate and the tasting was held in the winery designed for them b

Aug 24, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: Le Fraghe Chelidon Rondinella 2015, Veneto, Italy

£12.50, The Wine Society It's easier than it used to be to find good light-bodied red wines, but even so this crystal-bright Veronese red is a discovery. Rondinella is one of the grape varieties in Valpolicella but, playing second fiddle to the more assertive Corvina, it seldom gets solo billing. At Le Fraghe, by Lake Garda, it gets TLC in the vineyards and the winery from Matilde Poggi and the result is a wine with oodles of charm and personality: fragrant crushed cherry and

Jun 22, 2017

WINE OF THE WEEK: The Fire Tree Vermentino 2016, Terre Siciliane, Italy

Aldi, £4.69 I'm as stunned by the price of this wine as you are. It's my cheapest Wine of the Week so far, and at a time when prices of European wines are rising inexorably in the UK thanks to the weakness of sterling. Never mind the price: feel the quality – or at least feel the value for money. We're not looking at depth and complexity here, we're looking at a refreshing, soft, dry white with a jasmine and spice perfume, and lemon peel and almond on the palate. Drink it as