Antinori. A noble Tuscan family and a producer of wine for twenty-six generations. I can count on my fingers the number of other families or estates whose winemaking history dates back to 1180, but longevity is far from the only reason that Marchesi Antinori is worthy of note.
Read MoreI was fortunate enough to dine at Brawn recently and I enjoyed some of the best food that I have eaten in quite some time. An exceptional dish of grilled duck hearts on fresh broad bean purée was followed by an equally delicious confit rabbit leg served with wet polenta and a delicate gremolata.
Read MoreLay & Wheeler, now a part of Majestic, recently held a rather unusual tasting in Manchester. Showcasing a selection of wines from its own stocks, supplemented with older vintages from its broking list, I wasn't going to miss the chance to taste the wines of Tenuta dell'Ornellaia and of Château de Beaucastel - despite them not being the most obvious of bedfellows.
Read MoreThe always affable and amusing Robert Steel visited Reserve in Didsbury recently with an interesting and enjoyable assortment of Italian wines from his portfolio. For The Love Of Wine was founded by his father, Ian, after an enlightening trip to Italy. Specialising originally in Italian wines from artisan family producers, they also offer a comprehensive selection of Swiss wines.
Read MoreAfter the excesses of Christmas, midway between the joyous fervour of well intentioned resolutions and the pay cheque that will once again allow you off the wagon, January can often seem to be the longest of months. What better way to shake off the malaise than by maintaining the level of decadence to which one has recently grown so accustomed?
Read MoreAll fifty American states now produce wine, but 95% of it comes from only four of them. California is by far the most prolific state and it is responsible for five times more wine than the output of the next three combined: Washington, Oregon and New York. Of the other states, Texas and then Virginia are the fifth and sixth largest wine producers respectively.
Read MoreRun by the Boscaini family - for the last fifty or so years headed by Sandro Boscaini, a.k.a. “Mister Amarone” – Masi’s list of achievements rightly sets it apart as one of the most successful and important winemaking dynasties in the Veneto.
Read MoreAfter my flying visit to Romano dal Forno’s remarkable estate earlier in the year (see “That’s Amarone”), I thought it about time to revisit the fruits of his labour. Back when it was almost affordable, I bought some of the Romano dal Forno Valpolicella Superiore 2000 (14.7% ABV), but it had been a few years since I last opened a bottle.
Read MoreAfter working your way through my last blog post, you’ve possibly heard enough about the Veneto and its wines from me for the time being. I’m sorry for any repetition, but I wasn’t going to pass up the recent opportunity to taste the wines of Azienda Agricola Cecilia Beretta; particularly as I only had to travel as far as Hanging Ditch to do it.
Read MoreOne of the funny things about the creative process, at least as far as we left-brainers are concerned, is that what you end up with can often bear little resemblance to that which you set out to create. The travelling is more important than the arriving; the artistic endeavour more significant than the resulting artwork. Even more bafflingly, this is perfectly acceptable. Try to run a business that way and see what happens.
Read MoreAs usual, the run-up to Christmas was a prolonged period of pandemonium at work and so, by the time the holidays eventually arrived, all plans of elaborate meals and fine wines had been abandoned in favour of simpler family favourites. That’s not to say I didn’t open a couple of reasonable bottles, but only so I had something to write about, you understand.
Read MoreThe importance of Marchesi Piero Antinori’s contribution to Tuscan wine specifically, to Italian wine generally and to the standing of both in the wider world of wine cannot easily be overstated. The figures make impressive enough reading on their own: Piero is the 26th generation of a family whose unbroken winemaking provenance dates back to 1385…
Read MoreAs an addendum to A Weekend To Remember, we were “allowed” to visit one winery the next afternoon, and Zýmē’s beautiful cave was only a couple of miles away from where we were staying. Carved into the hillside, their barrel cellar is a fifteenth century quarry hewn out of the sandstone, painstakingly recovered from nature and sympathetically fitted with dramatic uplighting, climate control and a beautifully appointed tasting room.
Read MoreIt took my dad literally seconds to decide where he would like to spend his 65th birthday weekend; it didn’t take him very much longer to rustle up a few Ryanair tickets and to book a hire car. Eventually the weekend rolled around and we hopped on a plane to Bergamo before following the autostrada right into the heart of the Valpolicella region.
Read MoreDue to the usual nonsense that is work, my recent attempt to leave the office at twelve was thwarted until nearer two o’clock. Still an early finish you might say, but I was heading to the Specialist Importers Trade Tasting (SITT) where there were forty or fifty exhibitors all of whom were desperate for me to try their wares and all of whom were only there until four o’clock.
Read MoreGiuseppe Quintarelli, the incomparably gifted and inspirational maestro of the Valpolicella region, has passed away aged eighty-four after suffering from Parkinson's disease for some years. Each of his wines, from his Valpolicella to his Amarone Riserva, has such effortlessly beautiful poise, concentration and sense of place that it is easy to overlook the dedication, the skill and the love that the quietly unassuming "Bepi" lavished upon them.
Read MoreI played hooky on Tuesday to attend Decanter’s Great Winemakers of Italy tasting in London. I suspect that the Istituto Del Vino Italiano Di Qualità Grandi Marchi is little more than a good excuse for many of the great and good of Italian wine to get together, pat themselves on their backs and come up with new ways of inflating their prices, but if it means more tastings of this calibre then I can’t complain too much.
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