Archive for March 2018

"Pietradolce boasts some of the most beautiful vineyards I have ever seen. I cannot exaggerate this point. The Vigna Barbagalli is located a steep 900 meters on the volcano's flank. Once you climb up there, you are treated to a panorama of ancient, knotted pre-phylloxera vines hidden in a little amp…

The white wines of the Rhône Valley have always been something of an acquired taste. The top wines that float above their respective appellations (here I am thinking Hermitage from Chave and Sorrel, those recently-offered Condrieu wines of M Vernay and Châteauneuf-du-Pape from the likes …

Rose Gold From the NorthPiemonte, like Burgundy, is a bastion of  mono-varietal wine. Again, like Burgundy, it can boast a red grape as fine as any in the world in the form of Nebbiolo, a variety that can and does produce wines of haunting beauty and complexity and a grape that was once thought…

Condrieu - that fulsome, exotic white wine from Côte Rôtie's neighbouring and almost equally precipitous commune in the northern Rhône Valley - is a like-it or loathe-it kind of a drink. And I fall into the latter camp…or, at least I do in the normal course of things. Let me…

Coravin means one can try bottles in one's cellar without opening themI have been putting my Coravinto good use since I collected a few mixed cases of ready-for-drinking bottles from my own portfolio. Coravin is a genius invention that allow one, via a fine needle, to extract a glass of wine from a …