In my quest for Nebbiolo to love, I came across two rather gorgeous bottles from Giuseppe Mascarello. This is one of those producers with a reputation for making mostly sublime…
ViniItaliani, a great London destination for Italian wine
Last Wednesday I made a new discovery (new for me, at least). It’s ViniItaliani, a wine shop/wine bar on the Old Brompton Road in South Kensington. It also acts as…
Learning to love Nebbiolo: Ar.Pe.Pe Rosso di Valtellina
So I continue in my noble quest to learn to love Nebbiolo (see my previous posts here and here). This time, I am turning to the Valtellina region, a 70…
Learning to love Nebbiolo (1) Pio Cesare
A while back I posted on ‘Nebbiolo, I’d love to like you more’, which drew some very intelligent responses. I’m sure I lost a few followers – people who realized…
Montalbera Laccento 2010 Ruché, a rare red variety from Piedmont
This is such a distinctive, perfumed, floral red wine. It’s from Piedmont, and made from a very rare red grape variety called Ruché, of which there are only 40 hectares…
La Roncaia Eclisse 2011 a brilliant Sauvignon from Friuli
This is a new wine for me, and I’m glad that I discovered it. It’s from Friuli, near the Slovenian border, and it’s a blend of mostly Sauvignon Blanc with…
A pair from Tenuta di Trinoro
These are remarkable wines that are very hard to pigeonhole. On paper, they aren’t really my thing: we are looking at Bordeaux grape varieties, grown in Tuscany, and weighing in…
Muscat and Moscato
Just had to do a Sunday Express column on Moscato, which gave me a chance to try a few different ones. I’ve included Muscat here, as well as what we…
Two summery sweet wines worth checking out
Sometimes you just want something fun and summery to drink. Here are a couple of really fun, sweet, fizzy wines with real points of interest. Innocent Bystander Moscato 2013 Victoria,…