On Thursday 6^th September we held our third annual Italian Grand Tour Tasting in Lindley Hall in Pimlico. The event was a great success and gave 435 of our customers a chance to taste the new releases and talk to the producers from Piedmont, Tuscany and almost every corner of this increasingly important wine producing country. The wines showed very well and a good time was had by all.

Friday 7^th saw us launch the Grand Tour offer and many wines were snapped up quickly. The good news is that, if you haven’t secured yourself a case or two from the offer yet, then many of the wines are still available. All of our favourite producers are back and there are rich pickings to be had from the likes of Fratelli Alessandria, now makers of the new Berrys’ Own Selection Barolo, as well as their single Vineyard Baroli, Bartolo-Mascarello, Marcarini, Giovanni Rosso, Mario Fontana, Cascina delle Rose and Roagna to name just a few of our established Barolo and Barbaresco producers. These have been joined by the excellent wines from Luigi Oddero, 460 Cascina Bric and Cascina Luisin, all well worth trying.

From Tuscany, there are excellent Brunello di Montalcino from Lisini, San Giuseppe, Cerbaiona and La Serena, while Chianti Classico is represented by the famous names of Badia a Coltibuono, Castello di Ama and the great BBR discovery, Bibbiano.

The south and the islands are now making up an important part of our range with excellent Aglianico from Luigi Tecce in Campania and last year’s great discovery, the Aglianico del Vulture from Carbone in Basilicata, now joined by joined by the beautiful easy drinking wines of Musto Carmelitano from the same area. Sicily is still very ably represented by the talented Alberto Graci’s wines made on the slopes of Mount Etna. We now have great wines from the heel and toe of Italy represented by a delicious Negroamaro from l’Astore Masseria and Morella’s rich Primitivo wines in Puglia and a great value and very drinkable Ciró from the Gaglioppo grape variety, crafted by Sergio Arcuri in Calabria.

Lastly we should mention the delicious whites, with firm favourites like Le Marche’s Mirum, Piedmont’s Il Montino and Cornarea Arneis and Friuli’s Gris Pinot Grigio now joined by Franz Grojer’s citrusy Kerner.

This is just a snap shot of the range and I haven’t even mentioned the excellent wines from the Veneto, Umbria and rural Tuscany. In short, there is a cornucopia of great wines here and I would urge you to get some while stocks last, but whatever you choose, you really can’t go wrong!

Brindisi!