A new face on Berrys’ books this year is Lena Oddero, owner of Vigneti Luigi Oddero (so named after her late husband), whom I meet in their Rocche dei Rivera vineyard stunningly located in the heart of Barolo’s Castiglione Falletto village. Appassionati of Nebbiolo and Barolo will probably have heard of the name ‘Oddero’ but few realise that […]

Kicking off five days of 2012 Nebbiolo harvest reports this week, here I interview Maria Teresa Mascarello of Barolo producer Cantina Mascarello Bartolo in her Cannubi vineyard. Maria Teresa’s satisfied with the quality of her Nebbiolo fruit, especially when one considers what the vine has had to put up with this year:  a late, shock minus […]

Stéphanie Caslot, Dme de la Chevalerie, Bourgueil, Loire, France : ‘It started with a little frost on a few parcelles  of gravels on april 16th – bad news but nothing too serious in comparison with some other vineyards of the region – then we had a rainy spring with some very localized hail stormed. We had […]

My first visit to Spain’s wine regions was a revelation. I had expected to find some good wines amongst some dusty old-fashioned Riojas, but nothing too exciting… I could not have been more wrong. The quality of Spanish wine has improved considerably in recent years, with the marrying of modern technology to time-tested techniques. This […]