What an honour and a pleasure it was to welcome Rick Kinzbrunner, the creator of Giaconda surely one of Australia’s finest wines, back to Piedmont five years after his last visit. The seed was sown for this brief three day tour when Rick came to Berrys last year to host a dinner. Mention of my […]

There was a time not so long ago when the sight of large oak botti in a (Piemontese) cantina was synonymous with the past, with dirty, unripe and tough wines. The spangly ‘80s and ‘90s were the decades of the French barrique (2.5 hectare litres); one whiff of which calmed all fears, reassuring the market […]

I returned to Valpolicella in trepidation as to what I might find, and eat. The promising news is that there appears to be a wave of younger Venetians willing to forsake easy sales of fruit to the local Cantine Sociale (originally set to gather votes as well as fruit!) and give (fine) winemaking a go; […]