I hadn’t long landed back in Serralunga d’Alba after my two weeks in Tuscany when I was off again to Monforte, just across the valley, this time to watch Chiara Boschis of Barolo producer E.Pira plant a new vineyard.

After visiting 41 Chianti Classico cantina over 11 days I now feel a certain grasp on what’s going on among the Tuscan hills. I also got a grip on the twists and turns in the road, aided and abetted by my mate Tom (Tom). True ‘he’ occasionally threatened to lead me up the garden path, […]

It may be May but it feels distinctly like April here in Piemonte, as the extended winter looks to have shunted the seasons back; so a chilly and damp reception for all my feathered friends that have now dropped in to say hello (nightingale, hoopoe, bee-eater, turtle dove, white-bellied alpine swift, hobby…)

Marooned I may have been, but Noël Pinguet’s (left) tutored tasting for 31 fortunate few (me included), in Berrys’ cellar on Monday night, more than compensated for this inconvenience. And just as the Icelandic volcano has reminded us of man’s meekness in the face of nature, so Noël’s wines clearly substantiated the pull of biodynamics: harnessing […]