Category: Old World

‘E proprio cosi’ (‘It’s really like that’)

Week two of wine adventures in Piedmont  After what was, let’s be honest, a shaky start, I had a hunch things were about to change for the better when I received that call from Davide Rosso (my adopted fratello) as I made my way ‘home’ after a weekend in England. It was approaching midnight and I […]

Rhône Revelation

When you have been doing this for as long as I have, to find a brand new wine that blows your socks off is a rare event but to find an entire region that does that not only in red but white, it’s almost like finding another limb you didn’t know you had. It’s brilliant! […]

Interview with Stella di Campalto

Just a few days in and I managed to steal down to Piacenza to attend a ‘natural wine’ fair (as in low sulphur dioxide levels) and snatched a quick video interview with Stella di Campalto, presenting her new ’04 Brunello; that was prior to announcing her intention to follow the holy order (or I think […]

Aventura italiano

  OK, so it was hardly a Hannibal on an elephant moment, but my peppy Japanese two-stroke piped a note of euphoria sixteen hours since leaving the Shires; sweeping past the ‘Italia’ sign midway along the alpine tunnel before popping out, off-piste amid thick cloud and snow into the Valle d’Aosta below. The euphoria didn’t […]