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 […]

Ferdinando’s been a friend ever since I first arrived in the region, along with his Spanish wife Belen, her daughter Laura and their son Leonardo (a sparring partner for my Patrick!). Indeed it was he who insisted, over a dinner at La Coccinella in Serravalle Langhe a year ago, that I should seek out (not his […]

Surprise, surprise it’s not only Bordeaux (Burgundy and Barolo) that have performed in 2009. A 4,000 kilometre tour (‘in macchina’) to 26 producers in three different countries convinced me that there are some real jewels to be snapped up when we offer the (Austrian and German) wines to our customers in August; notably those from Prager, Schloss Gobelsburg, […]

At the end of the month Signor Claudio Rosso bows out after three years as the (Honorary) President of the Langhe and Roero Consorzio, representing most – but not all – of the hundreds of (Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto, Arneis, Moscato) producers in the region. Last week I caught up with him at his family’s Cantina Gigi […]