Exploring Italian Wine One Grape at a Time
In June, I returned to Puglia after a year to see friends, explore the current wine scene, and taste the latest vintages of wines from the southern Italian regions. I started in San Severo, where I visited my friends at D’Araprì winery, whom I had not visited for some years. I got to spend some … Read more
Pecorino is one of my favourite white grape varieties. I often drank Pecorino wines when I went to Le Marche years ago, before I got more into wine and wine writing. It is a white wine that is perfect for an aperitivo on the beach or for pairing with seafood at sunset. So, when Mike … Read more
Every spring, the hilltop town of Montefalco becomes the beating heart of Umbrian wine. The AMontefalco event is the annual preview tasting organised by the Consorzio Tutela Vini Montefalco. It showcases the full range of the region’s wines, from Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG and Montefalco Rosso DOC to Montefalco Bianco DOC and Trebbiano Spoletino via the … Read more
Eleva Winery in Sant’Ambrogio in Valpolicella, Veneto, is owned by Prof. Davide Gaeta and enologist Raffaella Veroli. I got to know Prof. Davide Gaeta a couple of years ago thanks to a fellow wine writer. I was collaborating with the Barrel Hunter Club in Canada and looking for a smaller organic winery in Valpolicella with … Read more
The Orcia River runs quietly through the valley, slightly north of Poggio Stenti winery and south of Montalcino, an almost unnoticed border between two wine worlds. On one side, the slopes rise toward Monte Amiata and the perhaps more rural world of the Alta Maremma; on the other, the vineyards of Brunello stretch across the … Read more
Last autumn, in November 2025, I had Andrea Lemieux – The Quirky Cork – as a guest at The WinesOfItaly Show. This was the second time as a guest on my livestream, and it’s always a pleasure to talk wine with Andrea. Last time, in 2022, she presented her debut book, The Essential Guide to … Read more
What is better than watching the Winter Olympic Games comfortably from the couch, feeling a bit like you are part of the athletes’ competitions, and learning about growth-mindset resilience? It sounds silly, I know. As I watched the ski slopes at Milano-Cortina 2026, I realised these Olympic lessons can be applied directly to the wine … Read more
Saper scrivere e strutturare una storia, un post o una newsletter è fondamentale oggi per una strategia di comunicazione e di storytelling a lungo termine per la tua cantina. Le regole del marketing stanno cambiando quasi ogni settimana. È chiaro che anche il contenuto stesso, il nocciolo della storia, è essenziale per “parlare” con il … Read more
This episode of the WinesOfItaly Show was a collaboration with Susannah Gold and our Substack project All That Wine. Susanna and I explore a lesser-known wine region in Veneto: the Valle d’Agno, northwest of Vicenza. Our guest, Massimo Dal Lago, co-founder of Masari Winery, guides us into the heart of this valley, where volcanic soils … Read more
On a summer day back in 2018, I was picked up by Carlo Lisini and, together with a couple of other wine writers, headed to his family winery in Montalcino for a vertical Brunello tasting in style. Today, the winery is run mainly by cousins Carlo and Ludovica and their children, though all the cousins … Read more