Why I drink wine
Behind the choice to drink wine there can be several reasons, says Daniele Cernilli, but the main one is the hedonistic one: we drink wine because it is good, because we like it. Some of you may remember the movie...
Author: Daniele Cernilli
Water and wine
Apparently a provocation, but actually a proposal: why,” reasons Daniele Cernilli, “in order to make a low-alcohol wine, do we not allow dilution with water? The act of “watering down” wine has always been a widespread practice. Since the time...
Killer alcohol. Are we all complicit?
According to the WHO (and others), alcohol-and consequently wine-causes cancer; it is a real killer. This indiscriminate accusation raises the doubt that wine producers, and we who talk about it, are all “killers.” Daniele Cernilli reasons about this paradox. If,...
Wine and alcohol, let’s take stock
Let’s not let wine be demonized. Moderate wine consumption represents an equally moderate risk and even has some positive aspects. Wine and alcohol, devilish embrace? Alcoholic beverage intake is responsible for about 4 percent of cancer cases worldwide, and 14...
How to change
Even the most famous wines over the years undergo many changes due to climatic changes, new plantings in the vineyard, stylistic choices in the cellar, and technical evolution. Following the different evolutions of wines also involves being able to recognize...
Duties, them and resilience
It is today’s news, the one dreaded for weeks that has experienced peaks of horror (200% duties) and hope (Italian wine will be spared). As of 10 p.m. yesterday, duties on European products are a reality. It’s all anyone talks...
Back to Vinitaly
For the wine world, this is one of the most difficult periods it has ever experienced. Vinitaly will help understand whether this is a structural crisis or whether there is room to overcome it, perhaps all together. From April 6...
Wines and supermarkets
Large-scale retail trade (GDO) is now the main channel for wine sales in Italy, intercepting an increasingly large and varied audience. Beginning on April 3, we will address this topic with a series of in-depth reports. How often do we...
Wine and culture
We must avoid rhetoric, technicalities, narcissism, and self-referentiality, says Daniele Cernilli. But we must not forget the relationship between wine and culture and those aspects that have made wine much more than “something to drink.” I have been reading lately...
Change to change?
Daniele Cernilli asks, and asks us, many questions about what lies ahead in the future of wine. Does everything in wine need to be changed? Communication, language, and then a diminished importance of origins and traditions? A wine that manifests...
Dealcoholated wines: pros and cons
There is a lot of talk about dealcoholated wines (or, more correctly, dealcoholised), and as of this year it is possible to produce them in Italy as well. What could this mean for the wine sector? Let’s take a look...
So much per liter
Quotations of annual wine production are available on the websites of Chambers of Commerce throughout Italy. It is a sort of commodity exchange for wine, and looking at the data helps to understand this world. So much per liter. Taking...
The wine crisis: part three
The image of wine, the territories from which it comes, the culture associated with it, is in question, and the generalist press, which as a whole reaches millions of people, is not helping the wine crisis. Talking to a famous...
Stefano Bonilli’s birthday
Today, February 13, 2025, Stephen Bonilli would have been 80 years old. Stefano Bonilli has not been with us since August 3, 2014, and he is certainly greatly missed by those who knew him and those who worked with him...
The wine crisis: part two
After a “first episode” dedicated to the wine crisis, Daniele Cernilli continues to analyze the phenomenon and offers some advice dictated by experience. Of course, analyses done by the span are as valuable as they are. But Those five issues...
The wine crisis: part one
Daniele Cernilli addresses the topic of the wine crisis by focusing on the reasons that are causing it. We thus try to understand why the market is trudging along. We have never seen a sales crisis like this in the...
Nebbiolo Prima, the first of the previews
Every year, the major wine consortia organize preview tastings of new vintages, usually for the press and trade professionals. Nebbiolo Prima, dedicated to the great red wines of Piedmont, opens the dances. From January 22 in Alba, the Albeisa Consortium...
Additives and adjuvants
The distinction between the two categories-additives and adjuvants-is not clear to a non-technician. For a technician, on the contrary, it is not possible to confuse one with the other. Let us, then, try to provide some clarity. I quote from...
What are IGT wines
The acronym stands for Indicazione Geografica Tipica (Typical Geographical Indication) and indicates a category of wines produced in areas generally larger than those regulated by DOC and DOCG. What are IGT wines? IGT were introduced with the Law 164 of...
Tipicamente
Antonio Boco and Paolo De Cristofaro, with graphic design by Tiziana Battista, excellently produce Tipicamente, a print magazine and website dedicated to wine. A Chicca to be discovered. I gave myself a gift for Christmas. I purchased online the first...
The return of Franco Ziliani, the sniper
We had lost track of journalist Franco Ziliani for a few years, and we were a bit worried. There were a lot of rumors… But here he came back out of nowhere with a phone call. A few days ago...
Wine for chocolate
It is a common belief that with chocolate, in all its expressions, wine cannot pair. Some possibilities, however, are there: let’s find out the right wine for chocolate. The “sacred texts” of the sommellerie (said sympathetically, of course) until a...
Ask who was Gualtiero Marchesi
Seven years after his death, the memory of the great Gualtiero Marchesi is fading. Many young people do not even know who he was and what he did for Italian cuisine. True, it is not about the Beatles as in...
Edo and the Michelin Guide
A few thoughts on the Michelin Guide, taking a cue from Edoardo Raspelli’s long-standing criticism of it, mainly concerning the small number of inspectors, which does not allow all reviewed establishments to be visited every year and thus involves repeating...
Wines and grape varieties
Often, in common speech, we run the risk of confusing wines and grape varieties and defining a wine not by its territory of origin, but simply by the grape variety to which it belongs. Serious mistake! It is now a...
Those who… the Sauvignon
Sauvignon is a wine enjoyed by consumers around the world, perhaps because its aromas are unmistakable and varied. There are few wines loved and hated, thus divisive, like the various Sauvignons around the world. Meanwhile, let’s see what it is...
Mother Ais
Almost sixty years of outreach, an immense amount of work to spread the culture of wine not only among wine professionals but also, perhaps especially, among wine lovers. The Italian Sommelier Association will be 60 years old next year. It...
Are we at the end of an era?
For several years in the wine industry there has been a discussion about the changes in consumption in various markets. Are we really at the end of an era? And what will the next one look like? Let’s hazard a...
Mas que nada
Mas que nada, that is, better than nothing. We refer to the DOC system, which may be imperfect, but it protects the interest of consumers as well as competition among producers. “The system of wine rules has existed for more...
Origin or process (bis)
Still in the vein of resuming old editorials that seem very relevant to me and at a time when so many are enjoying their vacations and there is not much striking news in the wine world, I repost this. One...