Editorial
DoctorWine’s editorial is a Monday regular feature with an in-depth article, analysis and commentary on current topics from both the wine and food worlds of the Italian and international scene.
The Essential Guide 2027: Finalized by the editorial staff, here we go!
Here we are. Once again this year, we’ve reached that point in the summer when we in the newsroom can finally say a word that, just a few days ago, seemed almost off-limits: CLOSED. The Essential Guide to Italian Wine...
Will Tuscany ever have its own great white wine?
For decades, Tuscany has been identified almost exclusively with great red wines. Today, however, the growing demand for white wines with character and a new project promoted by the Consorzio Vino Toscana and the University of Pisa are reigniting a...
Bonilli and Petrini
Twelve years after the passing of Stefano Bonilli and a few months after that of Carlin Petrini, Daniele Cernilli remembers two of the leading figures in Italian food and wine culture. Different in character and vision, often at odds but...
Drought again
On August 7, 2012, one of DoctorWine’s first editorials was the one you can read below, which we’re reposting here. It reads as if it were written today, and that can only be cause for concern. Will we ever learn?...
Make way for the youth of Assovini Sicilia
The leadership transition at Assovini Sicilia is not merely a change in the presidency. It demonstrates that generational change, when planned with foresight, can become a tangible asset. It is an example that the Italian wine industry would do well...
Enoteca Cellar Sommelier, a gathering place for wine
In Rome’s Prati neighborhood, a small wine shop has developed a business model that goes beyond simply selling bottles. Tastings, classes, trips, and a community of wine enthusiasts show how, even during a difficult time for the industry, innovation and...
A Spritz for 10 euros: but what’s its real price?
The cost of the ingredients is around 2 euros, but in bars in big cities and tourist destinations, a Spritz can easily cost 8, 10, or even more. How much do rent, staff, and utilities really affect the final price?...
Roberto Conterno, the visionary winemaker who looks to the future
From Monfortino to the rebirth of Nervi, all the way to the first autonomous tractor for viticulture. The Monforte d’Alba-based producer continues to combine winemaking excellence, entrepreneurial spirit, and technological innovation. Roberto Conterno is a visionary and intelligent man. He...
Rancia vs. Fontalloro: The Big Match in Fèlsina
Fattoria di Fèlsina is celebrating a series of anniversaries with a double vertical tasting of its two signature wines. Nine vintages are compared in an ideal pairing of elegance and power, curated by Daniele Cernilli. This year at the Fattoria...
Silvano & Silvano
Two men with the same name, Silvano Formigli and Silvano Prompicai, two very different Chianti Classico wines. A personal recollection that starts from Fèlsina’s 60 years and goes back to the early 1980s, when Ama and Fèlsina were still little-known...
Illustrious and unknown
Small tribute to some little-known figures in Italy but who have done so much to make Italian cuisine and our wines known in the United States. If Italian wine and food play an important role in the American world today,...
The wine crisis continues
The wine crisis shows no sign of ending. From the positive experience of 15 years of DoctorWine comes a proposal: make quality events and restaurants more accessible to bring new generations closer to the world of wine. Daniele Cernilli talks...
Wine tradition: identity or myth?
What does it really mean to call a wine “traditional”? Behind an overused term lies history, marketing and territorial identity. Daniele Cernilli reflects on the relationship between memory and modernity, questioning the too casual use of a word that often...
Wine as a cultural category: Sorelli’s book
The Molecule of Civilization proposes a reading of wine as an interpretive tool of human history. An ambitious operation that intercepts a gap in contemporary wine discourse: much technique, little cultural elaboration. When Director Cernilli turned this book over to...
A big celebration for DoctorWine
On May 9 at the Le Méridien Visconti hotel in Rome there will be a big event to celebrate 15 years of DoctorWine. There will be 52 wineries that have Three Stars in The Essential Guide to Italian Wines 2026...
Wines for every pocket 2026 is presented in Milan
We have arrived at a new edition of Wines for every pockets, the sixth, and today we celebrate its release with a presentation tasting at the Hotel Principe di Savoia, in Milan. These little booklets (coming out in a few...
Vinitaly exceeds expectations
The doomsayers who predicted that Vinitaly would be scaled back have been proven wrong by the facts. Fewer visitors, it’s true, but a more professional audience. For those who knew how to prepare for the fair, the results were positive....
All the DoctorWine Guide at your fingertips on the app
The Essential Guide to the Wines of Italy 2026 is now available in a new app: completely revamped, more intuitive, to carry with you at all times. Available for Android and iOS, in Italian and English. And this fall, the...
Wine and health: hurray for the Mediterranean tradition
A new study published in Nutrients reopens the debate on alcohol and health: risk cannot be reduced to a quantitative issue. It matters how much you drink, sure, but also how, what and in what context. Stefania Vinciguerra‘s reflections. Beyond...
Is it all the wine’s fault?
Wine is under attack: accused of everything, including declining consumption, media criticism and poor representation. Yet the sector endures, amid difficulties and fragmentation, continuing to work and support an entire industry. It needs more clarity and perhaps a strong voice...
Resistant vines and forgotten varieties: new trend in France
What is changing in French vineyards? Between resistant vines, forgotten varieties and old hybrids, some French winemakers are questioning the traditional varietal heritage. A phenomenon recounted by Le Figaro that opens an inevitable question: what about in Italy? Stefania Vinciguerra...
The paradox of Italian wine: global in the world, local in restaurants
Italy exports more than 8 billion euros worth of wine, but in restaurant wine lists between 70% and 75% of the labels are from the same region as the restaurant. A system that tells the value of the territory, but...
Franciacorta and Oltrepò
Professor Michele Antonio Fino’s proposal for a “Grande Franciacorta” appellation to include the metodo classico produced in Lombardy is causing discussion. Awaiting Stefania Vinciguerra’s in-depth study, some considerations. I confess that I understood little about it and I am waiting...
15 years of DoctorWine: independence, criticism, vision
c_row] Fifteen years ago DoctorWine was born. An independent project, born to tell the story of Italian wine with rigor and freedom of judgment. A tale of Italian wine that continues, with the same curiosity as then. Stefania Vinciguerra tells...
Wine Paris sets the pace for world wine
Wine Paris is no longer a promise. It is an established reality of world wine. The international fair held Feb. 9-11 at the Paris Expo is growing in size, credibility and strategic weight. Here wine speaks all languages and networking...
Harmonic wines: what “harmony” means in wine
What does “harmonic wine” really mean? Harmony, as in music, is not just one. Every wine has different balances, related to typicality and origin: a Barolo does not “sound” like a Riesling. More than a rule, it is an exercise...
Veronelli’s 100 years
One hundred years after the birth of Gino Veronelli, a remembrance of an erratic and brilliant master who forever changed the narrative of Italian wine, launching talent, discovering producers and bringing wine into the country’s cultural debate. Man, before the...
The DoctorWine Selection returns for Vinitaly Tasting
For more than 10 years, DoctorWine has been running the Vinitaly Tasting – The DoctorWine Selection space to celebrate the excellence of Italian wine. This well-established partnership is also confirmed for Vinitaly 2026, scheduled to take place in Verona April...
Watch out for those four
It was the year 1993, and this photo testifies to a pioneering way of working, at least seen through today’s eyes: a “de visu” operational meeting for the 1994 Guide to the Wines of Italy. We were meeting in Viareggio,...
Uncle Aldo
There are truly many, too many, friends in the wine world who have left us in 2025. I would like to remember them all, but I will dwell on Aldo Brachetti Peretti, owner of Il Pollenza. A man of great...