Editorial

Wine does not make itself and those who say it does (and believe it) do not take into account that wine is not made by nature alone but involves human intervention. Pressing grapes and letting the juice ferment by itself...

Assigning ratings to wines is the most concise way to state their quality but in our Essential Guide to Italian Wine we go beyond this: we describe the wines we evaluate, we say what grapes and aging method were used...

Marco Oreggia is probably the most skilled and famous extra-virgin olive oil critic in the world and with his Flos Olei project he has created an unmatched informational initiative for quality EVOO. I have known Marco Oreggia since the latter half of the 1980s...

We have all seen the images of the flooding that recently devastated the region of Romagna and which words cannot describe. We hope our friends in Romagna will pull through this as soon as possible with the strength, courage and...

According to European Union law, to place the name of a varietal on a wine label it is sufficient that the wine be at least 85% made with that grape. The rest can be composed of varieties permitted by the...

Some are of the opinion that wine guides are, by now, useless, while others buy them year after year and don’t know what they would do without them. Like all things in the fragmented world, these guides are a niche...

Every so often we hear people speak about this and it’s always authoritative producers who do so. A return to the practices of blending wines would appear to be a reasonable response, even if partial, to a problem as great...

Some memorable tastings done around the fair with Sicilian enologist Tonino Guzzo. Maybe it’s because some people may be beginning to think that I’m getting “too old and tired”, but the fact is that this year at the DoctorWine stand...

The three fairs in question are Vinexpo, Prowein and Vinitaly, the three European trade fairs dedicated to wine that, following month after month, have been highlighting 2023. The question does arise, however, of how useful they can be being so...

Luciano Lombardi, AKA Vignadelmar, Vigna for short, is an historic “host” with an enormous passion for restaurants and wine, which are his bread and butter. The title is a reference to how Lucio Dalla once defined Renato Villa, the Bologna...

Ribolla Gialla is an extraordinary varietal, very eclectic, which makes many excellent wines. Unfortunately, we have seen the appearance of many other wines that seem to trivialize this great grape. The latest news on the fate of Ribolla Gialla is...

Sassicaia is not only a formidable wine but it is also a trailblazer for all quality Italian wines the world over. This should be clear to everyone, especially those who insist on arguing that it is an overrated wine. My...

Do Italian critics not like Piedmont wine? Not exactly, it’s only that, for various reasons, many of the region’s wines are not properly reviewed. There has recently been a little brouhaha over a ranking of the 100 best Italian red wines...

What is the attraction of defective wines, which are considered to be authentic, compared to technically well-made wines that are seen as the antithesis of rural culture? During a recent press tour, I noticed how some of my younger colleagues paid exaggerated...

Wine appreciation courses not only teach you how to taste wine but also, and above all, to understand such a multifaceted world and how to learn to be an informed consumer. I took my first wine appreciation course at the...

Not everyone knows this but wine-in-a-can originated in Italy in the 1980s. Its initial and quick success soon dissipated with its detractors having the upper hand and this practice went on hold until a few years ago. However, its popularity...

A vertical tasting of all or almost all of a wine’s vintages allows one to obtain a profound knowledge of that wine, its history, stylistic evolution and the context in which this occurred. One of the most efficient ways to...

Luciano Sandrone’s wines mirrored his good-natured, kind and cheerful personality. He was someone who was not out to teach anything to anyone but only to make wines that reflected their origin using clean and precise methods. Another friend is gone....

Italians have every reason to be proud of their white wines and should sing the praises of many of the great ones. Which wines? We’ll let you be the judge. Were I to ask my friend Luciano Lombardi, AKA Vignamar,...

It is not easy to predict which will be the next Italian wine growing areas to attract the international limelight, however we can make some educated guesses. There is little doubt that Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello, Bolgheri and Amarone, along with some...