Signed DoctorWine
“Signed DoctorWine” includes editorials by editor Daniele Cernilli or his closest collaborators (so the signature is the DoctorWine journal), as well as stories of memories with key players in the world of wine.
Wine at the supermarket
Too often we hear that wines at the supermarket are poor quality wines, but while this may perhaps have been true in the past, it is now totally outdated by the increasing focus by large-scale retail chains. Every now and...
The 2020 Trebbiano
We are talking about Valentini’s Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, which is being released these days. As has been the case for decades, the bottle’s arrival is accompanied by a handwritten letter (by Edoardo first, by his son Francesco Paolo now) telling of...
Lambrusco: a world apart
The many types of Lambrusco have in common a profoundly popular soul, made up, certainly, of organoleptic characteristics, but also of affordable prices and great eclecticism in pairings. Speaking with Giacomo Savorini, director of the Lambrusco Consortium (video of the...
Modernity of the Italian Orient
In recent years, many native grape varieties are being rediscovered that, in light of old winemaking knowledge, were difficult to grow or of little satisfaction. By now things have changed, and the results are showing. Italy’s great wealth of grapes...
The purity of the race ten years later
We return to a topic we discussed 10 years ago: the use of a single, 100 percent, pure variety falsely regarded as traditional. Tasting several vintages of Tignanello by Antinori during the celebration of its 50th anniversary since its release,...
Wine and chemistry
To ensure healthiness and food safety requires deep scientific knowledge, which also means (bio)chemical processes related to fermentation. During the course of Dialogues of Pistoia, which is a cultural festival that took place this year a few days ago, while...
Chianti Classico, Chianti and… Lollobrigida
Unfortunately, the difference between Chianti Classico and Chianti is unclear to many, many people. But it would be desirable if at least the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry knew her… In the collective imagination, but also for many...
More pans and fewer stars
Yay for family-run trattorias, with simple but also very solid and territorial cuisine, where patron and cook-often the same person-are always present. In other words: more pans, fewer stars. The accountability of any activity directed toward the public is made...
The Era of the Black Rooster
For the 100th anniversary of the Chianti Classico Consortium, the book comes out. On the Trail of the Black Rooster, a (hopefully compelling) account of a great wine and its history. On May 14, the Chianti Classico Consortium and its...
The Wines for Summer 2024
DoctorWine's small tour dedicated to Wines for Summer kicks off May 11 in Milan. The other stops are Rome on the 18th and Riccione on the 20th. Three tastings dedicated to summer drinking wines, which you will find recounted, along...
Slow Food strikes again
Slow Food Italy, the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo and the Laudato Si' Communities have launched an appeal (with related signature collection) to include nutrition education as a compulsory teaching in schools of all levels. This time, one really...
Welcome back Fiorano Semillon
AlessandroJacopo Boncompagni Ludovisi, owner of Tenuta di Fiorano, has revived the legendary Fiorano Semillon of Veronellian memory. The last versions of Fiorano Semillon that I remember date back to the early 1970s. It was a legendary wine, wanted by the...
Doc
By now the term has entered the public imagination. For many it is synonymous with "authentic," so terms like a Roman Doc, a Milanese Doc, allude to just that. But let's see what Doc or, rather, Docs are in this...
What Vinitaly will tell us
The Verona fair may help us understand whether the crisis facing the wine world, both Italian and international, is a conjunctural crisis or whether it is a structural issue. As you know by now from April 14 to 17 there...
French suicide
We are witnessing in France a penalizing attitude toward wine, both promotionally and culturally. Is there a risk that such a "vision" will take hold in Italy as well? All wine lovers, even Italian ones, if they have not started...
DoctorWine’s selection for Vinitaly
As we do every year, DoctorWine will have its own booth at Vinitaly (April 14-17) where we will hold 12 seminars featuring the best Italian wines and offer a selection of about seventy wines to dispensers. All this for Vinitaly...
The three wine fairs
Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris, Prowein and Vinitaly within two months. Are three wine fairs in Europe too many? It is too early to tell, but it does not seem that Vinitaly, the Italian trade fair, is being challenged. We...
Francesco Dammicco, one of us
I have known Francesco - Franco - Dammicco since the mid-1980s. At the time, he was working for the Manifesto, which was the newspaper that hosted the first Gambero Rosso-branded inserts. Today, having concluded his decades-long relationship with GR, he...
Always the familiar
To those who claim that the guides always review "the usual knowns," I softly point out that in decades of critiquing wineries we have truly discovered many. And the work of discovery never stops, because we taste thousands of wines...
For a fistful of yeast
I am reposting, after what was recently stated on television, For a Fistful of Yeast, an old editorial that was even corrected to me by Professor Luigi Moio, since I at most divulge and have no scientific expertise on the...
Wine no more? Let’s think about it
The attacks that wine is undergoing, not least from the World Health Organization, worry anyone who knows this beautiful world closely. Watch out for the current "Wine no more". The wine world has so many things to deal with that,...
Long live Banfi and long live Ezio Rivella, 20 years later
I republish an editorial I wrote in the Gambero Rosso almost two decades ago. I do this by remembering Cavalier Ezio Rivella, my friend Ezio, who left us a few weeks ago. At the time I was harshly criticized for...
The oenological case
Roberto Di Meo is currently one of the best interpreters of Italian "bianchista" oenology. This is demonstrated by many wines, but the last one he let me taste is a real oenological case: a Fiano with a stay of almost...
Interpreting wine
Only by knowing how to interpret a wine will I be able to understand it, in a kind of dialectic in which the characteristics of that wine and my ability to analyze it organoleptically can enable me to recognize it...
American wine criticism between expertise and competition
Evaluations of Italian wines by major American critics diverge strikingly. It comes to mind that this is a kind of score marketing, that is, they take into account principles governing competition and editorial positioning. American wine critics who cover Italy...
Old Raspa
Edoardo Raspelli, the "Raspa," one of the historic leading signatures of Italian food journalism, was fired by Gedi (publisher of Repubblica and La Stampa) via pec, without even a phone call of notice. Where did respect go? Especially since we...
Talking about wine
Parlare di vino senza essere fraintesi non è facile, bisogna cercare di spiegare questioni anche tecniche in modo che siano di immediata comprensione per tutti. Parlare di vino è difficile, su questo non c’è dubbio. Provare a spiegarlo, soprattutto a...
The bad vintages
Woe to generalize. The pretense of judging an absolute vintage can lead to considering as bad vintages that in some areas are not bad at all. Because of the shape of Italy, the climate can be very different from one...
Happy New Year 2024
Our wish is that 2024 can be an extraordinary year of growth, love and success for all. Let’s put this bad 2023 behind us and look forward. With the arrival of the new year, we would like to express our...
To celebrate New Year’s Eve
The midnight toast is somewhat of a rite of passage, although it is now increasingly commercialized. We like to imagine it at home, among friends, with an unassuming, special bottle that can be the emblem of a different, better year....