Masseto is Italy’s most celebrated Merlot. Though these days it is run as an autonomous winery, it lies on the Ornellaia estate, near the village of Bolgheri, on the Tuscan coast. While it was very much a project of Lodovico Antinori, the founder of Ornellaia, Masseto owes its genesis to the celebrated Russian-American winemaker Andre Tselistcheff, who was visiting Ornellaia in its early days. Tselistcheff pinpointed a site on an estate neighbouring Ornellaia, which he said would be ideal for Merlot. Local advice and tradition went against planting vines there, but Tselistcheff disagreed.

San Restituta is a highly desirable corner of Montalcino, known for its fine terroir and expressive wines. The complex, fossil-rich soils lend themselves to the making of serious wines, as do the sea breezes on this side of Montalcino. Just ask the neighbours – the family-owned Mate estate is situated between those of Gianfranco Soldera and Angelo Gaja, two titans of the Italian wine scene whose wines can command prices of hundreds of pounds per bottle.

The Alto Piemonte village of Gattinara lies tucked into the hills between Turin and Milan. In the modern era, Barolo and Barbaresco (90 km south) hog the Nebbiolo limelight, but in the 19th century some of Italy’s most sought-after Nebbiolo came from Gattinara. Locally, Nebbiolo is called Spanna, and there is a clear stylistic difference with Barolo and Barbaresco. Slightly lighter-bodied Gattinara relies less on sheer power, and more on perfume and elegance. Yet with tangy acidity and sometimes formidable tannins, the wines of Gattinara have a long capacity to age.

On the south-facing slopes of Montalcino’s warm southern sector, it can get very hot. But on the high slopes where Poggio di Sotto’s vineyards are planted (vertiginous views if you ever visit) it can also get very cold at night, with the hulking presence of Monte Amiata and the nearby River Orcia drawing sea breezes down the valley. Such contrast between day and night temperatures is increasingly viewed as an essential ingredient in truly great wines.

It`s been a while since we visited the dapper Marco Bacci or his estates in Castelnuovo Berardenga, Montalcino and the Maremma. In fact, it`s 9 years, which means two things. first, that Marco has an even more youthful look about him in our photo than he does in reality and second, that the wines have moved on considerably. Although we saw great promise back then, by 2006 Renieri had only been in Marco`s possession for 5 years, and so it was very much a work in progress. Today, what were then new plantings are reaching maturity.

Although they have their family roots in Barbaresco, the Roagnas also operate in Barolo to great effect, managing both terroirs rather brilliantly. The first Barbaresco vineyard - Pajè - was purchased in the fifties and the company has grown steadily since then. The farming is uncertified but strictly organic, with low inputs and the use of techniques like cover crops between the rows of vines. The use of sulphur dioxide is very low and fermentation and the very long macerations take place in large, old casks.

In the early 1980s, Romano Dal Forno had a lot on his plate. he was struggling to make a living from his family winery, while looking after three young children. He knew the wines he was making were good, but he couldn’t shake the feeling they were missing something. Fate intervened when one Bepi Quintarelli took him under his wing, and shared everything he knew about winemaking. ‘I listened to everything he had to tell me and tried my level best to understand what he was doing’. These were lessons well learnt.

Based in the southern Marche, the family seat of the noble Saladini Pilastri family is near the town of Ascoli Piceno. It is situated in over 300 hectares of land, though less than half of this is down to vines. The limestone hills also host large olive groves as well as forest and scrub. This hot and dry landscape is ideal for the practice of organic viticulture and that is exactly the farming method employed here for ages. The family has been custodians of the land in this part of Italy for over a thousand years and has a deep respect for the environment where they and others live.

This is a simple statement that does not begin to convey the state of ruin in which he found the property. The only thing intact was the potential. There were a couple of old contadini (peasant farmers) living in the house - no heating, hot water or cooking, just an open fire. The olive groves were in disarray and a lot of vineyard needed planting and sorting out. In 1997 he moved in and looked forward to becoming a winegrower, in fact Montalcino`s first organic winegrower. He still lives in that house and he still lives very simply.