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Oriental carpet traders Luigi and Paola Lorenzi bought a holiday house in the commune of Gavi and it is easy to understand why. La Zerba is the highest estate in the area with incredible panoramic views surrounded by vineyards. They have since given up the day job and converted the garage into a winery to produce excellent Gavi from 30 year Cortese vines planted on iron-rich soils. The wine is aromatic and refreshing yet rich in personality. The Lorenzis are exceptionally generous hosts and Paola is the most fantastic chef.
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The most striking thing about visiting the home vineyard of Le Potazzine is the sense of altitude; at 507 meters it is higher than most Montalcino vineyards, exposed and open to the winds from every direction. Some modern-styled Brunellos don`t taste as if they have been made with Sangiovese; but no danger of that here, where the high vineyards bring a welcome freshness and balance to the final wine.
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Lisini is among Montalcino`s most respected estates. They are also one of the most traditionalist, as befits a family who have a history that goes back to the time of the Medicis; they are proud to say they are the last of the region`s founding families still making wine here. Their estate is one of the few in the south-west of the region, surrounded by woodland and wild scrub; it is a warm area, but their vineyards are high up, and the combination of altitude, complex soils and low-yielding, old-vine Sangiovese gives a wine of rare expression. -
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It is common to classify the big names of Barolo by whether their winemaking is traditional or modern, but Sandrone like to think of themselves as bridging the gap. This is a first generation winery; in 1977 Luciano Sandrone bought a small patch of the Cannubi vineyard, and has been gradually adding to it ever since. He made his first wines in his parents` garage. From humble beginnings have come great things. The Sandrone Cannubi Boschis was one of the first Italian wines ever to get 100 Parker points, and remains Sandrone`s flagship bottling. -
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The Accidental Vineyard
The Colleonis are from Bergamo, which apart from an old castle and a Ryanair connection doesn`t have much to recommend it. so they bought a lovely property in Tuscany. One day they spotted a bunch of grapes poking through the leaves of a tree and eventually hacked their way through to an ancient and long unkempt vineyard. This has become a labour of love and a provider of some of the best and most exciting Brunello and Rosso. In the cellar only natural yeasts are used and maceration is over a month in duration. (CW 09/07/14) -
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.
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Modernism in Barolo can be misunderstood. But do not think that the wines of Scavino, which are typically classified as modernist, are anything but elegant. From the village Barolo through the Carobric blend of crus, to the crus themselves, these wines have enormous character. Their complexity comes from the terroirs, the Nebbiolo and fastidious vineyard and cellar work. Although the estate was founded in 1921, it was Enrico, the third generation, who really started the drive to make better quality wine. -
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Pietradolce is an 11 hectare estate located on the northern slopes of Etna, founded in 2005. Their vineyards are between 600 and 900 feet above sea level andare made up of stoney, light, sandy loam. The native varieties are grown here (Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio and Carricante), to produce terroir expressive wines that are intensely bright and fresh with beautiful fruit and serious drinkability. (DS 08/04/22) -
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The affinity between Tuscan soils and the classically Bordelais grape varieties is now well-established, and in gravelly coastal Bolgheri, where Sangiovese never grew very well anyway, Bordeaux varieties are king; this is a terroir for Cabernet and Merlot, the Super-Tuscans. Nowadays there are 50 wineries in Bolgheri, but you don`t have to go that far back to reach a time when there were only two. Cabernet Sauvignon came out of the shadows with the first commercially released vintage of Sassicaia in 1969; Grattamacco joined it in 1977 as the second-ever Super-Tuscan.
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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.
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The late Giuseppe Quintarelli was a traditionalist but that pales into insignificance beside his search for truth and excellence in his wines. whether the early drinking white, though the incredible depth and complexity of his Amarones, he crafted and indeed love his wines as the sons he never had. His four daughters are now custodians of his extraordinary legacy, but his genes are as much in his wines as in them. He raised his wines through a painstaking regime in the small and old fashioned cellar and was always loth to part with them.
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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.
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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.
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`One of the most emotionally transcendental experiences I have ever had` - Wine Advocate, how about now? `Roberto Voerzio`s Barolos are some of the richest, deepest and most texturally beautiful wines readers will come across`. When it comes to this estate, there`s no shortage of superlatives. If Scavino and Clerico are jewels in the crown of Barolo, then surely Roberto Voerzio is the Koh-i-Noor. Roberto is a true grower, cultivating the vines on his ten hectares of La Morra organically and pretty much individually. -
When it comes to Chianti, there`s no estate we love more than Rocca di Montegrossi. Parts of Tuscany can look quite manicured, but there`s a romantic wildness here; the vineyards and olive groves are beautifully tended, but the soils are rocky and the forest encroaches. The estate is in the heart of the original Chianti Classico zone, in the commune of Gaiole, equidistant between Florence, Siena and Arezzo - owner Marco Ricasoli-Firidolfi likes to describe his wines as `Gaiol-ish` in character. -
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.
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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.
