Italy loves rules. Denominations, sub-zones, grape percentages down to the decimal, government seals on the cork. You’d think a country this obsessed with paperwork would produce wine that’s tidy and predictable. It doesn’t. Some of the strangest, most rule-breaking things in Italian wine happen precisely because the country takes its…
Picture walking through Pompeii. Ancient streets, ruined houses, frescoes that somehow survived a volcano, Vesuvius sitting in the distance looking far too calm considering what it did the last time. Then you turn a corner and there’s a vineyard. Not a reconstruction behind glass, not a handful of decorative vines…
Some wines make me thirsty. Not all of them, which took me a while to notice. I’ll finish a glass of one red and feel completely normal. Then on a different night, with a different wine, I’m reaching for water before I’ve even cleared half the glass. Real thirst, the…
Here’s a scene playing out at wineries across Italy most weekends now. You arrive, and the first thing that happens isn’t a pour, it’s a photo of the vineyard rows. Then a second photo, because the first one didn’t quite capture the sun drenched Tuscan mood you were chasing, even…
Ripasso is often called “baby Amarone.” I’ll be honest: I can’t remember anyone saying this to me at a table or in a wine shop. This nickname shows up constantly in wine writing and almost nowhere else. That’s exactly why I wanted to dig into where it comes from, rather…
Two nights, two great wineries, Lake Iseo and plenty of Franciacorta. Here’s how I’d plan a wine weekend without turning it into a tasting marathon.
There is a wine auction happening in Milan, and some of the bottles on the list look less like something you open with dinner and more like something you discuss with your accountant. Nothing here touches the truly absurd numbers on my list of the world’s most expensive wines, but…
Ripasso and Amarone both come from Valpolicella in Veneto. Both lean on the same traditional grapes, mainly Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella. They can sit right next to each other on a wine shop shelf and look equally Italian. They still hand you two completely different evenings. One is richer than…
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