Serious About Wine
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To close down a busy few days of tasting with the VDP (an association of over 200 growers from all over Germany), Paul Caputo stopped in at Heimat in Frankfurt to raid one of the best German wine lists in the city. The mood called for bone-dry Riesling of Grand Cru quality, with plenty of miles on the clock.
In late August, wine writer Lauren Mowery attended the 2023 preview of the VDP’s Grosses Gewächs (GG) wines in Wiesbaden. The event featured hundreds of the best dry wines in Germany, including a vast selection of Spätburgunder. Lauren’s journey into German Pinot Noir began in 2015, and this tasting revealed remarkable progress. Despite challenges in the 2021 vintage, the wines displayed character and distinctive regional personality. German Spätburgunder continues to rise. Lauren picks out her favorites and reflects on a captivating tasting.
Each week Paul Caputo picks out three bottles from his cellar, a collection built up over the last 20 years in the wine trade. This first entry features a 2018 Susumaniello rosato from Salento, a 2016 Soave and 2013 Nosiola from the foothills of the Dolomites.
From tending vineyards to influencing winemaking techniques, women have played a pivotal role in shaping Crete’s viticultural heritage. Lauren Mowery explores the unsung contributions of Cretan women, highlighting their work as custodians of tradition.
Timorasso represents one of the great comebacks of the Italian wine scene. All but lost to the archives of history it was rescued by winemaker Walter Massa and not only kept in circulation harvest after harvest, but elevated to the podium as one of the country’s great white wines. His success inspired such a revival that growers are now restructuring their appellation for a bright new future. Paul Caputo charts the changes.
Richard Baudains considers the quiet growth of traditional method sparkling wine from the Po Valley and its quiet push for better quality, identity and recognition.
Barolo is a traditional winemaking district in the Italian region of Piedmont. One of the country’s most famous DOCGs, the area is renowned for producing exceptionally complex, fragrant wines from the Nebbiolo grape variety.
Barbaresco is one of the great red wines of Italy, produced in Piedmont from the late ripening, thick skinned and totally captivating Nebbiolo grape, these wines can age and improve for decades.
Valtellina Superiore is one of the great red wines of northern Italy, produced with 100% Nebbiolo, or Chiavennasca as it is known locally, it is known for its ability to give wines of finesse, elegance and cool mountain fruit.
Gattinara DOCG is one of Alto Piemonte’s Nebbiolo based reds. Here the variety is known as Spanna.
Half an hour east of the city of Bordeaux lies Saint-Émilion, the charming medieval village from which the famous wine appellation takes its name. The complex geological make-up and superb microclimate of the Saint-Émilion area delivers some of the Bordeaux region’s most exquisite wines.
Pomerol is a red wine appellation in the Bordeaux region of France. Distinguished from neighbouring Saint-Émilion in 1923, it gained AOC status thirteen years later and is now regarded as one of the region’s most prestigious labels.
Fronsac AOC is a red wine appellation in the Bordeaux region of France. Somewhat overshadowed by the internationally acclaimed Châteaux of Saint-Émilion and Pomerol, the estates of Fronsac produce well-balanced, fruit-forward blends, which offer affordable alternatives to the expensive wines of the neighbouring appellations.
Canon Fronsac is a Merlot dominant red wine appellation on Bordeaux’s right bank.
Orvieto is arguably the most famous wine in Umbria. Known predominantly as an inexpensive white wine from the Grechetto di Orvieto.
Grechetto di Orvieto is a white grape variety found in Umbria.
Procanico is a white grape variety grown in Umbria, particularly in the Orvieto appellation. It Is generally considered to be a local clone of Trebbiano Toscano.
Palazzone is one of the leading producers of quality wine in the Orvieto DOC appellation.
Barberani is one of the key names in the production of organic wine in Orvieto DOC. Located in the hills, above the lake of Corbara, the estate boasts 55 hectares of vineyard planted to both local and international varieties. Here, close to bodies of water, the conditions for noble rot emerge and allow for the production of ‘Muffa Nobile’, Orvieto’s naturally sweet wine.
Tenuta Le Velette is a large sprawling estate in the Orvieto Classico area of southern Umbria. Corrado Bottai overseas around 90 hectares of vineyard given over mainly to Grechetto di Orvieto and Procanico, as well as Sauvignon Blanc and Vermentino. The winery’s cellars are cut deep into the tufa rock and provide excellent conditions for maturation.