Italy does quite well for wine guides but some of them are pretty unwieldy. Gambero Rosso’s Italian wines , for example, well known for its tre bicchiere (three glasses) awards,...

An ambitious tasting of Italian Rieslings held in Alto Adige on 8 Nov showed that Italy needs to focus on terroir if it wants to pick up the German gauntlet. This annual competition...

The following tasting notes are compiled from several different tastings held in London in September and October by various importers and merchants. They are organised by style, then...

Willi Klinger was Angelo Gaja’s right hand man from 2000 to 2006. Here are his most memorable restaurants in the Langhe region of Piedmont, updates from the previous edition of this list in...

Those who watched the video interview with the new owner of Oddbins will know that a new broom has been swept very firmly though the wine range here - especially the French range.   This...

Melbourne-based wine writer Max Allen was in the UK this week to a) help his mother pack up prior to a move to Australia and b) conduct a seminar on the increasing popularity and quality of his...

Chile is ‘All Ways Surprising’ according to the slightly clunky marketeers of ProChile, the government body promoting Chilean exports. Their wines, meanwhile, are ‘the natural choice’...

In a nutshell: Italy's most terroiriste area with strong similarities to Burgundy. Main grapes: Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto (red); Moscato, Cortese, Arneis (white). Of all...

Perhaps the most characterful wines produced in the region surrounding   Milan are the slightly tough Nebbiolo-based reds of Valtellina on south-facing slopes just south of the Swiss...

Please note that italics refer to grape varieties that have their own entries in this guide to hundreds of the most significant grapes currently grown around the world to produce red, and...

2006 A coolish summer was followed by an Indian summer punctuated by two bouts of rain but the grapes were healthy enough to withstand them. Promising. 2005 Reduced crop of decent...

  Whether to store wine   Wine, like any fresh food, changes with time. But whereas most consumables deteriorate from the moment we buy them, wine is one of the very few...

No grape has known such a dramatic upgrade in its fortunes and image in the last 20 years than Barbera in Piemonte, north west Italy.   This grape was once regarded as rather ordinary,...

If Pinot Noir is the world's most tantalising grape, Nebbiolo runs it a close second - for very similar reasons. While the red burgundy grape has been extremely unwilling to travel happily from its...

Until recently Sangiovese, Italy's most widely planted vine variety, was a grape in the wilderness. And whenever the name Sangiovese did appear on a label it was far from a guarantee of greatness....