See my tasting notes on some top Sangiovese di Romagna wines. Sangiovese, which is almost always associated with Tuscany, is in actual fact Italy's most widespread red grape...

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....

Walter begins a series on mature Italian wine with this exploration of the extent to which Chianti Classico is worth ageing. One of the perceived characteristics of fine wine is ageability or,...

All last week, and today, we are publishing articles and 375 tasting notes by our Italian specialist Walter Speller based on his recent total immersion in Tuscany. Below is a list of all that...

An embarrassment of riches – that is how it felt to be submerged for a whole week in the best of what Tuscany has to offer. The region is without a shadow of a doubt one of Italy's premium wine...

Following yesterday's What's new, Montalcino? and tasting notes on Brunello 2007 , here Walter wholeheartedly recommends the Brunello 2006 Riservas. See  also  Guide to Walter's...

Today Walter turns his attention to Brunello di Montalcino, with an overview of this year's controversies and an introduction to the 2007 vintage. See here for his tasting notes on...

This is today's second instalment of our series of articles on Tuscany. See also the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2009–2006 tasting article and  see  Guide to Walter's Tuscan...

We continue our series of articles on Tuscany with Walter's report on the recent tasting of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano - focusing mainly on 2009 but also going back to 2006. S...

All the wines made at the outstanding Romagna estate Fattoria Zerbina described here seem to have lingering, elegant fruit flavours, while starting off quite big and rich. Tannins are an...

On my arrival at the Fattoria Zerbina in Romagna, the first thing Cristina Geminiani showed me was a pair of maps of one of her vineyards, the Vigna Amfiteatro. This in itself is not unusual,...

In On the trail of Sangiovese di Romagna , I described the work of the leading group of producers, the Convito di Romagna. Its members voluntarily comply with a set of rules which are much...

By chance I happen to have tasted more recent vintages of several of my past wines of the week, all of them first vintages when first tasted, and thought you might be interested in the progress of...

I tasted more than 50 riojas currently available recently, and was pretty disappointed with the results, as well as being overwhelmed by the inconsistency of styles (see What is rioja? ). These...

In November I had the chance to see the much-vaunted 2000s from the châteaux that are members of the Union des Grands Crus some months after they had been bottled. These of course were much...