Rossese Bianco from Josetta Saffirio is WOTY 2024

Paul Howard Articles, Blog, Italy, Organic, Piemonte, Sustainability

Josetta Saffirio Rossese Bianco

Rossese Bianco from Josetta Saffirio is WOTY 2024 Wine Alchemy’s Wine of the Year (WOTY) 2024 goes to Sara Vezza in Piemonte, Italy. This is for the rare white wine Josetta Saffirio, Rossese Bianco, Langhe DOC, 2022. As is usual, the Wine Alchemy WOTY is inspirational. Exceptional taste is a given. But, in addition, the winning wine must be genuinely …

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Greatest Hits – A Case for Christmas 2024

Paul Howard Alto Adige/Südtirol, Articles, Biodynamic, Blog, Calabria, England and Wales, Italy, Lebanon, Lombardia, Molise, Organic, Piemonte, Sardegna, Spain, Sparkling Wine, Sustainability, Toscana, Veneto

Greatest Hits - Happy Christmas 2024

Greatest Hits – A Case for Christmas 2024 This year, I’m ringing the changes for the Case for Christmas 2024 article. This time, it’s a Greatest Hits package. This features a dozen wines selected from all my previous annual Christmas wine recommendations. They are twelve wines that stand the test of time and fully deserve highlighting again. Such a listicle …

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Vajra Barolo DOCG – Part Two, Red Roses for Me

Paul Howard Articles, Blog, Italy, Organic, Piemonte, Sustainability

G.D. Vajra Barolo

Vajra Barolo DOCG – Part Two, Red Roses for Me Part One of this article on G.D. Vajra introduced their estate and focused on their Langhe varietal red wines: Dolcetto, Barbera and Freisa. In Part Two, the focus shifts to feature three Vajra Barolo Cru wines. Each is a different expression of this famous DOCG from the 2019 vintage. As …

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Borgo Maragliano – Bubbles that Touch the Sky

Paul Howard Articles, Blog, Italy, Piemonte, Sparkling Wine

Borgo Maragliano vineyards dawn

Borgo Maragliano – Bubbles that Touch the Sky The Galliano family own Borgo Maragliano, a wine estate in Piemonte. It sits 450 metres above sea level (asl) on a natural terrace of the southern Langhe, surrounded by hills reaching over 600 metres. Their glass and steel tasting room seems suspended mid-air and offers breathtaking panoramic countryside views, while the roads here …

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Nas-cëtta, Part 2 – twelve Novello producers and their wines

Paul Howard Articles, Blog, Italy, Organic, Piemonte, Recipes, Sustainability, Wine Tasting

Nas-cëtta

Nas-cëtta, Part 2 – twelve Novello producers and their wines Nascetta, Part 1, looked at the rediscovery of Nas-cëtta. Local producers rescued this semi-aromatic white grape variety, which survived only in Novello in Piemonte. In 2010, the Langhe DOC exclusively authorised the production of white wine in Novello using only 100% Nascetta grapes, creating a dedicated subzone called Langhe Nas-cëtta del Comune …

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Nascetta, Part 1 – Welcome to Novello

Paul Howard Articles, Blog, Italy, Piemonte, Sustainability

Nascetta grape variety

Nascetta, Part 1 – Welcome to Novello Nascetta is a once-obscure white grape variety from Novello, a tiny hill-top village in Barolo. Once nearly extinct, Novello wineries rediscovered it and revealed its potential for exciting white wines. Now, in this prestigious area famous for red wine, Nascetta is garnering a reputation as “the White Barolo”. That’s some turnaround! There are …

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Roero – white and red wines in my Glass

Paul Howard Articles, Blog, Italy, Piemonte

Roero DOCG

Roero – white and red wines in my Glass The Roero DOCG region is on the northern (left bank) side of the Tanaro river in Piemonte. This river divides Roero from the likes of Barolo and Barbaresco on its southern side. Roero’s territory isn’t a monoculture; while vines have been grown here since Etruscan times, the 1,180 hectares of vineyards …

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Francone – Comparing Two Big Italian Red Classics

Paul Howard Articles, Blog, Italy, Piemonte, Sustainability

Francone

Francone – Comparing Two Big Italian Red Classics “The best way to arrive in Neive is to skirt the magnificent rows of Nebbiolo lining the road that leaves Alba and passes through Tre Stelle, then Barbaresco.” So wrote the founder of Slow Food, Carlo Petrini, in 1999. He said, “Towards the end of summer, there is a stupendous array of Dolcetto, Barbera and …

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Derthona – Solving a Cult Wine Puzzle

Paul Howard Articles, Blockchain, Blog, Italy, Piemonte, Sustainability

Derthona Timorasso, Vigneti Massa

Derthona – Solving a Cult Wine Puzzle This unprepossessing bottle of white wine hides away a genuinely remarkable story worth telling. It has an attractive label, yet that gives away little about the contents, where it’s from, or just how good it is. In the UK, Italian rare-grape geeks are most likely to recognise it. In Italy, it’s become something …

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Malvirà Roero Arneis – Stylish White Wine in Two Guises

Paul Howard Articles, Blog, Italy, Organic, Piemonte, Sustainability

Malvirà Roero Arneis

Malvirà Roero Arneis – Stylish White Wine in Two Guises Arneis is a fashionable Italian white grape variety. It has an exciting story to tell and can make excellent wines. Two of those wines feature here, both from the Malvirà winery, showing contrasting styles. Malvirà is at Canale, the unofficial “wine capital” of the Roero DOCG, in Piemonte, northern Italy. Arneis is …

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