Garda DOC wines: Part 2 of Garda Wine Stories 2025

Paul HowardArticles, Blog, Italy, Lombardia, Sustainability, Veneto, Wine Business

Lake Garda and Flag

Garda DOC wines: Part 2 of Garda Wine Stories 2025 The well-named Garda Wine Stories 2025 event is part of an engaging communication programme devised by Consorzio Garda DOC. To keep things manageable, the article is in two parts.  Part 1 dives into Lake Garda itself. It then explains what Garda DOC is, and offers some examples of how the …

Lugana DOC – Jewel of Lake Garda

Paul HowardArticles, Blog, Italy, Lombardia, Veneto

Lugana DOC

Lugana DOC – Jewel of Lake Garda Regular readers will know of my love for Lake Garda and its multifarious wines. Garda is Italy’s largest lake, handily placed at the crossroads of European travel. Some of the wine appellations surrounding Garda feature elsewhere on these pages, each with its own identity and story.  Now, it’s the turn of Lugana. This …

Epokale: In the Hall of the Mountain Grill

Paul HowardAlto Adige/Südtirol, Articles, Blog, Italy, Sustainability

Epokale Trip

Epokale: In the Hall of the Mountain Grill Epokale has become an iconic wine with a glowing reputation. Its creator is Cantina Tramin, in the Alto Adige region of Italy, also the Italian spiritual homeland for the Gewürztraminer white grape. Some years ago, the Cantina commenced a long-term project to make a special cuvée representing Gewürztraminer, Alpine terroir, and wine-growing …

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

Paul HowardArticles, Blog, Italy, Organic, Piemonte, 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 …

Nascetta, Part 1 – Welcome to Novello

Paul HowardArticles, Blog, Italy, Piemonte, Sustainability

Nas-cëtta-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 …

Le Fornaci – an exciting Lugana white wine from Tommasi

Paul HowardArticles, Blog, Italy, Lombardia, Sustainability, Travel, Veneto, Wine Business

Tommasi Le Fornaci Lugana DOC

Le Fornaci – an exciting Lugana white wine from Tommasi Le Fornaci is an ongoing wine project by the Tommasi family. It’s in the Lugana DOC on the southern tip of Lake Garda. Gradually, this project has come to fruition, and the latest 2020 release is a beauty. (Update – so is 2021). Here’s why. Tommasi Tommasi is arguably so …

The Knot of Love and Custoza DOC wines, Part 2

Paul HowardArticles, Blog, Italy, Organic, Sustainability, Veneto

Big skies in Custoza

The Knot of Love and Custoza DOC wines, Part 2 Part 1 of this article looked at Custoza DOC and the reasons influencing the taste and quality of its dry white wines. Now Part 2 puts that to the test with six representative Custoza DOC wines presented by the Consorzio. An interactive map below shows the locations of the featured producers, while …

Custoza celebrates its 50th Anniversary, Part 1

Paul HowardArticles, Blog, Italy, Organic, Sustainability, Veneto

Typical Custoza Landscape

Custoza celebrates its 50th Anniversary, Part 1. The Custoza DOC covers the white wines made on Lake Garda’s eastern Venetian shore.  It’s centred on the small village of Custoza, which is just to the west of Verona. This DOC overlaps and shares some boundaries with the Bardolino (red) and Chiaretto di Bardolino (rosé) DOC. It dates from 1971, renaming it …

Roero – white and red wines in my Glass

Paul HowardArticles, 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 …

Cantina Tramin and their path to Alpine wines

Paul HowardAlto Adige/Südtirol, Articles, Blog, Italy, Sustainability, Wine Business

Cantina Tramin

Cantina Tramin and their path to Alpine wines Cantina Tramin is one of the leading wine producers in the Alto Adige (Südtirol) region of northeast Italy. This co-operative is in the village of Tramin (Termeno), comprising some 300 members and 270 hectares of vines, some of which are now organic. In this mountainous region, individual family holdings are frequently tiny, …