Wines made from Nebbiolo grapes of Ghemme

I’d like to say we took advantage of the lockdown and its related commotion to do a stock-take, explore new avenues, turn over intriguing stones, widen and deepen our drinking, taking careful notes as we went. Sadly, no. I won’t say we got stuck in a rut, but we did tend to stick with comfort wines – and “comfort”, in our case, means familiar. Regular readers of this quarterly column can probably guess the labels on the resulting empties. We have a wider range of comfort foods, I’m afraid, than ...

On 28 October 2022, the second edition of Barolo en primeur will take place. A collaboration between the Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo Foundation, CRC Donare Foundation, and the Consorzio di tutela Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe e Dogliani, it’s an auction of unique Barolo wines with social responsibility at it’s heart, aiding local not-for-profit organisations and charities, as well as those further afield. As with last year’s auction, 14 barriques will be auctioned by Christie’s simul ...

I’ve had the ‘decant or not decant’ conversation countless times with wine lovers and industry insiders, and have discovered that most either love or hate these seemingly benign glass containers. I fall firmly into the hate ’em camp, especially when it comes to decanting old wines. Aged wines are fragile, and after years of being under cork the sudden explosion of oxygen creates the worst possible shock. On impact, the wine loses aromas and flavours that will never be recovered. Decanting is lik ...