Histories, winemaking, wines and news. Explore by country, region, commune — or drill all the way down to a single vineyard
Photo: ornellaia.comOrnellaia extends between Bolgheri and the coast, in a landscape shaped by the relationship between land and the Tyrrhenian Sea. Sea, wind, sun and deep soils combine to form the estate’s microclimates, while Mediterranean scrub and forest surround and separate the vineyards.
The Langhe vineyards occupy soils of marine sedimentary origin. Alternating calcareous clay, grey-blue marl, limestone and sand create small but consequential differences between geographical mentions.
Tommasi Viticoltori’s holdings extend through several distinct environments in Veneto, with their historic core in the hills of Valpolicella Classica north of Verona.
Tenuta delle Terre Nere is based on Etna’s northern slope, in the hilly belt between Solicchiata and Randazzo.
Photo: gianfrancofino.itThe vineyards lie in the Manduria and Sava countryside of Puglia, within reach of the Ionian Sea. The terrain is predominantly flat. Red soils combine limestone and clay, while the vines are exposed to the warm Apulian sun and breezes arriving from the Ionian coast.
Photo: sanleonardo.itTenuta San Leonardo lies in Vallagarina, at the southern end of Trentino-Alto Adige in the Province of Trento. The 300-ha property occupies the left bank of the Adige and follows the perimeter of the historic feudal estate.
Photo: schiopetto.itSchiopetto’s vineyards are distributed among four named areas: Capriva, Zegla, Pradis and Oleis. Capriva is the historical centre of the estate; Zegla and Pradis are in the Cormons area, while Podere dei Blumeri is associated with the Colli Orientali del Friuli.
Photo: mastroberardino.comIrpinia corresponds to the province of Avellino and is crossed by the Partenio and Terminio mountain chains. Their presence creates substantial pedoclimatic variation among the family's sites.
Valtellina is an Alpine valley surrounded by high mountain summits and characterised by substantial geological, morphological and environmental variability. Biodiversity forms part of this complex setting.
The grape of Chianti, and the heart of the blend there — in some zones as much as seven parts in ten. Buds break in the first half of April and the fruit hangs late, ripening from the last week of September into October.
The first of the Piedmont grapes to wake, ten days or so ahead of Barbera, and among the last to be picked. It crops unevenly: a kind spring brings a full year, a cold or wet one a thin harvest.
Vigorous, generous and reliable, colouring through the second half of August. The bunches are medium and winged, the berries round and blue-black beneath a thick bloom. It shrugs off rot better than most, though the bunches want watching for downy mildew.
All Merlot wines →A late starter: the buds break at the end of April and flowering waits for June. Yields are moderate but steady, on small cylindrical bunches — often with one pronounced wing — of thick-skinned, deep blue-black berries. Powdery mildew is its weakness.
All Cabernet Sauvignon wines →Grown for wine alone, still and sparkling alike, and more often bottled on its own than blended away into something else. In Franciacorta, taken through a second fermentation in the bottle, it gives a straw-gold wine, fine and complex in scent, fresh and savoury to taste.
All Chardonnay wines →The steadiest cropper in Piedmont: it comes in year after year where others falter, and only a decidedly bad season troubles it. The vines are of good but unexceptional vigour, carrying pyramidal bunches of ellipsoid berries, deep blue under a heavy bloom, thin-skinned and full of juice.
Late to bud, and thick-skinned enough to dry well — the bunches keep both on the vine and on the drying racks. They are long and cylindrical, often carrying a wing so large that growers call such a bunch a double.
All Corvina wines →
