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.
Read about Ornellaia
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.
Read about Roagna
Giuseppe Quintarelli is a family estate in Cerè, near Negrar, in the Valpolicella hills north of Verona. Its founding is dated to 1906, when Giuseppe Quintarelli’s parents transported 50-litre barrels by horse-drawn journey to Genoa for shipment.
Read about Giuseppe Quintarelli
Tenuta delle Terre Nere is based on Etna’s northern slope, in the hilly belt between Solicchiata and Randazzo.
Read about Tenuta Terre Nere
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.
Read about Gianfranco Fino
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.
Read about Tenuta San Leonardo
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.
Read about Schiopetto
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.
Read about Mastroberardino
Photo: ninonegri.itIn 1400, the Duke of Milan granted the palazzo that now houses Nino Negri to Stefano Quadrio, a soldier and captain of the militias who was appointed Governor of Valtellina. Quadrio cultivated grapes, traded wine and created cellars on four levels beneath the building.
Read about Nino Negri
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.
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 →
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 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.
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 →
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 →
The French farm ministry revised its estimate from 34.9 million hectolitres after yields exceeded expectations in Languedoc-Roussillon and Charentes.
A ministerial decree establishes aid of up to 50% of eligible wine-tourism expenditure and sets documentation, priority and reporting requirements.
Three perfect scores lead the 2027 guide. Discover every North Star, with producers and vintages, and an editorial selection of 12 Three Gold Stars wines.