Cellar Favorite: 1998 Mastroberardino Taurasi Radici Riserva
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, Italy: Center & South
, Dec 2020
As soon as it feels like winter, when sweaters start to be worn indoors and the meals turn meatier and richer, all I want to drink is mature Barolo and Taurasi. It’s at this time of year that I pull a mixed case of the two from my storage, and stand the wines up so that all I need to do is choose, pull, decant and indulge.
Cellar Favorite: 2014 Tiberio Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colle Vota
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, Italy: Center & South
, Oct 2020
I clearly remember the first time I tasted the 2014 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colle Vota from Tiberio three years ago. It was so tense and structured, taking hours to begin showing its layers and complexities. It was on day two that the wine began to reveal its inner beauty.
Verdicchio – Italy’s Killer V
featured, Italy: Center & South
, Sep 2020
Verdicchio is one of the most versatile grapes in all of Italy. It can be vibrant and remarkably fresh, or crafted in a more serious style with the potential to mature for upwards of a decade. When harvested late, Verdicchio takes on textural depths and ripeness that balance wonderfully against naturally high acidity. Oak? It can handle that too, while still communicating purity. No matter what the expression, Verdicchio almost always makes a killer wine, and yet it still does not get the full attention it deserves.
Central Italy’s Best-Kept Secrets
featured, Italy: Center & South
, Jun 2020
Sangiovese is most often associated with Tuscany, where it is the variety that informs virtually all of the region’s top wines. What if I told you that by staying within the confines of Tuscany’s top DOCGs of Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile, you were missing out on some of the most interesting and value-oriented Sangioveses being produced today? It’s time to discover some of central Italy’s best-kept secrets.
Cellar Favorite: 2004 Guastaferro Taurasi Primum
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, Italy: Center & South
, May 2020
Knowing when to open a Taurasi is always tricky. We all hear that the wines can age on their balance of fruit, tannin, and elevated acidity but capturing a bottle in that magic moment is the challenge.
Campania: Forgotten Realms
featured, Italy: Center & South
, May 2020
Campania is steeped in history that goes back many centuries. Its oenological landscape is every bit as fascinating. Indigenous varieties – many of them brought back from near-extinction – cultivated in striking sites by ambitious producers yield remarkable wines that speak of place. Readers will find everything from crisp dry whites to powerful reds built for the cellar, and everything in between.
Latest Releases: Calabria, Basilicata, Puglia and Sardinia
featured, Italy: Center & South
, Feb 2020
Southern Italy offers many excellent and often inexpensive wines for those willing to venture outside their comfort zone. Although there are underachievers, if you stick to the producers I recommend here, you won’t be disappointed, for there are a myriad of wine grapes, styles and estates worth discovering.
Gulfi Nero d’Avola Nerosanloré: 2001-2015
Verticals & Retrospectives, featured, Italy: Center & South
, Jan 2020
Gulfi was the first winery in Sicily to believe in single-contrada Nero d’Avolas. Today, Gulfi makes four such wines that highlight the extraordinary diversity of these sites, all of them so well-suited to showing the potential of Sicily’s indigenous Nero d’Avola. This vertical spanned a representative selection of the Nerosanloré - arguably the most elegant of the wines.
Tiberio Pecorino Colline Pescaresi 2005-2018
featured, Italy: Center & South
, Jan 2020
Tiberio’s Pecorino has fast become a gold standard for the variety, delivering aromas and flavors and a relatively rich glyceral texture that are archetypal of the cultivar, but with more refinement than most wines made with this trendy Italian native grape.
Campania 2018: Early Appeal And Accessibility
featured, Italy: Center & South
, Nov 2019
Readers who have followed my writings over the years know I am a huge fan of Campania. The whites are some of Italy’s greatest and most ageworthy wines. The best Campania whites are terroir-driven and full of varietal character. With some notable exceptions, Campania's red wines are unfortunately less consistent because of the combination of overripe grapes and too much oak. For that reason, it pays to be especially selective when it comes to the reds.