“We want to have elegance be the main focus of our wines. The biggest fear for me is over-extraction.” Tenuta Argentiera winemaker Nicolò Carrara is right to be a little afraid. He is dealing with ripening and fermenting grapes in Tuscany’s Bolgheri, after all, where sunlight and the potential for big levels of ripeness—not to…
Tag: Italian Wine
“The Difference” (A Villa Rosa Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vertical)
Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of bumping into Cecchi fourth-generation wine family icon Andrea Cecchi a handful of times at locales all over the globe, but earlier this year (2025) marked the first time that I had a virtual sit-down with him over Zoom. Not as fun as our usual face-to-face run-ins, but…
Me, and the Ladies (Maculan Recent Releases)
I’m preparing to jump into some extended coverage of California’s Livermore Valley (with which I have a fairly long history at this point), but before that goes down, I though that I’d drop a quick post about tasting some recent samples (via Zoom) with Veneto producer Maculan. You know, because it’s been something like six…
Peaks and… More Peaks (Highlights from VinoVIP Cortina 2024, Part 2)
Welcome to Part 2 of the highlights from my media jaunt to VinoVIP 2024, held in Italy’s rather dramatic (landscape-wise, anyway) locale of Cortina. For more background on the event, head over to Part 1. The main draw of VinoVIP is the grand tasting, held at Rifugio Faloria. This lodge is situated pretty much perfectly…