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Emily O'Hare left her job as head sommelier and wine buyer at London's River Cafe after seven years to spend three months in three different wineries working with three brilliant grape varieties and three fantastic winemakers in Campania, Tuscany and Piedmont. After a magical party on Monte Amiata she decided to follow the casanovas and courtesans she had met at the (fancy dress) party to Florence, and has no desire to leave. She is a VIA Italian Wine Ambassador and writes for Decanter on Italian wine. She hopes to begin teaching the WSET wine program in Florence soon.
“Rosato is not a wine. It’s a beverage. Red is wine.” These are the feelings of a winemaker living near me in Chianti. He becomes quite fierce when ...
Ever heard of Fufluns? Until recently I hadn’t either, but he’s quite the legend. The Etruscan god of happiness, wine, health and growth, he was the early Tuscan version of ...
It dawned on me in the wine aisle of the COOP one early October evening in 2016, that “something” was up. I didn’t fancy a glass of wine with dinner. ...
He’s one of the world’s favourite wine writers, an expert in native grape varieties and scientific director of Vinitaly International Academy, but he’s also a trained medical doctor specialized in ...
Romantic spots are easy to find in Tuscany. Just add wine for an even more special Valentine’s experience. Starting in the city there is the Four Seasons, a haven for ...
This month I would like to draw your attention to monks. I always feel grateful to monks at Christmas time since my preferred tinsel tipple is Tuscan Vin Santo. ...
For three centuries the Manetti family have been producing terracotta from their furnaces in Greve in Chianti. Eight generations have worked with the unique clay composted of local soils to ...
Grape growers and winemakers are essentially superheroes in Wellington boots. The dangers they face in their vineyards and cellars could be stylized in scream balloons à la Marvel comic book: ...
Chianti, the Uffizi, Vernaccia, Ponte Vecchio, grappa, the Duomo, amaro, Dante: drinking in Florence requires knowledge. WHERE Florence is situated within a cork’s throw of Chianti. Like Champagne it ...
Montepulciano, 70 miles southeast of Florence, where the Romans grew vines and named it “Mons Politanus”. In the eighteenth century the term “Nobile” appeared to reference both the wine and ...
Chianti Rufina is one of the smallest of the Chianti sub-zones, producing far less wine than Chianti Colli Senesi and Chianti Classico, so you’ll be (just about) forgiven for never ...
Fifty years ago, Helga Guinness met an Italian woman at a bus stop on a Greek island and mentioned she was looking for a house. A few months later, Guinness ...
If you make a mistake when learning to speak Italian, I’ve found the locals are generally very encouraging in their correction. Only once have I find it awkward, the time ...
Want to know how to survive Vinitaly? Whether it’s your first time at Italy’s largest wine trade fair or you’re a seasoned expert, you’ve got to have ...
In 1643, Michelangelo Buonarroti wrote that the white wine made from the Vernaccia di San Gimignano grape ‘kisses, licks, bites, slaps and stings’. These are familiar words. The 17th-century poet ...
Before starting any wine article I like to consult the books of Hugh. Hugh Johnson is the top god in the wine writing world. He is Zeus. I wondered what ...
For those unfamiliar with the wine world, it might come as a surprise to find a Sri Lankan-born British winemaker employed at a Chianti Classico cantina founded by a fellow Englishman and now owned by a Russian businessman. But Sean O’Callaghan, production manager and oenologist at acclaimed
After a certain age, Christmas can lose a bit of its magic. Fortunately just as the magic begins to vanish, it becomes legal to drink and we can put the sparkle back into the season. Special sparklings Italy makes spectacular sparkling wines. Champagne is always a delight, as delicious
“The 2015 harvest was amazing, one of the best I’ve seen in 35 years. It reminds me of the 1990. All the grapes were perfectly healthy and ripe, and ...
Tuscany produces some of Italy’s most famous wines, but, like drummers in rock bands, the grape varieties sit anonymously behind their front man, their etichetta, and they are not always so easy to recognise. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Chianti and Chianti Classico, Vin Santo—one might occasionally,
