Long a staple for everyday wine, Ansonica – aka Inzolia – is getting a makeover on the Tuscan coast. Corinna Vicenzi is shown here, leaning on a stack of crates with shrivelled, sun-dried Ansonica bunches destined for a sweet wine from her Il Cerchio estate. This is the unedited, original version previously published on www.JancisRobinson.com. Inzolia, with over 7,000ha one of Sicily’s most planted varieties, never struck me as especially remarkable, because the majority of w

The history of Tasca d'Almerita's Rosso del Conte, arguably Italy's first 'Super Somewhere' (in this case Sicily) from indigenous varieties and released a full year earlier than Sassicaia's first commercialised vintage. This article, with the vertical of Rosso del Conte appeared previously on www.JancisRobinson.com in July 2013 and is reprinted with kind permission. Cheek gets you everywhere. At least that is what I thought for a moment when I contacted Alberto Tasca d’Alme

Previously published under the title Mamoiada – the apex of Grenache in Italy on www.JancisRobinson.com, this is the unedited version. And it is long... Mamoiada's vineyards on a hot, sultry summer's day in 2024 A village with an ancient wine culture tries to come to grips with a challenging, but potentially bright future. While a young generation takes its inspiration from Burgundy, the traditionalists cling to the historic wine style. Both are thread of the same cloth, bu

When I heard that Santiago Marone Cinzano, scion of the family that once owned Cinzano and son of Francesco Marone Cinzano, owner of Col d’Orcia in Montalcino, has come up with a wine that does away altogether with the concept of crus or single vineyards, I was at first sceptical. The wine, called Lot.1, which will from a different plot each vintage, looked like a vanity project of the 30-years old, not least due to the super-confident marketing material, claiming that Maro

The history of the oldest wine estate on Sardinia starts in Piemonte, in the very north of Italy, in the town of Biella. Sella & Mosca grafting room c 1905, courtesy of Fondazione Sella For generations, the Sella family had been running a successful business as manufacturers of woollen cloth in Biella. The family also owned vineyards in Bramaterra and Lessona acquired by Comino Sella in 1671 when he invested in what is now known as Tenute Sella, one of Alto Piemonte’s most hi

Time is running out for Alto Adige's signature variety, which may – just – be rescued in time by a New Generation of producers. Above, the Gschleier vineyard of over 100 years old, proof of Schiava's potential magnificence. I keep obsessing over Vernatsch aka Schiava, the pale, alpine red grape variety known for feather-light wines, but which a new generation, following in the footsteps of old stalwarts, has begun to turn into elegant wines with a much longer shelf life than

The natural wine debate has flared up again or, perhaps, it never went away. I was pondering this at the Centre Pompidou in Paris a while ago, while looking at Henri Matisse’s Luxe, Calme et Volupté, the neo-Impressionist painting from 1904, of which I took this picture. The short brush strokes with which the vibrant colours are applied to the canvas echoes the pointillism of Seurat’s Un Dimanche Après-midi à l’île de la Grande Jatte,painted 20 years earlier, but Matisse’s wo