Italian Wine News

The first official figures are out from the various Italian official bodies (Assoenologi, Ismea e Unione Italiana Vini), with estimates on the 2021 harvest. Usually, these are quite accurate despite the harvest being in full swing.   A general picture for the 2021 Italian vintage is difficult to outline due to extremes of weather conditions […]

  In honour of Olivio Cavallotto (and other Barolo producers) who passed away due to the COVID 19 pandemic.   When tasting the battery of wines produced by Cavallotto you know there is something unique which cannot be repeated anywhere else in the world. This small plot, in an enviable position on a prominent Castiglione […]

The Institute of Masters of Wine, London Despite COVID Vinexus yet again desired to promote Italy’s finest with its annual ANTEPRIMA in London, presenting the new vintages of Brunello, Barolo and Barbaresco pre-release. For many in the London trade this was their first trade tasting since the lockdown and so we’d like to thank all […]

20th August. The Italian harvest has already started for some of the earlier ripening varieties. For most, producers are cleaning their presses! Here are some reflexions on the eve of 2020 harvest: Despite COVID, producers have been very active in the vineyards through the year and have been able to carry out all vineyard work […]

Every year Vinexus holds its ANTEPRIMA Barolo, Brunello, Barbaresco. This year was special. Rarely do two great vintages, for very different reasons, come one after the other and in the case Barolo and Brunello, this means they are released together. In October, at the INSTITUTE OF MASTERS OF WINE, Vinexus showed some of the best […]

THE iconic Tuscan red is at once arguably the most respected and the most misunderstood wine in Italy’s rich vinous tapestry. In production under the Chianti banner since the Middle Ages, Chianti Classico is the star of that magical land of mountain, hill and valley, of oak, pine, cypress and chestnut, of vineyard and olive […]

Renato Trestini was perhaps more than any other individual responsible for introducing quality Italian wines to the UK market. In 1969 he was working in London as a barman at Dukes Hotel in St. James when he heard the call. “I’m going to be a wine merchant”, he suddenly knew. It was a revelation, not quite perhaps on a par with that of Saul of Tarsus, but with this similarity: that it would shape the rest of his life.

Every year, around mid-February, the wine producers of Tuscany put aside their political squabbling and competitive argy-bargy for a short time and treat the world’s wine press to a series of surprisingly well planned and co-ordinated tastings of the various creations of the heartland of Italian fine wine.

At the beginning of August, Italy is already preparing for harvest which is expected to be earlier than usual all over the country from the “metodo classico” grapes of Franciacorta, to the whites and reds of the south. A very hot summer, with very little rain, has some producers already comparing 2017 with the extreme 2003 vintage.