Wine90 - Wine Reviews, new and views

Valpolicella Ripasso DOC – Supermarket Review 2018

Would a wine by any other name would taste so sweet? I doubt it, as Valpolicella benefits from a special production method that allows the wines to pack a fruity punch. We review the UK supermarket’s Valpolicella Ripasso offerings.

Camino de Santiago wines

It’s Easter Sunday 2018, four years since I learned everything I ever care to learn about Compeed®, cat-holes and threading blisters and proudly completed my first pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella. This long walk covers 800kms from Saint Jean Pied de Port in the foothills of the French Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostella in north west…

Casale del Giglio – The Kings of Lazio

Don’t tell anyone, but I have a secret crush on Casale del Giglio. A nostalgic, romantic soft-spot for the wines I first came to know as affordable local Lazio wines sold at Lo Zio d’America, my local wine store when I lived in Rome. In the following years I’d come to learn that these are…

Cervaro della Sala 2009

Name: Antinori Cervaro della Sala 2009 Grapes: 85% Chardonnay, 15% Grechetto Alchohol: 13% Classification: IGT Umbria While the world’s wine bloggers enjoy a jolly good knees up in Perugia at the #iwinetc, I thought I would pay homage to the event with a quick note on one of the very best wines of the region, Antinori’s…

Anselmet Wine – Wines from the Edge

I’ve been writing about wine for 10 years and like any obsession, addiction, hobby, as it progresses, your kicks are found by getting more and more niche, or lets be honest; geeky and out there. Wines from the far edges of the wine-world interest me, and as an Italian wine writer, I’m lucky that Italy…

Cesanese del Piglio DOCG

If Maximus drunk wine you can bet your bippy it was Cesanese del Piglio. Leave the monks their Est! Est!! Est!!! and the senate their sweet Mulsum, Casanese del Piglio is a wine for tough guys and Lazio fans. Cesanese del Affile (90% min variety in Cesanese del Piglio) is a difficult, stubborn little grape,…

London fine dining under £30 – Le Pont de la Tour

With the growing number of food delivery apps disrupting the restaurant business, from Ubereats to Deliveroo and more in-between, the art of restaurant fine dining is coming under increasing pressure. This is good and bad news for the committed restaurant goer. The good news; there are many more offers and incentives to eat in with restaurants offering special…

A trip to Vagabond Wines Fulham

It’s spring 2017 and I’m back on the wine trail as a student once more having recently enrolled on the WSET diploma course in the hope of furthering my education in all things vinous. The diploma is no mere caper. Those eager to secure a passing grade will need to taste hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds) of wines from every corner…

Bibi Graetz Testamatta 2007

From a roundly touted vintage, Bibi Graetz Testamatta 2007 is the flagship wine from the estate of full time winemaker/part time artist – Bibi Graetz. A trailblazer for 100% old vine Sangiovese, Bibi Graetz has put the town of Fiesole firmly on the international wine map within a few vintages with his single varietal Testamatta….

Jean Leon Penedès

The Torres owned Jean Leon Penedes vineyards are a peculiar wine brand to spark an interest in wine for an Italian wine blogger. Yet it was thus, twelve years ago aged just twenty six, that I visited my very first vineyard as part of a “team building” trip for the travel company I ran in Barcelona….

Tignanello 2008

Antinori’s Tignanello 2008 reached the status of wine bling years ago. One of a handful of Italian wines (particularly Super Tuscans) set to climb in price over the next few years, out of reach for the majority of UK wine buyers as Chinese collectors and oenophiles begin to buy up Italian “status” wines. Was it only…

Foradori Granato 2015

Foradori Granato 2015 is the first wine from Trentino to make the Wine90 blog. Probably not surprising, there are only a couple of estates in this north eastern Italian province that consecutively turn out top notch vino. The best known producer in Trentino and the most decorated by Gambero Rosso is the exceptionally well known; Tenuta San…