Around this time last year, we struck it lucky. My colleague, Laura Hollingsworth, and I headed to a tasting in Munich to assess a range of different German Pinot Noir, or Spätburgunder, and happened upon the wines of Weingut Dautel. This tasting afforded us a great opportunity to compare examples from leading estates and gain a view of the...
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The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino‘are dark yet radiant, expressive, nearly explosive at times, yet pure, poised and structured. These are wines that capture your imagination; and no matter how youthfully tense they are today, you simply can’t help but revisit a glass over and over again; because in many cases, the aromatics alone a...
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An Italian producer reached out to me on a networking platform that I have previously regarded as more of an irritant than a benefit. I am pleased that he did as a discussion led to me having a chance to taste his fascinating wines, though it may take more than one such instance for me to change my mind about the platform!
Wit...
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I recently managed to catch up with Gianluca Grasso to gain some background on his 2017 Barolo, which I tasted yesterday and are offered here for the first time. For those who are not aware of his wines, Grasso has carved out an enviable reputation for quality and consistency over many years and certainly counts as one of Atlas' favoured estates...
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Piemonte has been attracting increasing interest over the past couple of years, interest that has intensified thanks to the recent highly esteemed 2016 Barolo releases. Barolo takes centre stage in Piemonte, and rightly so perhaps – it produces some of the finest, and increasingly most sought after wines in the world. However, with so much...
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After tasting a range of new wave Rioja, and being relatively disappointed, I opened a bottle of 2008 Rioja, Viña Tondonia Reserva from López de Heredia to restore my faith.
I had been guilty of being a touch dismissive of the 2008 vintage – but it is worth recalling that, for much of Europe, a cooler summer ended...
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