A friend in Italy recently sent Neil Duarte some red wines from Azienda Agricola Innocenti, a winery near Montalcino in Tuscany. “The name ‘Montalcino’ brings to mind one of the most famous Italian wines, Brunello di Montalcino,” says Neil. Brunello happens to be Innocenti’s flagship wine. Here’s a report from a very happy reviewer. Read article.

When Neil Duarte visited Italy this spring, he and his wife wanted to stay in a Roman neighborhood and mingle with the locals, so they decided to spend their entire time in Trastevere, a neighborhood just across the Tiber from the ancient part of the city. He especially wanted to see what wines were served in the local trattorias. Read article.

Neil Duarte has written about the Hic et Nunc winery in Piedmont before, and likes its wines. When he learned the winery had introduced a new wine made from an old grape that had fallen into almost extinction, he knew he wanted to try it. The winery sent him a bottle, and here’s his report. Read article.

Eleven years ago, Neil Duarte first visited Cantina Fontursia and met winemaker Gianmarco Veccia and his family. Since he was impressed by the Fontursia wines, he returned this spring, along with his own family. Here’s his report on the wines, more than a decade later. Read article.

Over 6,000 years ago, winemakers in the Caucasus poured pressed grapes into underground amphora to ferment them. Today in Umbria winemaker Roberto Di Filippo is trying out the same thing. Neil paid him a visit recently, learning about the process and discovering some interesting new wines. Read article.

The Knauf family has operated Campo alla Sughera since 1998, a vineyard producing Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Vermentino grapes. In 2017 Campo alla Sughera formed an alliance with the renowned winemaker Stephane Derenoncourt. Neil Duarte sampled some of the wines that have resulted. Read article.

The Veneto — Venice, the land area just opposite Venice, and the other islands — is an area that has known great wealth and power in past times. Today the Veneto includes some excellent wine producing areas. Neil Duarte’s primer will acquaint you with its wines, including Prosecco, Pinot Grigio, Valpolicella and Amarone. Read article.

Another Zoom tasting for Neil Duarte! In this one, Neil tastes the wines of Piera 1899, a winery that produces 1.2 million bottles per year, with grapes from Friuli, the Veneto and Trentino. Piera 1899 has also brought back a number of local Friuli grapes that were fast disappearing, including Ribolla Gialla and Refosco — and Neil tastes them, too. Read article.

A few months ago, Neil Duarte participated in a Zoom tasting – one of the features of the Covid pandemic – of Amarone wines from the Brigaldara Winery in the Verona area of Italy. He’d been shipped the wines a few weeks previously, and now they were settled and ready to rate. Here’s what he learned. Read article.

In 1899 two travelers from Piedmont, one an engineer named Sella and the other a lawyer named Mosca, visited the island of Sardinia. There they fell in love with the potential of the island for winemaking. Neil Duarte had never been to Sardinia, but he got hold of six Sella&Mosca wines from the importer, and here’s his report. Read article.

If you are one of those wine lovers who prefers wineries that have been in business for a very long time, Tenuta Carretta’s wines may be a good choice for you. This ancient winery in the Roero Valley of the Piedmont region, north of the city of Alba, has been making wine since 1467. This year it celebrates its 555th year of operation. Read article.

Started in 1898 as the first wine cooperative in Alto Adige, Cantina Tramin today boasts 160 family owners/producers and produces a full range of both red and white wines. Neil Duarte was recently sent a sent a sample of four of their wines which he tasted on separate occasions. Learn more about these wines in this article. Read article.

While traveling was restricted during the Covid pandemic, Neil Duarte kept up with Italian wine with the help of winemakers who sent him samples to review. Although travel has now resumed, Neil continues to receive small samples from winemakers for review. Here he reviews Corvo, a Sicilian wine that offers a good price/quality ratio. Read article.

Over the past 10years Neal Duarte and his wife have visited Le Marche – or Marche, as the natives call it – a number of times. This is is a long, thin region stretching from Emilia-Romagna in the north down to Abruzzo in the south, all of it along the Adriatic. In this article, Neal gives an overview of the region’s wines.
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Sometimes in family-owned businesses there comes a time for a change. When Roberto Di Filippo sold his interest in Di Filippo Winery to family members and started a smaller Umbrian winery, then created a winery in Romania, Neil Duarte was interested in what was behind Di Filippo’s thinking. Here’s his interview. Read article.

The past is never far away in Italy. In the early 2000s, workers excavating to plant grapes for a new winery discovered a buried 2,000-year-old villa. On his recent visit to Italy, Neil Duarte visited the winery, Feudo Antico, and tasted its wines. Read article.

Eraldo Dentici didn’t come to winemaking by the usual route. He has a degree in surveying, not winemaking. But his family had some land in Rialto-Casale so, as a lark, he decided to try his hand at growing grapes, and discovered his true calling. Neil Duarte visited the winery on his recent trip to Italy, and tasted Dentici’s wines. Read article.

Neil’s recent trip to Italy started with a return to Piedmont, arguably one of if not the best wine regions in Italy. In this article he meets up with some old friends.
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Neil Duarte has some recommendations for you for sparkling wines from Italy — from Trentino-Alto Adige, which is mostly known for its white wines. Read article.

Neil was only able to visit the Piedmont winery Pertinace by ZOOM during the pandemic, so when he got to Italy last month he dropped by in person right at the start of harvest to taste more of their wines. Read article.

When Neil and his wife Terry finally got to Italy recently, they visited the Hic et Nunc winery, whose wines Neil wrote about in May. Today’s column focuses on their winery visit and the wines they tasted there. Read article.

Even wine lovers who prefer red wine exclusively sometimes search for a lighter one during the hot days of summer. One possibility to fill this void is the lighter cousin of Valpolicella, Bardolino. Neil Duarte’s column this month gives pointers about enjoying this wine from the western part of the Veneto. Read article.

Because of the pandemic, Neil Duarte wasn’t able to travel to Italy at all last year, so Italy came to him. Well, Italian wines, anyway. The Wellcom marketing firm helped him out by getting Italian wines to him. Recently he received some Mandrarossa wines, which he reviews in this article. Read article.

The winery Hic et Nunc — Latin for ‘Here and Now’ — was established by Valentina and Massimo Rosolen in 2012, but some of the grapevines on the property had been producing for hundreds of years. Neil Duarte samples a selection of these wines. Read article.

Blu Giovello, an Italian wine brand developed awhile back for the U. S. market, has recently been “re-styled.” Learning of this, Neil Duarte was able to snag some of the new bottles. Here’s his report on this friendly white libation. Read article.

Although the Covid-19 pandemic has made traveling to Italy virtually impossible, Neil Duarte has been able to continue his wine tasting thanks to Italian wine producers willing to ship wines to him! He recently got some wines from Poggio Torselli. Here’s what he thought of them. Read article.

Just to the north of the city of Siena at the start of the Chianti Classico region lies the initial Tuscan property of the Cecchi family, Villa Cerna. Started in the wine business in 1893 by Luigi Cecchi, today the Cecchi family owns five estates located in Tuscany and one in Umbria (learn more here). Their headquarters are in Castellina in Chianti near Villa Cerna where Cesare and Andrea Cecchi oversee 385 hectares of vineyards that produce 8.5 … Read article. →

Villa Trasqua has graced the Pliocene hills near Siena for a thousand years. Its prestigious plots produce fine Chianti Classico – which Neil Duarte recently tasted. Read article.

Cantina Pertinace is a cooperative located near the town of Treiso in the Langhe Valley of Piedmont not far from the city of Alba. The Cantina Pertinace cooperative consists of 20 growers who produce a variety of grapes,including Nebbiolo, Barbera, Arneis, and Dolcetto. It has a total of 110 hectares of vineyard under cultivation from which it produces approximately 800,000 bottles/year including 250,000 bottles of Barbaresco.

The winery proudly states that its Barbaresco is produced in the Classic Style … Read article. →

Every once in awhile, I write about wines that are not Italian. Today is one of those times.

My friend, Tori Domenico at Wagstaff Media & Marketing, recently sent me three vintage ports that Wagstaff represents. I must now state that I do not profess to be a connoisseur of Port wines, having only recently begun to enjoy them. However, I would be remiss if I failed to report my experience while tasting these, but I do not rate … Read article. →

After Neil Duarte had tasted three of Mandrarossa’s Sicilian wines two years ago, he wanted to try more. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, he’s not traveling to Italy – but there are other ways to get wines to review. The new wines have new labels with their own story – but it’s really about the wine, isn’t it? Read article.

In northwestern Tuscany, the DOC area of Bolgheri has, since the 1990s, risen to prominence as an area producing excellent “Super Tuscans.” Neil Duarte tastes some of these — from Tenuta Argentiera. Read article.

Sicily, the ancestral island home of many Italian-Americans, has a long and interesting history in wine production. Neil Duarte takes us on a tour. Read article.

There are many excellent wines in Tuscany, including those from the small family-run winery Fattoria Uccelliera, near Pisa, where a restored farmhouse offers a vacation destination. Recently Neil Duarte had an opportunity to taste some of them. Read article.

Mazzei, one of Italy many family-run wineries, has been making wine for 25 generations, in Tuscany at Castello di Fonterutoli and Maremma, and at Noto in Sicily. The Mazzei family began planting Merlot in their Chianti Classico Siepi vineyard in the 1980s. Neil Duarte recently had a chance to review four of these Siepi wines. Read article.

The family-owned Sicilian winery Planeta has been a favorite of Neil Duarte’s. In this article he reviews wines from Paneta’s new winery near Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano. Read article.

Many people unfamiliar with the wines of Umbria think that only red wines are available there. Umbria does produce some excellent red wines, but there are notable white wines as well. Neil Duarte takes us on a tour of some of Umbria’s best white wines. Read article.

There are only 60 hectares of Vernaccia Nera grown in the world. Fifteen of these hectares belong to Cantina Fontezoppa, in the low hills of Civitanova Alta in the region of Le Marche. Not too long ago, Neil Duarte visited this organic winery both for its Vernaccia Nera and its Ribona, another wine unique to the area. Here’s his report: Read article.

In Italy today almost every winery has an interesting back story to tell. Neil Duarte found the story behind the Le March Tenute Murola winery particularly interesting, as it involved the 1600s, World War II and an officer in the Polish army who fell in love and began an adventure.
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Twenty five years ago, Lanfranco Beleggia purchased an abandoned farm and began the project to create an estate that included a vineyard with winery, gourmet restaurant and luxury accommodations. On a sunny early fall morning Neil Duarte visited Officina del Sole. Here’s his report. Read article.

Lazio, the region that includes the city of Rome, used to be known for fairly average wines. No more, says Neil Duarte, who found much different – and better – wines on a recent visit. Read article.

Neil has a tasting of various Mandrarossa wines from Menfi on the southwestern coast of Sicily – including a national award-winner. Read article.

The Timorasso grape, native in the eastern part of Piedmont, was almost extinct by 1980. Resurrected, now producers are again making Timorasso wines praised by the experts. Neil Duarte recently tasted some Timorassos from the Claudio Mariotto winery. Read article.

About four years ago, Neil Duarte visited Lecci e Brocchi, just outside of the town of Castelnuovo Berardenga, a short distance to the northeast of Siena, and discovered their white Sangiovese, Il Sangio, which he had never seen before. Recently he returned to the winery to see their current offerings. Read article.

Wedding Oak Winery in picturesque San Saba, is about an hour’s drive northwest of Austin. This Texas hill country winery is well worth a visit, says Neil Duarte. Read article.

Just to the northeast of Siena, the tiny 2-hectare La Lama is a true “Mom and Pop” winery. How did Neil find this tiny gem? It all started in a restaurant that offers 150 different Chiantis… Read article.

This 170-hectare estate outside Montefalco has been run by the Antonelli family since it was acquired from the Papal States in 1882, and today it produces 300,000 bottles of wine a year. Neil Duarte reports on the winery’s offerings. Read article.

Just south of the city of Ancona in the region of Le Marche overlooking the Adriatic Sea lies the Azienda Agricola Conte Leopardi Dittajuti, a 45-hectare estate owned for many generations by the Count Leopardi Dittajuti family. Here are Neil Duarte’s notes on a recent visit and tasting. Read article.

The wines of Le Marche have only recently begun to receive their just praise. On a picturesque hill overlooking the Adriatic Sea just to the south of the city of Ancona sits Moroder winery, with some excellent examples of Rosso Conero, one of the best wines of the region. Read article.

Four generations of the Savini family have contributed to the growth and success of the Santa Liberata winery, which is now wholly organic. Neil Duarte visits the younger generation now running the business and reports on the wines he tasted. Read article.

During his recent trip to the Anteprima Amarone trade event in Verona, Neil tasted many many Amarone wines. In this final article of his Amarone series, he reports on wines from 8 other wineries he visited. Read article.

Neil Duarte tours many wineries, but few have impressed him more than the Amarone winery Azienda Albino Armani, utilizing the latest technology yet built into the side a hill to blend in environmentally with its surroundings. He rates a number of the winery’s offerings. Read article.

Founded in 1936, Cesari winery is today the producer of approximately 1.5 million bottles of red, white and rose wine. Neil Duarte visited Cesari while attending the Anteprima Amarone festival in Verona. Read article.

Just to the east of Tuscany lies the beautiful region of Umbria – “well worth visiting as it generally lacks the bustle of tourists that can make Tuscany difficult at times,” writes Neil Duarte. “And the wine is very good.” Here’s his selections from among Umbria’s many wine choices. Read article.

Continuing his survey of the wine regions of Italy, Neil Duarte looks at Tuscany. “Probably the best know of the Tuscan reds is Brunello di Montalcino, a 100% Sangiovese red wine from grapes grown on the hills surrounding the hill fort town of Montalcino,” writes Neil. Learn about this and other Tuscan wines. Read article.

Whatever your price range or preference, you can probably find a good and enjoyable wine from Piedmont, write Neil Duarte. In this article he discusses a number of good Piedmont varietals. Read article.

A recent gift of two Sicilian wines – a Nero D’Avola and a Grillo – made Neil Duarte want to return to Sicily again. Read his tasting notes on these two examples of Sicily’s ubiquitous varietals. Read article.

In 1984 Ercole and Angiolina Velenosi started a vineyard and winery that they felt would combine tradition and innovation. Today the winery produces 2 million bottles a year. Neil Duarte visited with the owners and sampled the wines. Read article.

The Cantina Sociale Cooperativa in the town of Locorotondo, in the Puglia region, has 1,300 wine producers turning out 5.5 million bottles per year – reds, rosés, sparkling wines, and two whites, including Biancaluce, which Neil discovered by happy accident on a recent trip. Read article.

Four generations the Bonci family have produced primarily Verdicchio wines on their 26 hectares of vineyards. Neil Duarte paid them a visit. Read his report on the wines. Read article.

By Neil Duarte

Today, there are a large number of organic vineyards throughout Italy, writes Neil Duarte, but the DiFilippo family has a somewhat unique vision of organic and biodynamic cultivation. Constantly looking to improve the methods of growing, they use horses instead of tractors for work in the vineyard. They also use geese. Read article.