© 2023 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
Great tasting with Andrea Pieropan (and his 13 year old son in the background) of their remarkable @pieropanwines single vineyard #calvarino #soave showcasing its incredible capacity to age and celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first release of this wine in 1971. This was a … Continue reading
© 2023 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
Brief visit to @villaraiano last week and their beautiful winery. I was accompanied by my kind host, Brunella and their beautiful #bovaroodibernaese Bernese Mountain dog, Raia# who insisted on accompanying us despite the warm weather. The power and gentleness of animals warms the soul. … Continue reading
© 2021 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
The 2020 is another example of Simone Santini’s beautifully pure, focused and elegant style of Vernaccia di San Gimignano. Delicate aromas and flavours of white flowers, honeysuckle and green apple drift across the nose and palate. It is soft and … Continue reading
© 2016 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
Salina is one of the Y-shaped group of Unesco-protected volcanic islands that rise out of the azure-coloured waters off the north-east coast of Sicily. It is one of the mystical sounding Aeolian Islands, the name conjuring up images of Odysseus … Continue reading
© 2016 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
Valpolicella is a wine region we all think we know. Many of us may have cut our teeth on this light, fruity red when we first began to drink wine, but, like in many great wine regions, nothing stands still. I discovered there is always something more to learn on my first trip of 2016 when I attended the 13th edition of Anteprima Amarone. This is the big showcase event where the newly-released Valpolicella Amarone wines are first shown to the press at the end of January; it is held in the beautiful city of Verona in the Veneto. Continue reading
© 2014 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
After the Second World War, an interim Yugoslav-Italian border was drawn up by the Allied Forces and then re-drawn again by the Allies and Tito in 1947 when he established a unified Yugoslavia. Almost overnight, extended families found themselves separated by a border with wine producers having some of their vineyards in Italy while their homes were in Yugoslavia, now Slovenia. Continue reading
© 2014 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
The chance to taste a whole selection of wines made from the rare, white Timorasso grape variety was too tempting an opportunity to miss so in June I jumped at the offer to make this trip to the less well … Continue reading
© 2014 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
I had a very different idea of Malvasia before I visited Lanzarote. My first impressions were of a variety that was round, fat and simple – a little oily perhaps with low aromatics. Several examples that I tasted from warm areas in the South of France seemed to confirm that description and it wasn’t a grape variety I sought out much. Continue reading
© 2014 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
The Marche (pronouced Mar-Kay) is a region full of surprises! It has such a lot to offer. Situated a third of the way down the Eastern (Adriatic) side of Italy, sandwiched between Emilia-Romagna to the north, the Abruzzo to … Continue reading
© 2014 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
Wine fairs, useful as they are, are usually hard to get too excited about. Essência do Vinho is a stunning exception – it is actually a very exciting event! Continue reading
© 2013 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
Every time I visit Planeta there is something new happening. A dynamic attitude and the art of never standing still has taken them from a company that only planted its own vineyards in the mid 1980’s to quickly becoming one … Continue reading
© 2013 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
In January this year, I presented a five-day series of Sicilian wine master classes in four cities – Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore and Mumbai. Responsible for organising this whirlwind tour were Michèle Shah and on the ground in India, Subhash Arora … Continue reading
© 2012 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
Domaine Weinbach Faller is a powerful name in Alsace. They are one of a handful of producers at the top of their game and they produce some of the very best examples of Alsace’s distinctive style of Gewürztraminer. When I … Continue reading
© 2012 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
Sicily was my first love. It was my first encounter with the heady, exotic mix of southern Mediterranean culture, landscape and food. Sicily bewitched me and left its mark upon my memory. I remember the drama of the landscape and … Continue reading
© 2012 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
Occasionally, when you visit a vineyard and a producer, in whatever troubled, busy or preoccupied state of mind you happen to be in, you are stopped in your tracks and transformed by something almost spiritual in the place and the people. So it was with Feudo Montoni and our meeting with its delightful owner, Fabio Sireci. Continue reading
© 2012 Susan Hulme MW. All rights reserved.
The hand of God touched the land and that’s how the beautiful glacial Finger Lakes in upstate New York were formed. That’s how it was told to me, and if you look at the pattern of the five main Finger … Continue reading