I am really excited about this Falanghina, as you will see from this video of the tasting.  Rarely is one surprised and delighted by an intensity of flavour, an elegance of balance, and wonderful "new" flavours with great persistence.

I have, subsequent to tasting, found out that this Falanghina comes from very old (80 years) vines, growing un-trellissed as bushes amongst the olive groves (for shade) high up on the slopes of the spent volcano Taberno.

Knowing all this helps explain the wild herbs and olive grove flavours, the wonderful intensity,  the volcanic soils providing crisp bright purity of acidity.   I tasted the wine again from the opened bottle (refrigerated ) the following day, it had opened up more and was even more delicious, the true sign of a very fine wine.
 
SPECIAL OFFER FOR SECRET SOMMELIER READERS:
 
If you would like to try this, go through to the La Mia Italia (click here) website and type the promo code secretsommelier during the order placement and get this fantastic wine for £12 a bottle!

Also if you choose from the menu below the 12x75cl pack you save an extra 10% and get the wine free delivered to your home!
 
Christopher Burr MW
 

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Climate change podcast

Last week a picture was posted on Twitter of vines in Shabo, a large estate that lies to the west of Odesa on southern Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline. The image seemed benign at face value but the reality, of course, is that the city of Odesa has been bracing itself for attack by Russian forces. 

 

As COVID-19 conspires with the grimmest of winds and rain to force a societal retreat behind our own front doors, the word ennui springs to mind. The muddle of displeasure is pierced when Natalia hands me a large bulbous glass of a liquid I do not recognise.

 

 

Britain’s lamentable exit

On the eve of Britain’s official departure from the EU, my partner and I decided to explore a small town on the Italian Riviera where thewintry cold doesn’t feel so much like cold war bite.

I had warned my significant other that I would be having an inverse departure party, a release of the sanity valve if you like!

 

Sitting inside the ancient castle walls inside the town of Soave, a short drive from Verona in northern Italy, the unique slightly almond aroma of the indigenous grape, Garganega, rises gently from my glass. The castle sprawls up the side of an extinct volcano that gives the region its variant soil structures that mark out the better quality of Soave wines.

 

Tanisha Townsend decided to move to Paris 4 years ago after regularly passing through the city en route to the world’s most famous vineyards. In fact, it was about 2 years ago at the Printemps de Champagne Bouzy Rouge tasting in Reims that I saw (who we shall now refer to as) GirlMeetsGlass chirpily speaking to her web followers on Snapchat.

 

The cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, the final resting place of Saint James, rises out of the landscape, infested with antiquity. The rambling steep streets give way to shafts of dramatic light, emblazoned chapels, and tightly packed tapas bars, dusty, as old novels pressed together in antiquarian bookshops.

 

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