Blog – Oinotron

New era, new site

After February 24th 2022, when russia started an unprecedented bloody war against Ukraine and especially after the totally disillusioning reaction to the invasion of my wine “friends”, living in the aggressor country, I took a decision to change the purpose of this website. Initially it was meant as a stand-alone website for my wine scribblings…

Climate change & Piedmont – Tortona 2024 (part I)

Climate change conferences are not rare lately but I try to visit (or follow online) as many as I can. First of all there’s always new information, research and studied aspects of the phenomena, second – they are a good platform to exchange experiences and get updates on institutional advancements. Most of these conferences have…

Barbaresco 2020 (14/04/2023)

(this article was initially written for the Barbaresco & Barolo group in Facebook, but became too big while I was writing it, so I had to publish it here) Tasting of the day: for the first time in history a wine critic that comes to our lands to taste the newly released vintages decides not…

Chianti Lovers & Rosso Morellino 2023 (Anteprime Toscane)

First day of Anteprime Toscane 2023. I need to write a preface. First of all, I need to write a piece about myself, who am I, where I come from and why I pretend to know so many things about wine (obviously one can never know everything, me included). I actually wrote it on Feb.…

Bye-bye, Vietti!

First time I met Luca Currado back in 2006 – I was visiting Langhe with a big group of sommeliers, we had a huge tasting at his winery, then we went to a restaurant for dinner. Everything was so intense that I didn’t make it out in which village we were (I was new to…

June in Wine (wine events in & with Piedmont and around)

After a very intensive wine-May, the wine-June that kicked off today also promises a whole lot of wine events, usually happening the same day(s) so one would have difficulty to choose which one to opt for. Let’s start: 02-05/06 Eight nuances of Barolo, Enoteca regionale del Barolo, Barolo (CN) The Enoteca Regionale celebrates 40 years…

Only Wine 2022 (Città di Castello), day #1

Some of my picks from the first day of #OnlyWine. Today I did only seminars and masterclasses. Visiting wineries tables was a bit difficult, first because of the loads of locals, thirsty from any point of view for wine events after two years of abstention & second, I need time in order to understand in…

Chianti Classico Collection (Anteprime Toscane 2022)

In 2022 the Chianti Classico Collection tasting turned back to its historical place – in Stazione Leopolda with its magnificent “alcostrada” (see photo above). One of the oldest Italian wine production areas (the name “Chianti” first appeared in 1398 in an official document) covers now around 70 000 ha of vineyards and unites 485 winegrowers…

Chianti Lovers & Rosso Morellino 2022 (Anteprime Toscane)

First day of Anteprime Toscane 2022. CHIANTI DOCG Chianti is a larger area surrounding the Chianti Classico (not to be confused!). The name first appeared in the XIX century, the first delimitation of the area dates from 1932, its set of production rules (disciplinare) was first approved in 1967. Chianti obtained the top classification of…

Anteprime toscane 2022 (program)

The Anteprime toscane of this year start on March 20th. They’ve been postponed for one month due to a new pandemics peak in Italy that happened in the beginning of 2022. This year the program is slightly different as the Consortium of Brunello di Montalcino decided to make their own anteprima which took place in…