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Risotto part way through cooking in a copper pan, the rice stained ruby by red wine, a glass beside it

The Best Wine for Cooking Risotto, and How to Choose It

Wine that goes into a risotto is doing a different job from wine in the glass. What survives twenty minutes in the pan, what is wasted, and which Italian bottles are worth cooking with.

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Saffron risotto alla Milanese in a shallow bowl, finished with butter and grated cheese

food pairing

The Best Wine for Risotto Starts with the Base, Not the Rice

Risotto is a canvas, not a flavour. The wine that works is the one that answers whatever is actually in the pan: saffron and marrow, porcini, squid ink or radicchio. Here is how to choose, appellation by appellation.

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Terraced vines growing in black volcanic soil on the north slope of Mount Etna at golden hour

travel

Sicily Wine Tours: Where the Volcanic Soil Changes Your Glass

Sicily has more than one volcano in the glass. This guide maps the island's volcanic vineyards, from Etna's 133 contrade across four slopes to the wind-buried bush vines of Pantelleria, and explains what changes in the wine as you move between them, which estates open their doors, and what to ask once you are standing in the cellar.

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A Vino Nobile di Montepulciano beside wrapped parcels and a blank gift tag

wine gifts

Italian Wine Gift Ideas for Every Occasion

The occasion chooses the bottle better than the budget does. Occasion by occasion, the Italian wine to give: what to bring to a dinner party, what a wedding deserves, the housewarming pair, thank-yous, retirements and big birthdays, plus the Italian custom of giving bottles in twos that solves half the decisions on this page.

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A Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore standing beside an ice bucket, ribbon ready for giving

wine gifts

Prosecco Gift Guide: the Best Prosecco to Give

Most Prosecco gifts are bought by the box, not the bottle. This guide fixes that: what the tiers on the label actually mean, from DOC through Valdobbiadene DOCG to Rive and Cartizze, which sweetness to choose, when rose and magnums make sense, and the moment to trade up to metodo classico instead.

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An Amarone della Valpolicella Classico standing beside wrapped gifts in warm low light

wine gifts

The Best Italian Wines to Gift a Wine Lover

Most wine-lover gift lists are gadget lists. This one gives the wine: the Italian bottles worth giving, matched to the drinker rather than the price tag, from pedigree Nebbiolo for the classicist to Franciacorta for the fizz devotee, with honest picks for white-wine drinkers, beginners and the sweet-toothed.

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A Ferrari Maximum Blanc de Blancs standing in a tissue-lined gift box, label out, ready to be handed over

wine gifts

How to Present and Serve a Wine Gift

Handing over a bottle well is half the gift. This guide covers presenting wine with the label out and the story ready, whether a host is obliged to open it, the sommelier's table ritual translated for home, quick triage for the bottle you have just been given, and what to do with the wine left in it.

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A 1957 Fontanafredda Barolo standing beside brown paper and ribbon, ready to be wrapped as a birth-year gift

wine gifts

Birth-Year and Anniversary Italian Wines: Choosing a Vintage Gift

A bottle from the year they were born or married is the most personal gift wine can make. This guide covers which Italian vintages genuinely hold up, how consorzio harvest grades work, honest routes around weak years, milestone-by-milestone picks for 2026, and how to open a bottle older than its drinker.

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Vintage Chianti Classico beside a wooden gift box with red silk lining

wine gifts

Italian Wine Gifts: How to Choose a Bottle They Will Remember

A bottle from their year says more than any card. How to choose an Italian wine gift by story, budget and occasion, from a first birth-year Barolo to the fizz for the toast, and how it should arrive.

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Illustrated Hugo Spritz in a stemmed glass with mint and lime against Alto Adige alpine vineyards

cocktails

Hugo Spritz: the Alpine Prosecco Cocktail

The Hugo Spritz is the white spritz of the Alps: Prosecco, elderflower, soda and fresh mint, first mixed in Alto Adige in 2005. This guide gives the exact ml build, explains when to reach for elderflower syrup rather than St-Germain, and names the Prosecco styles that keep the glass crisp rather than cloying.

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Sassicaia, Tignanello and Ornellaia bottles on a stone table above the Bolgheri coast

deep dives

Super Tuscan Wines Explained: Bolgheri, Sassicaia and Tuscany's Rebel Reds

Super Tuscans began as outlaw wines: Tuscan reds that broke the DOC rulebook with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or pure Sangiovese and were sold as humble vino da tavola while outscoring Bordeaux. This deep dive tells the story from Sassicaia's 1968 debut to Bolgheri DOC today, explains the three styles that share the name, and shows how to drink the idea at every price, from collector icons to weeknight Toscana IGT reds.

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Farinelli, Il Papavero, Collezione di Paolo and Senti bottles on a farmhouse kitchen table

deep dives

Who Really Makes Britain's Own-Label Italian Wine?

Farinelli, Senti, Il Papavero, Collezione di Paolo: names you meet in British wine cases but struggle to trace. Behind each stands a working Italian cellar, from a Treviso growers' co-op founded in 1948 to Tuscan winemaker Paolo Masi. Who makes what according to the merchants' own pages, and how two lines of small print on the back label let you decode any bottle yourself.

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Latest Articles

The Best Wine for Cooking Risotto, and How to Choose It

The Best Wine for Risotto Starts with the Base, Not the Rice

Sicily Wine Tours: Where the Volcanic Soil Changes Your Glass

Italian Wine Gift Ideas for Every Occasion

Prosecco Gift Guide: the Best Prosecco to Give

The Best Italian Wines to Gift a Wine Lover

How to Present and Serve a Wine Gift

Birth-Year and Anniversary Italian Wines: Choosing a Vintage Gift

Italian Wine Gifts: How to Choose a Bottle They Will Remember

Hugo Spritz: the Alpine Prosecco Cocktail

Super Tuscan Wines Explained: Bolgheri, Sassicaia and Tuscany's Rebel Reds

Who Really Makes Britain's Own-Label Italian Wine?