Cheese and wine matching: Top tips and classic matches It is hardly surprising that there is a long wine and cheese pairing history, as both products have ancient origins. We don’t know precisely when or even where cheese-making started. Possibly it was when sheep were domesticated, around 8,000 BC, and there is evidence of the ancient art in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We also know that the Roman Empire spread the art of cheese-making, and cheese-making became a mainly European cultural product. After Rome collapsed, established local and diverse cheese traditions continued, and many ..read more

Too hot to handle? Enjoying wines with Asian food Britain’s favourite dish is often said to be Chicken Tikka Masala. Hence there is no doubting our love of Asian food, particularly cuisines from India, China and Thailand. Historically, Asia never produced nor consumed wine in quantity, so a wine and food cultural tradition never arose. Even now, home-grown Chinese and Indian winemaking is still in its infancy. As a result, partnering wine with Asian food is more challenging than Western cuisine. Names, dishes and ingredients may be unfamiliar. And components such as chilli, ginger and tamarind ..read more

Tenute Ballasanti – a new Etna adventure with deep roots Tenute Ballasanti is a young wine venture, yet one with deep roots. It’s on the eastern slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, rising above the Ionian Sea. Some years ago, I wrote about Mount Etna, covering the native grape varieties, unique terroir, and their renaissance in wine growing. The article also addressed the duality of living under one of the world’s most dangerous volcanoes. While the mountain’s constant activity threatens imminent destruction, it also brings abundant life. To discover all those details, you can read them here ..read more

Monte del Frà – a preview of five new wine releases Monte del Frà is a family winery in Sommacampagna, between Lake Garda and Verona. They are highly regarded, and rightly so, for a wide range of wines of excellent quality and value. While some of these wines have been featured on Wine Alchemy previously, this article previews five new wine releases (white, rosé and red) recently tasted with Marica Bonomo of Monte del Frà. These wines will officially launch at the 2023 VinItaly exhibition in Verona from 2-5 April 2023. So why not read about them here beforehand? They will all be available in t ..read more

Bulichella in Suvereto – wine by design Welcome to the beautiful and historic Val di Cornia and coastal Tuscany, where the Bulichella winery is only two km outside the medieval walled town of Suvereto. When I stayed in Suvereto (and nearby Campiglia Marittima) a decade ago, I imagined this place might one day become my future Italian home. While that was not to be, we’ll see that the founders of Bulichella had much the same feeling. They made it happen. Suvereto is on “La strada del vino e dell’olio Costa degli Etruschi”. This wine and oil route of the Etruscan Coast winds for 150 ..read more

25 years of Wine Alchemy – the first article redux 25 years! Early in 1998, the Wine Alchemy brand was inflicted on an unsuspecting world. This was in the early days of the internet, subsequently known as “Web 1.0”. Shortly afterwards, the first WA website went live. At the risk of sounding like “we lived in a shoebox in the middle of the road”, in 1998, most households had no computers. The internet was primitive, slow and accessed by 33.6 kb/sec dial-up using a squawking modem with Windows 95 and Internet Explorer 4. Downloads took hours, and storage was still on floppy disks. Broadband ..read more

2023 AWEsome Wines – out now! Hot off the Press! The 2023 AWEsome Wines booklet from the Association of Wine Educators (AWE) is out now. It contains 100 wines of excellent quality and value recommended by members of the Association.* After all these years, it’s still an inflation-busting price: free! What’s the catch? There isn’t one. We’re wine educators, so it’s what we do. AWE members are professionals that taste and communicate wine. Quite often, we drink it too. This guide has 100 wines we rate as being of exceptional quality and value. They are available in the UK at supermarke ..read more

VignaAlta, the flagship of Badia di Morrona Badia di Moronna was featured in these pages last year with their I Sodi del Paretaio, a Chianti DOCG that comes in Annata and Riserva forms. You can read about those wines here. This article reviews their flagship wine, VignaAlta, a 100% Sangiovese designated as the up-and-coming Terre di Pisa DOC. Terre di Pisa DOC Wine growing in this area dates back to the Etruscans. However, Terre di Pisa is a relatively young DOC, only for red wines, established in 2011. It’s also tiny, with only 46 hectares of vines widely spread over sixteen vi ..read more

Bardolino Cru – the first vintage from the new subzones On the eastern shores of Lake Garda, Bardolino DOC and Chiaretto di Bardolino DOC share geographical boundaries, and most wineries make both styles. Bardolino represents the reds (60%), while Chiaretto is the well-known Rosé (40%). Rule changes were ratified in April 2021 and applied to both from the 2020 vintage. These included establishing three new subzones, or Cru, in Bardolino. This article looks at their first wine releases, from six of the participating wineries. These Cru wines must all have lower maximum yields, with at least one ..read more

about Passive Cooking saves energy, CO2 and money. Passive Cooking isn’t sitting and watching TV while someone else cooks dinner for you. No matter how much you might want it to be. Instead, it’s a thoughtful response to the Energy Crisis, subsequently developed as an ad campaign by pasta makers Barilla and then picked up by the press and media*.  Sure, Barilla is promoting its pasta brand, but passive cooking saves energy and reduces carbon emissions. Oh, and it can save you some money too. Inspired by this, the past month has seen home testing. The result? It works ..read more