Curious about the ancient grape Cesanese during my current tasting tour of Italy, I took a detour from Rome’s tourist scrum to discover more. Cesanese is an empyrean variety, firm of tannin and prone to heady alcohol that rises fast, too often before optimal physiological ripeness. Yet this wild and beautiful variety is being tempered by a new guard of producers – all the more reason to come to Rome, drink local and head toward Olevano Romano and Piglio, where the superior Cesanese di Affile biotype is capable of magic. It’s a magic born of deep red, ferrous volcanic soils, melded to a t ..read more

James Suckling Interviews features innovative and influential winery owners, winemakers and industry notables representing the new generation that is shaping tastes, trends and techniques in the greater wine world. The series runs every other week. _______________________________ Unexpectedly taking the helm of the iconic, 140-year-old Piedmont winery Pio Cesare after her father and Barolo-Barbaresco pioneer Pio Boffa passed away from Covid in 2021, Federica Boffa is today (along with her cousin Cesare Benvenuto) steering the business into the future at the amazingly young age of 26 – o ..read more

Left: One of the the ancient barrels at Pierre Amadieu in Gigondas. | Right: Yves Gras of Domaine Santa Duc in Gigondas made some stunning wines. This year during their Rhone tour, Senior Editor Stuart Pigott and Tasting Manager Kevin Davy took a couple of days to explore the appellation of Gigondas, which lies a short drive from the more famous Chateauneuf-du-Pape in the south of the region. It’s an exciting appellation, and that begins with the fact that Gigondas is the most dramatic wine landscape in the Southern Rhone thanks to the towering limestone cliffs called Les Dentelles de Mont ..read more

James met Edouard Moueix of Chateau Belair-Monange to taste his family’s wines and discuss the 2023 vintage. What makes Belair-Monange’s latest offerings so special? “Unlike vintages where the weather takes over the style of the wine, in ’23 you really have a pure expression of the terroir, and I think that’s really what the consumers will enjoy,” Moueix said. “The limestone here at Belair-Monange gives an elegance, a minerality and a freshness which is quite unusual, and overall there is a balance among the elements, and I think that’s a great plus.” To read the second part of our 2023 Borde ..read more

James met Edouard Moueix of Chateau Belair-Monange to taste his family’s wines and discuss the 2023 vintage. Check out what he said about Bordeaux’s newest vintage here. To read the second part of our 2023 Bordeaux en primeur report, click here. WATCH MORE POPULAR VIDEOS FROM JAMESSUCKLING.COM: JEAN-CHARLES CAZES OF LYNCH-BAGES ON 2023 VS 2022 IN BORDEAUX OPUS ONE’S MICHAEL SILACCI ON THE ‘BEAUTIFULLY BALANCED’ 2021 VINTAGE JAMESSUCKLING.COM’S 2024 WINE FORECASTS: SENIOR EDITOR ZEKUN SHUAI Subscribe to our newsletter for tasting reports, videos, interviews, ratings ..read more

Left: James and Associate Editor Andrii Stetsiuk (left) tasting at Leoville Las Cases with Jean-Hubert Delon. | Right: The lineup of Cos d’Estournel’s 2023s. Three weeks in Bordeaux tasting nearly 1,100 barrel samples of the 2023 vintage and meeting more than 100 wine producers face to face gives you a broad view of a young vintage whose wines are now lying in cellars. I still remember the smile on my face the first time I tasted a red 2023 on April 4 during a meeting with Olivier and Adrian Bernard of Domaine de Chevalier, the respected wine estate in the Pessac-Leognan appellation. “This ..read more

James tasted the 2023 vintage of Les Carmes Haut-Brion with Guillaume Pouthier, estate manager of Chateau Les Carmes Haut-Brion. He found the 2023 to be better than the 2022, and found it to be “a terrific wine, with so much energy and purity.” In this video, Guillaume tells James how they managed to pull it off. To read the first part of our 2023 Bordeaux en primeur report, click here. WATCH MORE POPULAR VIDEOS FROM JAMESSUCKLING.COM: JEAN-CHARLES CAZES OF LYNCH-BAGES ON 2023 VS 2022 IN BORDEAUX OPUS ONE’S MICHAEL SILACCI ON THE ‘BEAUTIFULLY BALANCED’ 2021 VINTAGE JAMES ..read more

James tasted the 2023 offerings from Chateau Troplong Mondot and found them to have “balance and finesse” and noted the taste of the limestone soil in the wine. In this video, he talks with Troplong Mondot’s Aymeric de Gironde about how terroir came into play in 2023 and why their wines have such a “strong sense of place.” To read the first part of our 2023 Bordeaux en primeur report, click here. WATCH MORE POPULAR VIDEOS FROM JAMESSUCKLING.COM: WINEMAKER GUILLAUME THIENPONT ON THE 2023 LE PIN VIK’S CRISTIAN VALLEJO ON THEIR FOREST-AGED, NATURAL WINES JAMESSUCKLING.COM’S ..read more

For the last four years, I have been closely following the work of the ingenious Argentine winemakers Alejandro Sejanovich and Jeff Mausbach, who now run Bodega Mil Suelos in Mendoza, where they make most of their exciting array of wines. Their best wines amid their 80 or so labels come from recent vintages sourced throughout Argentina – Mendoza, Patagonia, Salta and even Jujuy. They range from affordable yet excellent offerings for daily sips to unique selections that express a deep sense of place. Among their most terroir-expressive wines, the Buscado Vivo o Muerto Chardonnay Gualtalla ..read more

James talks with Chateau Lynch-Bages co-owner Jean-Charles Cazes about the 2023 vintage in Bordeaux and Lynch-Bages’ latest offerings. James said the Lynch-Bages wines he tasted with Cazes showed “beautiful fruits, with nice layered tannins with the reds and sort of a powdery texture that I really like… The whites in bottle – fresh, good fruit, liking that a lot.” How does Bordeaux’s 2023 vintage compare with ’22? Watch the video and find out what Cazes has to say on the matter. WATCH MORE POPULAR VIDEOS FROM JAMESSUCKLING.COM: DOMAINE DE CHEVALIER’S OLIVIER BERNARD ON BORDEAUX’S ..read more