Romain and Damien Bouchard founded their winemaking estate only in 2016, yet they are the fourth generation of their clan to toil the classic and chalky, Kimmeridgian soils of Chablis. For generations, the family provided other winemakers with peerless Chardonnay fruit, pulled from impressive holdings in grand cru and premier cru vineyards, planted carefully by family hands.
The wines of Radda in Chianti are truly “mountain” Sangiovese wines, crisp and lively, redolent of summer fruit and Alpine-fresh breezes. Diego Finocchi, a native son, started his project in 2006 with a goal of capturing all of Radda’s stony energy and verve in his organically raised wines.
Diego Conterno and his son, Stefano, craft elegant wines in Monforte d’Alba, Baroli that are supple and utterly profound in their perfumes and flavors. They tend five acres in the heart of ‘Ginestra’ (plus another 15 acres in Monforte, including a rare plot of Nascetta vines) organically.
Luigi Vico’s family roots in the Barolo village of Serralunga d’Alba reach back to 1694, yet it took more than 300 years, and the dedication of a native son, for the family name to appear on a Barolo wine.
There is something truly exciting happening in what may seem the unlikeliest of wine regions: Romagna. Winemaker Chiara Condello’s Sangiovese wines from Predappio are leading no less than a revolution in this historic region between the Apennine mountains and the Adriatic Sea.
Sitting on a perfect plateau some 1,050 feet above altitude, Azienda Agricola Patrizia Cencioni benefits from a particular microclimate that moderates the more Mediterranean heat of this side of Montalcino. Brunello here is wonderfully suave and savory, with tangy licorice and black cherry fruit.
Tenuta di Valgiano is the gateway to a different Tuscany. The manicured estates of Montalcino seem a world away; here in the hills above the city of Lucca, dense forests hide weather-worn villas and older-vine vineyards, with climbing herbs winding round “palistorti,” crooked stakes that mark each vine row.
Raised biodynamically, with yields that often dip lower than the lowest at Yquem, Grande Maison offers an elegant expression of Monbazillac botrytized wines. All of the estate’s vineyards surround the “grande maison,” a fortified manor house originally built in the thirteenth century.
Italy’s modern-day Garden of Paradise is found just outside the gates of Verona at Azienda Agricola Musella. Encompassing more than 1,000 acres of forestland where olive and fruit trees share space with grape vines and ancient churches and cozy cottages dot the banks of a meandering river, this inspiring biodynamic estate is a regional treasure.
Carso, or the Karst region, is a formidable limestone plateau that reaches from northeastern Italy into southwestern Slovenia. In this breathtaking yet rustic corner of Italy, grape vines share space with wild forest and family farms. The Skerlj (scare-lee) family for generations has worked the land here, raising pigs and grain, and crafting natural wines that capture the region’s indomitable spirit.