James Bercovici - The Big Red Wine Company

Having stayed very near to Givry last night, I was able to slip in a quick visit to Clos Saloman before my 10.30 appointment with Jean-Marc Joblot. Here I tasted the 2009s from Montagny (white - very aromatic) and Givry (red, a Premier Cru with excellent fruit and good structure, almost as good as the 2005). When I arranged the Domaine Joblot appointment, this really was the last day Jean-Marc was prepared to see me as the harvest will be started on Thursday! Incredibly early and still lots to do. Still, he was generous with his time and proved a good communicator. Of course, he knew nothing about me so we discussed my interests in wine and knowledge of the wines of Givry in particular (I have been following the wines of Domaine Joblot for over a decade so knew something of what today's tasting would have in store. Fortunately, Jean-Marc agreed that the other two Givry estates I know well, Clos Saloman and Michel Sarrazin are both excellent producers; the man who is the undispute...

Both Enrico and Fabrizio are going to be in London during half-term week for a posh dinner at the IOD but we have lined up another meal where they will be presenting some of their wines for only £40 for a three course meal including the wines. The Lido Cafe in Brockwell Park is a hidden gem in south London (near to Dulwich). If you are interested, contact the Lido to reserve a place - info@thelidocafe.co.uk or call  020 7737 8183 The Lido Cafe Dulwich Road Brockwell Lido London SE24 0PA

Satellite Navigation will be the making of Fabrizio Battaglino . His family estate is tucked away from the rest of the world so you would need an incredibly detailed map to find him - he did offer to come to meet me and bring me back to the estate but I was determined to try on my own. Obviously we made it there and, once installed, spent some time getting to know Fabrizio and his mother who was exceptionally hospitable (when the children eventually got bored of our conversation, they went to play outside; next thing we heard them playing in the house above our heads which was quite warming to hear on the grounds that our children have only a handful of words in Italian and Signora Battaglino seems not to know any English at all). The tasting began with the white, Fabrizio's  Roero Bianco 2010 . Roero is a fairly young region next to the Barbaresco zone and its reds are based on Nebbiolo too but for the whites, the local Arneis variety is used. The fruit is not dissimilar to a ...

Gabriella Spallino billed Serradenari as the highest vineyard in Barolo and, certainly, our old camper van didn't seem to enjoy the journey up the hill as much as it might have done. We had lunch in La Morra before the visit so most of the work was done. It is a shame that just behind the vineyard are all the telephone masts of the region but Gabriella explained that, as the highest hill around, Serradenari had little alternative but to host these. Still, the estate looks the other way, across the valley (an ocean floor in prehistoric times) towards the Alps. A stunning view. We spent an hour walking (hiking) around the tiny estate which includes vineyards planted to Nebbiolo (of course) and Barbera but also Pinot Noir (Gabriella clearly has a passion for this variety and hopes, one day, to produce a world class mono-varietal Pinot) and Chardonnay grafted from vines in Meursault which already makes a fabulous wine with an Italian twist (I enjoyed it sufficiently to buy some for m...

Having arrived in Piemonte yesterday afternoon, we agreed it would be better to visit Enrico this morning when we had had a chance to freshen up from our journey (we had been travelling - slowly - for five days to get here from Cahors). Probably a good idea. Enrico is quite young (the right side of 30) and confident. He speaks good English (which bodes well for the forthcoming tasting dinners in London) and clearly knows where he wants to take the family estate. Enrico has plans to capitalise on his father's successes (Giuseppe began bottling the wines back in the 1960s, just before Barbaresco received DOC status and built the estate from there). One thing immediately struck us: the overwhelming friendliness of this family. Enrico sat us down at the family table and we chatted about ourselves, our businesses and our interest in wine. It was a good half an hour before we even thought about opening a bottle. By the time he was pouring the first wine, his white Arneis, called Armo...

Pascal Verhaegue began by introducing us to another vistor, one of the writers from the Revue du Vin de France, then we all piled into his car for a quick tour of the vineyards to see the two distinct terroirs which make up the estate: chalky, sometimes sandy soils giving finesse to the wine and clay soils with galet stones providing the power. These are blended together in the final wines. Back in the cellars, we tasted the component parts from the 2010 vintage, first for Chateau du Cedre, then for "Le Cedre" and finally for "GC". After each cuvee was tasted in components, Pascal put together an approximate blend of the finished wine which, in each case, was greater than the sum of its parts. The sandier soils did, indeed, offer refined characters and the clay more powerful ones which, at this stage, were more attractive (they stand up better to the oak). The difference between the wines is, essentially, vine age although the first cuvee does include a very sma...