Hungarian Food and Wine Tasting

The recent Hungarian tasting organised by the Cambridge Food and Wine Society was a first in a number of ways - not only the Society's first ever Hungarian tasting, it was also their first joint event (in this case with with the Cambridge Szeged Society).

Szeged (pronounced SEH-ged) is a city in the south of Hungary, situated on a great plain and with the country's oldest university, similar to Cambridge with which it has been twinned since 1987. The Cambridge Szeged Society, chaired by Julia Seiber Boyd, kindly provided us with some traditional Hungarian food to go with the wines which were presented by Lucien Lanci, proprietor of Malux and supplier to no less an institution than the Hungarian embassy in London.

Lucien started by explaining that all the wines came from small producers who make high-quality wines in limited quantities. He also highlighted the three main recent phases the Hungarian wine industry has been through, starting with the period under communism in which quantity was everything, through the post-Berlin Wall period in which Hungary tried to make a name for itself with instantly-recognisable international grape varieties and on to the present where the emphasis is much more on local varieties. With 22 wine regions and a clutch of native grapes, Hungary produces a wide range of types and styles.

We started then with a Cserszegi Fűszeres (CHAIR-say-gee FOO-ser-esh) from the Szeged region by Frittmann, Hungary's wine producer of the year in 2007. Light, aromatic and somewhat floral, this was reminiscent of a Gewurztraminer, which is not surprising as, although of decidedly mixed descent, it includes some gewurz in its parentage.

This was followed by a much heavier white called Napbor (Hungarian for "sun wine") - we never did get to the bottom of the name or find out exactly which grape varieties it was made from, but with a very muted nose, deep yellow hue suggesting some oxidisation and plenty of oak, it was like an old-style Burgundy.

The first of the reds was a Kekfrankos, also known as Blaufraenkisch in neighbouring Austria and meaning the same thing - Blue Frankish or Blue Franc; apparently, the wine was extremely popular with Napoleon's troops who used to buy it with their blue Francs, or so the story goes. Kekfrankos / Blaufraenkisch tends to produce wines with a rasp of juicy sour cherries but not too much else, but can be very pleasant if well made, as this one was. Like the first wine, it was also by Frittmann and, unusually, from the Szeged area (most Kekfrankos is grown near the Austrian border).

The last of the dry wines was perhaps the most famous Hungarian wine after Tokaji - Bulls' Blood or Egri Bikaver, "Egri" here indicating the wine comes from Eger in the north of Hungary. Rich, with brambly fruits and smooth vanilla oak, this was the best of the dry wines - an achievement reflected in the fact it has won medals at two Hungarian events (Bukkvinfest 2008 and a gold in Eger 2008).

Finally, we ended with perhaps Hungary's greatest contribution to wine; Tokaj is a town in north eastern Hungary where the climate produces reliable conditions for botrytis, or noble rot, to form on the grapes. Botrytis is a type of fungus that grows on the grape skin and sucks out the moisture from the grape without exposing it to the air so that the grape itself shrivels but does not spoil. The fungus, however, needs quite specific conditions and these are found in only a few areas, such as around Tokaj, near Lake Neusidl in neighbouring Austria and also in Sauternes in Bordeaux.

The Tokaji we tried, however, was not from botrytised grapes, but a blend of late-harvested, super-ripe grapes (equivalent to a Spaetlese in Germany or Austria) giving a much lighter-tasting wine, in this case with hints of guava.

The formalities of the wine-tasting over, we then sampled some excellent Hungarian food, prepared by various members of the Cambridge Szeged Society.


The Wines - all available from Malux Ltd

Csersegi Fuszeres, Frittmann, 2008 (£8.70)

Napbor, St Andrea, 2007 (£11.65)

Kekfrankos, Frittmann, 2007 (£8.45)

Egri Bikaver, St Andrea, 2006 (£10.20)

Tokaji Cuvee, 2007 (£10)

The Food - provided by members of the Cambridge Szeged Society

Sour cherry soup
Korosot Liptoi (a type of cottage cheese with added spices)
Beef gulyas (goulash)
Rakott Burgonya (a hot casserole of potatoes, salami and eggs)
Pork meat balls and soured cabbage
Hungarian-style red cabbage
Mushroom pancakes
Jerusalem artichoke salad
Lecso with parsnip
Poppy seed pastries
Cherry pie

Links

Cambridge Food and Wine Society - http://www.cambridgefoodandwinesociety.org.uk/

Cambridge Szeged Society - http://www.cambridge-szeged-society.org.uk/

Cambridge Szeged Society newsletter with recipes (on p4) - http://www.cambridge-szeged-society.org.uk/graphics/Szeged%20Newsletter%202010%20pdf.pdf

Malux Ltd - http://www.hungarianfoodandwine.com/

Profile of Szeged on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szeged

Jancis Robinson article on Hungarian wines - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/0fcb53e4-4e63-11df-b48d-00144feab49a.html

Image credit: Szeged montage from Wikipedia, user Uzo19

Wine-buying in France; Alsace

There are two things I particularly like when buying wine - firstly, getting a bargain and secondly, trying something local; whilst it's not always true that the locals keep the good stuff for themselves and export the dross, there is certainly some merit in buying wine close to where it is produced - and the smaller the quantities and more obscure the area, the truer this becomes.

Alsace has around 15,000 hectares of vineyards - just over a tenth of the amount in Bordeaux, for example. In practice, this means that there is just not a huge amount of Alsace wine to go around. So, whilst reliable, everyday (and often rather good) examples of Bordeaux can be found in almost any French supermarket, their Alsace selections tend to be more limited and somewhat disappointing. To get the best wines at the best prices from Alsace, a trip there is required.

Alsace is a somewhat curious area of eastern France - for many years a borderland fought over by the French and the Germans, it can be slightly disorienting for the visitor to be in this part of France with its Germanic local dialect, wine labelled by grape variety and sold in tall fluted bottles and distinctly Germanic cuisine - albeit transformed into something very delicious and decidedly French.

It is possible to get to Alsace from Cambridge within a day's driving if you catch an early Le Shuttle train from Folkestone, but it is much nicer to break the journey up with a stop-over in either Champagne or even the Belgian Ardennes for a spot of Trappist beer.

The main cities of Alsace are Strasbourg to the north and Colmar to the South, and both are lovely and well worth a visit; but the Route des Vins, or Alsace wine route, will take you away from the larger towns and through some of the prettiest villages I have ever seen - colourful, timber-framed, gabled houses bedecked with flowers, storks nesting, cobbled streets and views of vineyards, abandoned castles and the Vosges mountains in the background. The best way to explore the area is to stop at a few villages (Riquewhir and Eguisheim are both especially lovely) and also take in the odd vineyard walk as you follow the Route des Vins.

The Vosges are a range of low-lying mountains which form more of a natural border between France and Germany than the river Rhine, hence the region's turbulent past; rising to just over 1,400m at their highest, they provide a rain shadow for the vines growing lower down and allow relatively warm-climate varieties to be grown this far north. French gastronomy has dictated that Alsace wines, unlike their German counterparts across the river, be fermented into something full, dry and aromatic to match with the rich local food which includes tarte flambee, choucroute and coq au riesling.

The Hautes Vosges (Higher Vosges) to the south provide the greatest amount of shelter for the vines and it is here that the best, fullest wines can be found; the main grape varieties grown here are Riesling (totally different from, but equal in stature to Chardonnay as the great white wine grape), Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Muscat and Gewurztraminer. The labelling is relatively straightforward as there are no sub-regions of Alsace, merely (basic) AC Alsace and (superior) Grand Cru for still, dry wines. Alsace does, however, also produce both sparkling wine (Cremant d'Alsace) and sweet wines (Vendange Tardive and Selection de Grains Nobles).

Almost any wine village will have several wineries offering tastings and some are more famous than others. Any self-respecting wine guide should recommend Hugel, Trimbach, Zind-Humbrecht, Paul Blanck and Rolly Gassmann. However, as these are mostly available in Cambridge from either Waitrose or one of our various wine merchants, I wanted to try something not generally (if at all) available in the UK, and so we rolled into the Paul Schneider tasting room in Eguisheim.

In the days - not that long ago - when the pound was reasonably strong against the Euro, the wines here were ridiculously cheap for the quality - the standard range of wines started at €3.50 and maxed out at €6.00 - including a number of prize-winning wines. I sampled three rather excellent wines:

Paul Schneider Pinot Planc 2005 (Medaille d'Or Paris) - €4.50

Crisp, medium weight and delicious with flavours of apples and pears, good as an aperitif or at this age with light dishes, such as white fish or soft cheeses. However, with time, Alsace Pinot Blanc gains body and becomes a much fuller wine altogether.

Paul Schneider Riesling 2006 (Vielles Vignes) - €6.00

An excellent, full Riesling with crisp bite, good body and structure and nice, honeyed finish.

Paul Schneider Pinot Gris 2005 (Medaille d'Or Colmar) - €6.00

The ripest, fullest wine here, rich and fat, sumptuous and savoury, matches well with the local food including quiche and pork.

Sadly, as noted above, Paul Schneider wines are not available in the UK, but other Alsace producers are.

Alsace wines in general match particularly well with "modern international" cuisine - that is, well-seasoned, restaurant-style food with strong flavours and heavily reduced sauces.

Links

Paul Schneider - http://www.vins-paul-schneider.fr/

Image credits

Image of Paul Schneider from the winery's website

Image of Eguisheim by Mschlindwein - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mschlindwein

Asda, Extra Special 2007 Côtes du Rhône-Villages - and an accompanying recipe

A fellow committee member from the Cambridge Food and Wine Society passed on this Jancis Robinson recommendation to me some months ago.

I do not think I have ever bought a bottle of wine from Asda before, but when the First Lady of Wine gives it the thumbs up, then it's definitely worth a try. Jancis was impressed with its "rich spiciness and the fact that it is not overburdened with dry tannins, while being unmistakably from this beautiful rocky, lavender-scented western corner of Provence".

Priced at under a fiver, this is very much in "everyday wine" territory and as an everyday wine, or even something for a Sunday lunch with the family, it is very good, but (in our household, at least) not necessarily something to impress guests with. Smooth, fruity and complex, it is not quite as well made as the two previous red wines I have reviewed here and which I was able to buy for just a few pennies more (albeit, seriously discounted from their full list prices).

However, as it would be a shame to use up either the Californian Merlot or the New Zealand Syrah-Viognier in a casserole (not least because they were available in only limited quantities), and since Asda's stocks of this wine are plentiful, I put half into a beef casserole and we drank the rest with the meal.

There are two main herbs in this recipe and both will grow easily in a pot in a sunny aspect of the garden (in Cambridge, at least) - rosemary and thyme. The rosemary leaves need to be finely chopped and the stalks discarded; the thyme should tied in a bundle with cotton and removed at the end of cooking.

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Beef casserole with red wine and Mediterranean herbs, served with creamy mashed potato and green beans - serves 3/4

It should go without saying that good quality beef is the key to this recipe; Cambridge and its surrounding villages have plenty of good butchers, but for this I used beef from Waitrose.

Ingredients

Casserole

A little sunflower oil
500g braising / stewing steak or similar
1 large onion
2 stalks of celery
2 large carrots
1/2 bottle Asda Extra Special 2007 Côtes du Rhône-Villages
300ml stock
Chopped rosemary (1 stalk or to taste)
Bundle of thyme, tied tightly with cotton
2 bay leaves
Crushed garlic (1/2 clove - 2 cloves according to taste)

Creamy Mashed Potato

5 large potatoes
Butter
Milk
Salt and pepper

Method

For the stock:

You can of course buy stock, but the easiest way is simply to simmer the left-over bones from a roast dinner in a pan of water seasoned with salt, pepper, bay leaf and an onion for an hour or so. Alternately, some butchers will give away bags of bones for stock-making (try Andrew's on Burleigh Street).

For the casserole:

Wash the meat, pat dry with kitchen roll and season generously all over with salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and brown the meat in small batches, transferring each batch to a dish once browned; the meat should be crispy on the outside with caramelised juices

Having removed all the browned meat, add the onion, carrot and celery to the pan, a little more oil if needed and cook through for 5 - 10 minutes, then turn the heat right down and continue cooking very gently for a further 10 minutes to bring out the sweetness of the vegetables

Add back the browned beef and pour in the wine, bring to the boil under a high flame for around a minute to boil off all the alcohol

Add the stock, crushed garlic and herbs, cover and simmer on the gentlest of flames with bubbles barely breaking the surface for 2 - 3 hours

If you can afford to wait, this dish will improve significantly if left to stand overnight and a good heavy-bottomed pan will keep it gently cooking for many hours after you have turned off the heat.

For the creamy mashed potato:

Peel the potatoes and cut into 8 along the same axis to give long, thin strips, rather than cubes

Simmer very gently in unsalted water for around 20 minutes until the potatoes are almost falling apart

Strain, put into a bowl add a generous helping of butter, milk, salt and pepper and mash thoroughly until a deliciously smooth creamy consistency is achieved

Serve the casserole and mash with green beans and plenty more of the Côtes du Rhône-Villages.

Los Osos Merlot 2006; J Lohr, Paso Robles, California

This wine from J. Lohr is another out of my usual "comfort range" but which I decided to try-and-see.

New World wine countries have really taken to Merlot; it is an easy-growing variety that can produce easy-quaffing wines with ripe fruit and low tannins that appeal either to novice wine drinkers or those who want their red wine without food.

My experience of Californian wines is based on a recent business trip to the US where I followed my usual routine of ordering a glass of something local with my food. In both cases, the wines were well-made but varietal and a little bit "text book", tasting exactly as that particular variety of wine should - a dependable sort of good ol' boy with an easy, natural charm but not too much of his own personality.

Personally, I prefer a touch more Gallic insouciance in my red wines - even if that means a little less finesse - but I saw this wine marked down by 50% on the bottle at Waitrose the other week and, having reason to believe the discount was genuine, could not resist both the bargain and the chance to try out something a little unusual (for me).

The grapes for this wine were grown in the Estrella River area of Paso Robles which the winemaker, Jerry Lohr, claims to be "one of three appellations in California that produces world class Merlot". I don't know either way, but the ever-trusty Oz Clarke in his Pocket Wine Book 2004 describes Paso Robles as "a large AVA at the northern end of San Luis Obispo county" with no mention of either Merlot or Estrella River. He does, however, give J Lohr one star out of three, meaning "a particularly good wine or producer in its category".

On the nose, even poured straight into the glass without any airing, the wine was fruity and rich with a pleasant vanilla aroma; the palate had the same red-berry fruit, an extremely smooth texture, good acidity and a noticeably rich sweetness whilst being dry on the finish with a hint of tannic grip.

However, with a some more air contact and time in the glass, a touch more personality started to emerge with gentle hints of something a little earthier, such as licorice and plums, and a lovely finish.

This is a very well-made wine with, when aired, plenty of subtle nuances, rather than strong primary flavours. Low-ish tannins also mean that it is not a great match for robust meaty dishes or hearty stews. Try matching with plain roast chicken or perhaps something gamier, such as duck or quail.

Los Osos Merlot - £9.99 from Waitrose (full price, but purchased at £5.09).

Villa Maria Syrah Viognier Hawkes Bay 2005

When I saw Cambridge Wine Merchants offering this Villa Maria 2005 Syrah-Viognier blend down from £11.99 to £6.99 (or £6 a bottle for a case or more), I decided it was at least worth a try. Now, I am somewhat cynical about "discounted wines", because certain supermarkets have a tendency to over-inflate prices for a short time or in just a few outlets, only to mark them back down with a great flourish to a more sensible level at which they were intended to be sold anyway.

I won't name names, but wander around a few supermarket wine aisles and you will see plenty of wines supposedly reduced, but when you look behind the great big red "reduced" tag on the shelf, you will often see that, in that branch, it was always on sale that that price and the reduction is not really genuine.

However, the independent wine merchants (of which Cambridge is blessed with plenty) do not get up to this sort of jiggery-pokery, so a discount there is usually a real discount and therefore needs to be taken seriously.

And so to the wine - it's a 2005 from Hawkes Bay, which Oz Clarke describes in his pocket wine book as "one of New Zealand's most prestigious wine regions ... high number of sunshine hours, moderately predictable weather ... Syrah has good potential". He also gives Villa Maria two out of three stars, meaning "an excellent wine or producer in its category - one especially worth seeking out".

The spiritual home of the late-ripening Syrah grape is in the small appellations of Hermitage and Cote Rotie in the Northern Rhone where it is produced in somewhat rarified quantities - for this reason alone, it has not become as popular and widespread as, say, Merlot and Cabernet, as it has simply not been a mainstream variety. However, take-up of the grape in Australia (as Shiraz) and California have led to other countries also trying out Syrah.

Typical Syrah characteristics are smokey plum, damson and loganberry with an almost sinfully sweet, creamy aftertaste and hints of chocolate and occasionally violets. When aged in oak, as this example is, it gains even more vanilla sweetness. With its big, vibrant personality and rich fruitiness, Syrah is a good match for roast red meat and hearty casseroles.

There is no indication of the blend proportions on the bottle, so it's hard to say what the Viognier is adding here, other than perhaps accentuating the overall fruitiness and adding some softness to the texture. However, as its spiritual home is, like Syrah, the Northern Rhone, perhaps there is some logic to adding a dash in.

I decanted the wine a couple of hours before drinking - this is a serious wine and at only four years old, still capable of improving in bottle for several more years - and found that the wine continued to improve further even during the course of the meal.

On the nose, there was plenty of smoky fruit and vanilla from the barrel aging, with damsons, sweet brambly fruit and a hint of chocolate on the palate with an extremely smooth texture and a lovely lingering finish. By the end of the meal, as the oakiness faded, even more of the sweet, fruitiness of the wine was noticeable.

My experience of NZ wines is that they are generally very well made in a clean and modern style - there's no rusticity here. This wine is no exception to that and is definitely something you could serve to guests - try matching with roast lamb with a rosemary and redcurrant jus.

Cambridge Wine Merchants in Cambridge, UK have limited stocks of this wine and it is apparently proving popular, so get down there quickly if you want it at its current reduced price.

Don't mention the glycol - why Austria produces some of the world's best wines and yet no-one knows

To understand Austria, you have to understand its history - that goes as much for its wines as for the country itself. This was the basis of a talk I gave some time ago to the Cambridge Food and Wine Society. I lived in Austria for two years before returning regularly on business and was always reminded of something I'd read along the lines of "Austria is rather like a formerly very fat person who has recently slimmed down and has not yet become accustomed to his reduced size and still turns sideways to walk through doorways". Students of history will know that since 1918, Austria has been but a shadow of its former imperial self that ruled most of Europe and controlled the Holy Roman Empire for nigh on 800 years.

The key date for Austrian wines is 1985, when a scandal erupted over the addition of glycol to wines to add sweetness - glycol is a component in the anti-freeze used by farmers in their tractors and is tax-deductible. The scandal only came to light when the tax inspectors became suspicious at the size of the tax deductions being claimed by some wine producers due to the vast amounts of glycol they were adding to their wines.

The result was predictable headlines of "anti-freeze in Austrian wines" and an overnight collapse in Austrian wine exports. But the long-term benefit of all this was that the industry cleaned its act up, growers brought vinification back in-house, invested in new stainless steel vats and started making wines in drier, more fully-fermented styles (semi-sweet wines had something of an understandable stigma by this point).

Austria itself is not a big country and it is four fifths mountainous, so there are limited places for planting vines - broadly three areas: Upper Austria, the area west of Vienna along the Danube and especially the Wachau Valley, Styria to the south west, high up on the Slovenian border, and Burgenland, Austria's newest region to the south east of Vienna bordering Hungary on the Pannonian Plain. I chose wines typical of each region - we started with two very crisp-yet-aromatic whites wines from Styria where the cool nights due to the elevation of the vineyards give a long growing season which results in wines that are full-bodied yet high in acidity - perfect aperitifs, in fact.

Next followed two examples of what has been touted as Austria's signature grape and is certainly its most planted variety, Gruener Veltliner, from near the Wachau area. Nicknamed GV and GruVe, it typically tastes of white pepper, lentils and celery. One comment on the evening was that it was more a "green" than "white" wine. As if to prove that Austria can also tackle more international styles, we followed this with a delicious Burgundy-style Chardonnay from Neusidlersee.

Personally, I tend not to buy my reds from Austria, but for completeness I presented a Blaufränkisch (neither blue, nor French, despite the name) and a St Laurent (related to Pinot Noir) from Burgenland. The consensus was that these were well-made, but lacking the complexity of the whites and tasting rather like a simple Beaujolais. Finally, we moved on to the high point of the evening - two fantastically luscious, rich and honeyed dessert wines from Neusidlersee in Burgenland. Neusidlersee is a shallow lake surrounded by low vine-clad hills - a perfect geographical set up for the creation of botrytis, the “noble rot” which creates the world’s greatest sweet wines.

Basic Austrian wines are not cheap; they are not made in large enough quantities for prices to benefit from economies of scale. However, at the top end, although increasing in price, they represent excellent vale as they have not (yet !) gained the kind of international reputation of wines from Burgundy, Bordeaux or California. The best way to buy them is to go to Austria and get them there, but if that is not practical, the next best bet is to search out a specialist importer and be prepared to pay a little more than average – but you should find something excellent in return.

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1. Morillon Steirische Klassik, Polz, Styria

2. Sauvignon Blanc Steirische Klassik, Tement, Styria

3. Grüner Veltliner Vogelsang, Bründlmayer, Kamptal, Lower Austria

4. Grüner Veltiner Federspiel Hinter den Berg, Prager, Wachau, Lower Austria

5. Chardonnay Pandkräftn, Triebaumer, Neusiedlersee / Hügelland, Burgenland

6. Blaufränkisch, Umathum, Neusiedlersee, Burgenland

7. St. Laurent, Triebaumer, Neusiedlersee / Hügelland, Burgenland

8. Seewinkler Beerenauslese, Velich, Neusiedlersee, Burgenland

9. Beerenauslese, Kracher, Neusiedlersee, Burgenland

All wines purchased from Wein & Co, except #9 from Noel Young.

Links

Wein & Co - http://www.weinco.at/

Noel Young Wines - http://www.nywines.co.uk/

Polz - http://www.polz.co.at/cms/start.php

Tement - http://www.tement.at/index.cfm?action=intro

Bründlmayer - http://www.bruendlmayer.at/

Prager - http://www.weingutprager.at/

Triebaumer - http://www.triebaumer.com/

Umathum - http://www.umathum.at/

Velich - http://www.velich.at/
 
Kracher - http://www.kracher.at/

Classic Italian Reds at Cambridge Food and Wine Society

Two of my favourite wine-producing areas have something in common - they are both places that I have been to regularly and where I have been able to try a wide range of the wines. I had not really considered the significance of this until I went to a classic Italian reds tasting at the Cambridge Food and Wine Society at the weekend. We started the evening, so to speak, in Alto Adige, or Suedtirol, the German-speaking part of Italy that formerly was part of Austria and gradually moved south via Tuscany and Abruzzo ending in Umbria.

Italy is often spoken of as the most oenologically intricate and complex of wine-producing countries, confusing to the outsider, yet despite its inconsistency, as capable of achieving greatness as anywhere in France. I have never been a huge fan of Italian wines, never had that "Alfa Romeo" moment when everything suddenly comes together in a thrilling pinnacle of gorgeousness. Attributing this to a lack of effort on my own part and also to not having spent much time in Italy, I was keen to see what a tasting of eight classic reds would reveal.

Sangiovese grapes

Two things became clear from this tasting - firstly, Italian reds are decidedly food wines. As we sampled variously Sangiovese, Nebbiolo and Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, a frequent comment around the table was "Mmmm, needs some food to go with it". These were challenging wines, high in tannin and acidity but, sampled with the (Italian) buffet afterwards they suddenly made sense as they stood up to and cut through the strong flavours of rocket, salami, cheese and sun-dried tomatoes.

The second point was the different results achieved using new vs traditional techniques. The wines made in a modern style were noticeably influenced by France - short fermentations and aging in small, French Allier barriques gave them an up-front richness and vanilla sweetness that was instantly recognisable and easy (or at least easier) to enjoy on their own. By contrast, the wines made in the traditional Italian style with long fermentations and aged in "botte" (large wooden barrels of up to 2,500 litres - around 10 times the size of a French barrique) had less up-front fruit and more of the essence of sour cherries to them. A bistecca alla fiorentina, a huge lump of seared yet bloody steak, would be the perfect accompaniment here.

So, now I feel like I do "get" Italian reds, but understanding and liking are different things so it remains to be seen whether respect will turn into affection. Maybe a driving holiday around Italy will provide the answer. In the meantime, I am left with something of a philosophical question; should Italian wines follow the modern international style - something I found easier to understand and enjoy on the evening - or should they remain true to their traditions, even if that makes them less approachable and if so, will that make them superior or just different ? Better book that holiday to find out.

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Here are the wines we tried, all presented by Hector Scicluna of HS Fine wines, a specialist in Italian wines (hector.scicluna@ntlworld.com). They are all from small estates with, generally, low yields from old vines and are priced accordingly.

1) Lagrein Riserva Taber 2005, Cantina Bolzano, Alto Adige (£19.50)
2) Sacrisassi Rosso 2004, Az Ag Le Due Terre, Colli Orientali, Friuli (£20.15)
3) Chianti Classico 2006, Rocca Di Montegrossi (£15.30)
4) Brunello di Montalcino 2003, Tenuta Le Potazzine (£29.35)
5) Barbera Vittoria 2004, Az Ag Gianfranco Alessandria (£15.55)
6) Barbaresco 2001, Az Ag Bruno Rocca (£24.75)
7) Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Mazzamurello 2005, Torre Dei Beati (£20.65)
8) Sagrantino di Montefalco 2004 Az Ag Madonna Alta (£25.20)