WINE PORTRAITS

Verónica Ortega is a young winemaker who has been living in Bierzo, in the northwest of Spain, for a little over 3 years. I met Verónica, a rising star of the wine industry in the region, a little by chance, during a recent visit to Raúl Pérez, one of the greatest oenologists in Spain,...

I first met Raul Pérez in Montreal during a presentation of his wines at the Société des Alcools du Québec. It was immediately love at first sight for this friendly and authentic bearded winegrower as well as for his unique wines. Fascinated by the character, I decided to visit him in his stronghold of...

Dirupi is an emerging winery in Valtellina, the little-known wine region in northern Lombardy that borders Switzerland and produces almost exclusively red wines. Davide Fasolini and Pierpaolo Di Franco, two winemakers in their 30s, released their first vintage in 2006. They now cultivate about 15 plots in the region and are recognized as some...

Nino Negri is the most important wine producer in the Valtellina region and also one of the oldest. The Nino Negri cellar alone contains no less than 1500 French and American oak barrels and more than 100 large oak casks. The annual production reaches nearly 800,000 bottles, which is huge for the region, but...

ARPEPE is a winery located in Sondrio, the capital of the Valtellina region, in northern Lombardy. Certainly one of the best producers in the region, its reputation has long since crossed the borders of Valtellina. ARPEPE is the diminutive of Arturo Pelizzatti Perego, who in 1984 decided to recreate the family estate that had...

Azienda Agricola Fay is located in the village of San Giacomo di Teglio, in the region of Valtellina, in the north of Lombardy, near the border with Switzerland. Valtellina is a mountainous region that hosts the largest terraced vineyard in Italy. The king grape variety is nebbiolo, like its Piedmontese neighbor, but it is...