Above, the road from the village of Bolgheri to the coast road that once dissected a malarial swamp but now links dozens of ambitious wine estates.
Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast is a most unusual wine region. Our Italy specialist Walter Speller calls it his Achilles heel. This is not unconnected to the fact that most of the grape varieties grown there are not Italian but, Walter’s bête noire, French!
Blame the well-connected Incisa della Rocchetta family, who imported Cabernet Sauvignon vines from Bordeaux to provide a house wine for their San Guido estate, between the hilltop village of Bolgheri...