I had the luxury of tasting a range of wines concentrating on Piedmont, North West Italy, where we find the famous Barolo. 11 in fact to tantalize our taste buds.

We started the tasting with Gavi Battistina 2009, Gavi is made from the cortese grape. I must say when your looking for an Italian white move away from the well known pinot grigio and pick up a Gavi, great tasting zesty, lemon mineral quality.

Poderi Colla Langhe Bianco DOC riesling 2008. Not a grape you would necessarily associate with Piedmont but they are venturing into the more well known grape variety and this showed well. It had the kerosene notes on the nose that I love! With refreshing acidity.

We had a couple of Barbera wines to compare Barbera D’Asti DOC Ceppi Storici 2007 and Barbera D’Alba. Costa Bruna 2006 You’ll notice that from the names they are the grape Barbera from the “regions of “Asti and Alba. The first showed smoky black easy quaffing wine and the second slightly more elegant made from 60 year old vines.

Bricco del Drago Langhe Rosso 2006. This is blend of 85% Dolcetto and 15% Nebbiolo. It had a great nose of raspberries and nettles and medium tannin. Felt it was better on the nose than what we had on the palate.

Part 2 will bring 5 wines from the Nebbiolo king! The prices above are that of your happy budget whereas the next beauties are maybe one day I’ll buy a bottle or put on the birthday list…. top reaching £75.