2020 Briccotondo: a spine-tinglingly brilliant white from Piemonte

2020 Briccotondo, Langhe Arneis, Fontanafredda, Piemonte, Italy

£14.75, greatwine.co.uk

Even though I have been writing about wine for well over two decades, I still think of myself as being of the wine trade as opposed to a journalist. I still consult for a few companies in the hospitality industry and food and wine-matching has always been a cornerstone of my métier. Every month I select a handful of wines for recipes created by some of the finest chefs for a business called Wild Radish. The idea is that you can learn to cook like an expert and then enjoy your creation with world-class wine. This arneis is one of the bottles I picked recently and it is so spectacular that I wanted to highlight it for you this week.

Arneis is a wondrous white grape and the phenomenal Piemontese terrain gives this floral but tense variety an uncommon degree of beauty and drama on the palate. Fontanafredda is a world-famous wine estate, but it usually rocks peoples’ palates with red wines. This time, however, this
exquisite white is the star wine in its diverse portfolio. 

Hauntingly perfumed, spine-tinglingly bright and refreshing, and keenly priced, too, this is the definitive white to serve this week, ice cool, to slake your thirst at the same time as pricking your interest. If you have never tasted this grape before, you will fall in love in just one sip. If you have, then this wine will take your appreciation of arneis to a new level.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com)