At the HK Wine Fair last month, I began a new series of wine courses that I call "Taste For Pleasure". Here, the focus is obviously on pleasure, but I want to tell stories about the wines so that participants can relate to the emotions of the winemakers, the beauty of his region and the traditions and culture that invariably influence the final style and quality of the wine.

The wines of Bibi Graetz were perfect to test this new concept for Bibi is firstly an artist and his vision of the world reflects beautifully on his wines in more ways than one.

An arts graduate from Academia dell’Arte in Florence, he started making wine in the late 90’s and from the outset, he decided to focus on the traditional grapes of Tuscany with a special attention to very old vines. From his own 30 hectares, he has added and extra 50 rented from various landowners in the Tuscan regions of Maremma, the island of Giglio, and Montalcino. An interesting aspect of his wines is that all labels are designed by him and they are inspired from the sun of Tuscany.

We tasted his Testamatta, which loosely translates at “Hot Head”, made with old Sangiovese vines. It was striking how different the 2013 and the 2012 were reflecting the philosophy of Graetz for minimal intervention in order to let the vintage character shine through in the most transparent way possible.

Although Testamatta is Graetz flagship wine, it is the Soffocone that was the big hit during our tasting. Perhaps because the original label of this wine was banned in the USA? Certainly, the unexpected story behind the label of this cult wine attracted a lot of attention from the participants of all 3 masterclasses we ran with this wine!

Over 3 masterclasses, we tasted:

- Casamatta Bianco 2015

- Bugia 2014

- Casamatta Rosso 2015

- Soffocone 2014

- Testamatta 2013

- Testamatta 2012

Find out more about Bibi Graetz here: www.bibigraetz.com

#wineisforpleasure #bibigraetz #tuscany Vinitaly International#BellissimaItalia