Montepulciano D’Abruzzo. ‘Tenuta di Testarossa’. Pasetti. 2004

An absolutely superb wine to take us into the Christmas and New Year festivities. Because more special meals are cooked at this time of year than any other, your efforts in the kitchen deserve a really special wine to accompany them - and that’s a good enough reason to go over our usual €10/bottle ‘Everyday Italian Wine’ limit.

A fine finish to the wine-drinking year. Join us for a glass - with pictures - by clicking on the headline title above.

This time last year, we’d signed the primary contract to buy our Abruzzo property. But not the final contract. So as the snow fell, with its promise of a white Christmas, we didn’t actually own anything.

Or rather we did - but in the wrong country, because the sale of our old home in England had fallen through two weeks before we left for Italy.

So as we watched the snow gently lay a wintry coat over one of the two long-derelict properties we’d half-bought in the equally long-derelict hamlet of Cinonni, just outside Casoli, we couldn’t help but wonder if we were making the worst mistake ever.

(The saga continues - with pictures - by clicking on the headline title above)

Barbera D’Alba “Parpan”. Fontanafredda. 2005

Barbera D’Alba isn’t quite as good as its near neighbour Barbera D’Asti - though that’s a bit like saying a Maserati isn’t quite as good as a Ferrari - but this week’s bottle makes up for that tiny discrepancy by coming from one of Piedmont’s outstanding producers. Barbera D’Alba “Parpan” is one-up the ladder from Fontanafredda’s entry-level Barbera and is an excellent wine at a bargain price.

(For more - with pictures - click on the headline title above)