“The King of Wines” may be in danger of losing its reputation for greatness as a growing number of winemakers create softer, more crowd-pleasing bottlings. Lettie Teague investigates.
Is Barolo still Italy’s greatest wine? It’s a question I’ve been mulling over for some time. And like some of life’s bigger questions (Is there a God? And what really constitutes a 100-point wine?), it’s not one whose answer is readily known.
Barolo, after all, has been called “the King of Wines” for centuries—never mind that it took a Frenchman to bring this about …

I bet there are some Barolo connoisseurs out there. Please shed some light if you can on more reasons that what I listed about what makes this great wine so special.
Barolo is the most powerful red wine from the single-varietal Nebbiolo grape and it is produced in the Piemonte region of northwest Italy. A number of factors make this wine special starting with viticulture and vinification practices all the way to the aging process. Barolo is a special wine because of its color, aromas, taste, aging, and its ability to …

All over the world, in every winemaking area with at least 30 years of history, there is a squabble going on between traditional producers and modernists. As modern science has begun to understand some of the chemical reactions taking place in the creation of wine, some of the mystery has been removed. Universities all over the world (led in large part by the University of California at Davis) have become leaders in what many have termed the international style of wine.
 Proponents of these techniques have found that certain procedures, in …