The Tim Atkin Cork Talk Podcast
Sep 17, 2026 · 42 min · 11 segments
Cristina Mercuri had a successful career as an international lawyer in Milan but gave it all up to study and create a second career in wine, becoming Italy’s first female Master of Wine within a…
Cristina MercuriGuest
Tim AtkinHost
You're a wine celebrity, right? I want to ask you a little bit about tasting because you said, yeah, you said you drank wine as a kid.
But what's the secret of becoming a good taster, do you think? Because, you know, we all have to start somewhere, don't we? And how did you develop the skill of being a taster, particularly living in a country like Italy where people drink Italian wines? They don't drink many wines from overseas, do they?
I decided the real change, it happened when I decided to switch from nose to palate.
So when I decided to focus more on the structure, on the shape of the wine, on the length of the wine, on the nature of the tannins, on the nature of the acidity.
And so this actually gave me a lot of information about the real quality of the wine.
And I stopped being impressed by the nose or a wine that is more... and I started to understand how the depth, the layers, the complexity can be a value for wine.
when I joined the Master of Wine, I was obliged to find, that was very, very hard actually, but I forced myself to find wines from all around the world.
But at the end, I, uh, I set some mice on myself and with all this wine on front of me, and I decided to approach in a, in a, in a way that I didn't did before.
And, uh, switching to the palette actually gave me a lot of, uh, a lot of, uh, information more information so if i have to give an advice to someone that want to approach wine trust your palate
most important is important but the palate is give you give you real real insights
i think there's a very good very good advice so particularly i always used to say to my students always write about what i called bccl which was balance concentration complexity length and because those are all structural things aren't they because we tend to think oh it smells of raspberries or It's, you know, or tastes of violets or vice versa.
You know, trust your palate and the structural, you know, the architecture of the wine in a sense.
You're a wine celebrity, right? I want to ask you a little bit about tasting because you said, yeah, you said you drank wine as a kid.
But what's the secret of becoming a good taster, do you think? Because, you know, we all have to start somewhere, don't we? And how did you develop the skill of being a taster, particularly living in a country like Italy where people drink Italian wines? They don't drink many wines from overseas, do they?
I decided the real change, it happened when I decided to switch from nose to palate.
So when I decided to focus more on the structure, on the shape of the wine, on the length of the wine, on the nature of the tannins, on the nature of the acidity.
And so this actually gave me a lot of information about the real quality of the wine.
And I stopped being impressed by the nose or a wine that is more... and I started to understand how the depth, the layers, the complexity can be a value for wine.
when I joined the Master of Wine, I was obliged to find, that was very, very hard actually, but I forced myself to find wines from all around the world.
But at the end, I, uh, I set some mice on myself and with all this wine on front of me, and I decided to approach in a, in a, in a way that I didn't did before.
And, uh, switching to the palette actually gave me a lot of, uh, a lot of, uh, information more information so if i have to give an advice to someone that want to approach wine trust your palate
most important is important but the palate is give you give you real real insights
i think there's a very good very good advice so particularly i always used to say to my students always write about what i called bccl which was balance concentration complexity length and because those are all structural things aren't they because we tend to think oh it smells of raspberries or It's, you know, or tastes of violets or vice versa.
You know, trust your palate and the structural, you know, the architecture of the wine in a sense.
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