Wine News - March 2008

Quality Italian wines from small and boutique producers
selected by WineCountry.IT, are on sale in the US for your pleasure!

I drive across the Golden Gate Bridge under a blue sky on balmy afternoon with the sun roof open. The sky is not as blue when I get to Produce Avenue, in South San Francisco, where I park the car at the FastTrack long term parking, and there is a dramatic ceiling of thick white/gray clouds hanging over the bay.

We arrive in Frankfurt an hour late. This leaves me less than 20 minutes to go through security and find the gate from which my connecting flight to Bologna takes off. Without much hope of making it, I rush through and catch the flight thanks to a ten-minute delay. My checked luggage though, as expected, did not make it.

Acetaia Dodi actually owns two active plants: one in Villa Corletto, in Baggiovara, in the province of Modena, where they produce Aceto Balsamico di Modena and Aceto Balsamico Tradizioneale di Modena, and one in the province of Reggio Emilia, where they produce the Aceto Balsamico di Reggio Emilia in the three denominations, Oro (Gold), Silver, and Aragosta (Lobster), plus condimento balsamico and saba (cooked must). A third plant is under construction.

The first Monte Carlo Wine Festival opens at 5PM with an introduction by Michele Florentino, organizer and patron of the festival. Italian Senator for Life, Honorable Giulio Andreotti, His Excellency René Novella, Secretary of State of the Principality of Monaco, and Italian TV journalist, Michele Cucuzza.

With the hors d'oeuvres and first entree we pour a 2005 Champerrier, Vigne Centenaire, from the Domain Marchant-Grillot. The next pour is a 1999 Clos de Varoilles 1er Cru Contrôlée, by Domaine de Varoilles, followed by a 1993 Premier Cru La Combe Aux Moines, by Domaine Dominique Gallois. At the end, our table includes a few of lucky guests that get to taste this deceptively simple, though superlative, 1993 Pinot Noir by Domaine Denis Mortet.

The trade show and wine tasting opens its doors at 10PM to an expectedly slow start. There are not many people up and ready to taste wine on a Monday morning in Monte Carlo.

As the day progresses though, there are more and more visitors coming through the doors, though not as many as on the previous day.

We wash down all the goodies with a bottle of excellent Vita Roccia, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano by Azienda Agricola Icanio, which we have brought back from the show, before closing the meal with another strong espresso.

Though Rita and Gastone are almost teetotalers, Enrico and his wife, Donatella, who have joined us for dinner share with me a bottle of Pigato DOC by Punta Crena, a producer in the Italian region of Liguria who gave me the bottle at the Monte Carlo Wine Festival. It's excellent and pairs very well with the light yellow and green tagliolini pasta and delicate cream sauce, along with the other delicacies prepared by the lovely Rita herself.

Being my last evening in Italy for this trip, dinner is at my sister's home with my nephews, their wives and offsprings. It's another excellent homemade dinner typical of the area, which we wash down with locally produced Bianco di Castelfranco Emilia IGT and Lambrusco wine.

When I finally arrive home at around 2:30AM Saturday morning, which, accounting for the nine hour difference in time totals 30 hours portal to portal, I have made a stopover in Vienna, Austria, and another in snowed-in Toronto, Canada, where trucks move like gigantic ants back and forth trying to keep the runways clear enough for airplanes to take off and land.
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Vinmonopolet, the Norwegian nationally-run retail monopoly has announced that sales were up for the first month of 2008, with an increase of 6% over the same period the previous year.

There is difference though, among the various beverages. In fact, whereas table wine and spirit sales increased by 6.4% and 5.7% respectively, sales of fortified wine and beer decreased by 7.5% and 3.5% respectively in the same period.
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Three years after a fictional wine snob in a popular Hollywood movie knocked one of America's best-selling red wine varietals, "Sideways," wine drinkers are once again embracing Merlot enthusiastically.

During the 12-month period ending December 7, 2007, dollar sales of domestically produced Merlot rose 6%, led by category leader Blackstone Winery, whose benchmark Merlot jumped 11.6% in sales in the last four week period alone.
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By surveying 12,000 people over a 20-year period, Gronbaek and his team found that exercise and drinking alcohol have an independent beneficial effect on the heart, but that their effect is compounded when one combines the two. In addition, the researchers separated the participants into four categories, thus gaining further insights.
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Youtube users can sneak-preview a new reality TV series that asks the question: "Who Wants To Be A Wine Maker?

After over 500 auditions in six cities and more than a year in production, filming for "The Wine Maker", a new series, is close to completion.
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On the occasion of the Monte Carlo Wine Festival 2008 one stump of Comenius vine taken from the original vineyards in Moravia, will be transplanted in the Principality of Monaco, thus symbolizing the proliferation of the moral value of this great man.

At a later time, a Comenius Vineyard will be established, transplanting original stumps imported from Moravia, in a splendid 3,000 square meter (over 32,000 square feet) area facing the Mediterranean of the Cote D'Azur.
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From the 28th of February to the 2nd of March 2008, the Fifteenth Edition of the "Premio Nazionale Montiferru" (Montiferru National Prize), organized by the Montiferru Committee, takes place in Oristano and Seneghe, on the beautiful Italian island of Sardinia. The goal of the events is to select and award prizes to the best Italian extra virgin olive oils.
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Springtime is a season in which trade shows blossom like flowers. From May 26 to 28, 2008, the fourth VitignoItalia, the trade show dedicated to wines made from Italian native grapes, will take place in Naples.

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"Some of the best wines I have ever drunk were Italian. Unfortunately, so were some of the worst. Because of this, grappling with Italian wines can leave one frustrated," wrote Jonathan Ray for the British newspaper, The Telegraph, on the occasion of the inaugural stage for the 'Top Italian Wines Roadshow', which took place in London recently and featured more than 200 wines from 50 producers.
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Passion for wine and effective business: this blend is offered by the International Wine and Spirits Exhibition, the largest event in the world dedicated to this sector, where trade takes place in an elegant and glamorous atmosphere. All the exhibitors participating in the 2007 edition have confirmed their attendance at the 42nd Vinitaly, which will take place in Verona from Thursday, April 3, to Monday, April 7, 2008.
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The RosaRose Bistrot of Bologna, Italy, wins the competition Angostura Cocktail di Carnevale 2008 (Angostura Cocktail of Carnival 2008 Competition.)

The RosaRose Bistrot came out at the top of the 23 Bologna watering holes and eateries participating in the competition, which required the preparation of one cocktail using the Angostura Aromatic Bitters as an ingredient. Angostura is the well known bitter from Central America which is used worldwide in the preparation of many cocktails and long drinks.
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