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Welcome to
VOLUME VI,
NUMBER 7 of Wine News, the e-Letter from the WineCountry.IT network. (Would you
rather see the e-Letter on your favorite browser? Use
this link. Usa il link seguente se vuoi leggere
le News in italiano).
Another month is gone and it has been an intense one, with lots of work to do, but it also brought gratification.
First of all, the Azienda Agricola Malibràn, owned and run by the young winemaker, Maurizio Favrel, won a gold medal in the important italian competition La Selezione del Sindaco (The Mayor's Selection), and two silver medals at the L. A. County Fair International Wine Competition, with his two versions of sparkling Prosecco wines: Prosecco Valdobbiadene DOC Spumante Brut Ruio and Prosecco Valdobbiadene DOC Spumante Extra Dry Gorio.
In addition, Maurizio was in the US at the beginning of June for the Vino in Villa trade show organized by the Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobiadene DOC Consortium, in New York the 5th and in San Francisco the 9th.
The medals won by five out of twelve wines presented at the National Women Wine Competition from the Italian Flavor Consortium portfolio, arrived.
Finally, on June 26, 2008, we presented the first Cena con l'Importatore (Dinner with the Importer), at Fratello's Restaurant, in San Jose, California. This is the first of a series of dinners featuring recipes paired with Italian quality wines selected from among the wine producers associated with the Italian Flavor Consortium.
Among the other articles, there are a few related to the Brunello di Montalcino and Nobile di Montepulciano wine scandals, as well as one about the 5 millionth bottle of Lambrusco DOC from Modena certified by the Consorzio di Tutela.
That's all for now. Enjoy the articles and the summertime season.
Loris Scagliarini, WineCountry.IT President |
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Articles |
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Italy Appeals to UNESCO to List the Mediterranean Diet As 'Endangered' |
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 With a bill presented by Paolo De Castro, former Italian minister of agriculture, the Italian Parliament has appealed to UNESCO to recognize the Mediterranean diet as part of the world's heritage, thus saving the famed food culture based on low-fat, high-fiber ingredients such as pasta, fruit, vegetables, nuts, extra virgin olive oil, tomatoes, seafood like anchovies and tuna, and moderate quantities of wine which many Italian nutritionists believe provides the best natural protection against cardiovascular diseases and arthritis among other ailments.
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| Cena con l'Importatore at Fratello's Restaurant |
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 Thursday, June 26, 2008, at Fratello's Restaurant, in San Jose, California, the first dinner of the series A Cena con l'Importatore (Dinner with the Importer), organized with the assistance of WineCountry.IT, the California-based organization which promotes, imports and distributes in the US wines, specialty foods and accessories from small boutique Italian producers associated with the Italian Flavor Consortium, took place.
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Women Wine Competition 2008 |
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| Five out of twelve wines produced by estate associated with the Italian Flavor Consortium presented at the 2008 National Women Wine Competition won medals. |
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- Soave Superiore DOC Le Bine Longhe, by Azienda Agricola Tessari
- Monferrato DOC Infinito, by Poderi Rosso Giovanni
- Gavi DOCG Fornaci, by Castellari Bergaglio
- Cannonau di Sardegna DOC La Marina, by Romangia Società Cooperativa
- Monteregio di Massa Marittima DOC Thesan, by Fattorie Coliberto
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Coda di Volpe Wine Festival at 'La Fabbrica dei Sapori…' |
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 Booming closure for the Coda di Volpe Wine Festival at 'La Fabbrica dei Sapori…' (The Flavor Factory....) in Battipaglia, in the province of Salerno, in the Campania region, with guests Luigi Cremona, Nino Pascale, Elena Martusciello, Daniela Mastroberardino and Tommaso Luongo. Over 3,000 visitors participated in the event.
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Sangiovese di Romagna DOC: The Sub-Production Zones Are Coming |
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 A commission of the Consorzio Vini di Romagna (Consortium of the Wines from Romagna) experts is currently at work to define the geographical areas which will define the sub-zones, in the meantime the Association for the Promotion of the Sangiovese from Predappio and surroundings pushes forward, tentatively, though according to the Consortium, prematurely. They are identified in Predappio, Bertinoro, Faenza, Imola and Alta Riminese.
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Germany Finds Glycerine in Italian and Spanish Wines |
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 A food-safety agency reveled today that in the past 12 months Germany seized close to 3 million liters of bulk wine imported from Italy and Spain, because analyses revealed that it contained added glycerine. The wine, both dry and sparkling, was destined to be blended with other wines in the Rhineland Palatinate region.
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Nobile di Montepulciano Appellation Caught in Tuscan Wine Scandal |
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 After the noble Brunello di Montalcino DOCG wines, the nearby appellation, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOC, is now under investigation by the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian financial police agency, as some producers are suspected to have used grapes from regions other than Tuscany. The Italian government is appointing a 'Committee of Guarantee' to oversee production in Montalcino temporarily.
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Vino in Villa Usa 2008: San Francisco, California |
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 Monday, June 9, 2008, the second annual Vino in Villa wine event in San Francisco, took place. The event was organized by the Consorzio Tutela del Vino Prosecco DOC di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene (Consortium [for the] Protection of the Prosecco DOC Wine from Conegliano and Valdobbiadene) who, a few years back crossed the water and brought with them a selection of the best wines to New York and, since last year, to San Francisco, California, as well.
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Agreement Between the Cantina di Soave and PLB:
Strategic Accord for the U.K. Market |
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 The Cantina di Soave has 4,200 hectares (over 10,000 acres), 70% of which are classified asDOC o DOCG, and 1,500 grower-members, which together produce an average of 30 million bottles per year and generate sales of over €70 million. With the current agreement, there-establishes itself as PLB's only supplier from Verona, the hometown of the world famous Vinitaly trade show, and participated in the LIWF in PLB's booth with the CADIS and Duca del Frassino labels.
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The Selezione del Sindaco 2008 |
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 The Selezione del Sindaco (Mayor's Selection Competition) is the only international wine competition in which the local administration of the production area where one wine is produced competes alongside the selected producers. The goal of the competition is to promote small and boutique quality producers inspired by tradition and a well defined wine producing area. The participation is limited to quality wines produced under the Italian DOCG, DOC, IGT appellations produced in small quantities. Because of the educational intent of the event, each year a different agricultural school is involved in the project.
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WineCountry.IT
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Incontri |
We continue the series Incontri with an interview to Erika Baraldi, an Italian sommelier who, because of her youth, in the United States would be forbidden to taste wine legally.
We met Erika in April, during a trip to Italy on the occasion of the 42nd Vinitaly, and we jumped at the opportunity to interview her.
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As we continue the introduction presentation of Italy's 155 products of Protected Designations of Origin (PDO, or, in Italian, DOP, Denominazione di Origine Protetta) and Protected Geographical Indications (PGI, or IGP in Italian, Indicazione Geografica Protetta).
This month we present two DOP cheeses from Lombardy: the well known Gorgonzola, which is appreciated by gourmands worldwide, and the Formai de Mut DOP, a cheese which is hardly know and very rare outside the production zone.
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Maurizio Favrel, the young owner and winemaker of 
On May 30, 2008, the Consorzio del Brunello di Montalcino (Consortium of the Brunello di Montalcino Wine) distributed a press release stating that a large majority of Brunello producers voted in favor of the introduction of analytical technologies and methods to guarantee the integrity of the best known Italian 
