Wine News - November 2009 |
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Welcome to
VOLUME VII,
NUMBER 9 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).
Italian Flavor Forum XII
May, 2010
Museo ItaloAmericano,
San Francisco, California.
Italian wine and food tasting dedicated to professional wine and food buyers and the press.
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October is a great month, with lots of work to do at the cellars, where the new grape juice ferments and becomes wine.
As usual, Brigit and I took of for a brief vacation and our annual birthday Sideways, which this year took us south, to Catalina Island on a re-visitation after almost 16 years.
The rest of the month was particularly busy, with the Vinitaly US Tour 2009 which arrived in San Francisco on October 21st, where we assisted Jeanneth Angel of La Togata. Then, two days later, we had a tasting in San Jose, California, organized by the Club Grape of the Silicon Valley Capital Club. The evening was focused on nine wines selected from our portfolio.
On a different note, we published articles on various events, announcing some, such as the upcoming DolceVi, a trade show dedicated to dessert wines, and other which took place during the past month, such as the First Ever Enoturismo Festival, dedicated to wine and food tourism, Spumantia® 2009, celebrating some of the best Italian sparklers, and Saint Martin in the Cellar, which will celebrate the new harvest and novello wines.
Without further ado, I wish you an enjoyable reading,
Loris Scagliarini, WineCountry.IT President |
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Articles |
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DolceVi: November 21 and 22, 2009 at Bassano del Grappa |
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 High quality and competitive prices are the key to success for dessert wines. Producers, journalists and marketing professionals will analyze the market perspectives for these types of wine at the important Fall 2009 meeting.
Italian made dessert wines will take center stage Saturday the 21st and Sunday the 22nd of November 2009 at Bassano del Grappa, in the province of Vicenza, at the DolceVi trade show and exhibition, which will take place at Palazzo Bonaguro.
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First Ever Enoturismo Festival |
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Wine Road Associations, tour operators, wineries and distilleries participated in the first ever Festival dell'Enoturismo (Festival of Enological Tourism), the unique trade show dedicated to wine tourism. The event took place at the Fiera di Vicenza (Vicenza Trade Show Pavilion), from October 23 to 25, 2009.
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Spumantia® 2009: Spumante and Champagne Wines |
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 On October 19, 2009, Spumantia® 2009, the most awaited Italian event of the year dedicated to sparkling wines, stook place at the Una Hotel Versilia, at Lido di Camaiore. Presentation of Roberto Bellini''s bookentitled ''Champagne e Champagnes''. Chiara Freschi, a young sommelier from Prato, won the Carpené Malvolti trophy.
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Food Piracy: Two Cheeses Impounded at Germany's Anuga Trade Show |
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 Two imitation Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses, called Parmesano and Reggianito, were impounded by the Cologne, Germany authorities, following a charge brought by the Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese Consortium), to the satisfaction of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, who expressed indignation for the recurring episodes of food piracy in Europe and the rest of the world.
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Vinitaly US Tour 2009 |
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 The Vinitaly US Tour 2009 took place on October 19 in Chicago, Illinois, and San Francisco, California, two days later, on October 21, 2009.
The program included three guided tastings entitled "Wines for Today's America", which featured the excellent 2004 Brunello di Montalcino La Togata by Tenuta La Carlina, which was awarded 95 points by the Wine Spectator recently; Wines of Sicily", and Wines of the Marche Region."
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Saint Martin in the Cellar 2009 |
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 Sunday, November 15, the day dedicated to San Martino in Cantina 2009 (Saint Martin in the Cellar 2009) is less than a month away, and the 30 wineries from Veneto associated with the organization Movimento Turismo del Vino (Movement for Wine Tourism) which participate in the end of harvest celebration are busy getting ready for it.
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| Beverage Market: 2008 Budget and New Trends |
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 From November 24 to 28, 2009, the 23rd annual Simei, (Salone Internazionale delle Macchine per Enologia e Imbottigliamento, or International Salon for Enology and Bottling Machinery,) will take place in Milan, and the first reports about the state of the beverage industry highlight changes in the market trends.
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| Island Sideways 2009 • Part 1 0f 5 |
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 Monday, October 5, 2009, we load our bags and picnic back pack into the PT Cruiser and, finally we get our new flame-point siamese cat, Teo, into his carrier and seat belt it into the back seat. We drive to Cat's Cradle, in San Rafael, where Teo will spend the next five days, while we drive south and take the ferry to Catalina Island for our yearly Birthday Sideways.
It's an ideal day to set out on a California road trip.
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| Part 2 0f 5 |
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 After a good night's sleep and the classic continental breakfast, we hit the road again to San Pedro, the port in Long Beach where we board the Catalina Express ferry to Catalina Island at 3 PM. The ferry stops first at Two Harbors, then continues to Avalon, our destination.
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| Part 3 0f 5 |
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 After breakfast on Wednesday, October 7, we hike up to the William R. Wrigley Jr. Botanical Garden, which features succulents from various parts of the world, in addition to the memorial and tomb of Wrigley himself. Brigit and I had visited the place almost 16 years ago, when we first got together, and came up with the concept for Journals and Journeys, our first business venture together, so this is a re-visitation of sorts, and we actually try to re-create some of the photographs that we took back then.
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Part 4 0f 5 |
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 From the handwritten board listing the fresh seafood of the day, Brigit orders swordfish and clam chowder as a starter, while I order grouper with green salad as a starter. The seafood is perfectly cooked, and mine comes with a zesty salsa and steamed vegetables, while Brigit's is accompanied by rice and steamed vegetables. Brigit, the birthday girl, also gets to chose the wine which, not surprisingly, is the 2008 Viognier by Alban Vineyards. The full-bodied wine has a perfume of lychee and exotic spices which introduces a weighty mouthful of fully developed fruit flavors which match perfectly the excellent seafood dinner.
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| Part 5 0f 5 |
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 Dopo un classico continental breakfast facciamo una passeggiata sulla spiaggia che, come al solito, è popolata da una miriade di gabbiani. Questa volta però sono presenti anche un gran numero di uccelli da preda, forse black vultures (avvoltoio nero) o turkey vultures (avvoltoio tacchino), probabilmente attratti dalla carcassa di un leone marino abbandonato sulla spiaggia dalla marea.
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We continue the 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 are presenting two DOP cheeses: Parmigiano-Reggiano DOP, produced in the agricultural plain of the Emilia Romagna region, and is considered the king of cheeses worldwide, and Castelmagno DOP, a semi-hard cheese from Piedmont, made with cow milk with the addition of a small quantity of sheep and/or goat parzially skimmed, produced in Castelmagno, Pradleves, and Monterosso Grana, three municiipalities in the province of Cuneo.
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Wines from the 
