Welcome to
VOLUME VII,
NUMBER 3 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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Two long, busy months have passed since the previous issue of WineCountry.IT e-Letter,
but now we are back and ready to get going with our monthly appointment with our wine lovers.
Between the end of February and the beginning of March, Brigit and I traveled to Itay for three weeks. While there we participated in SAPORE 2010, in particular the third annual DIVINO LOUNGE, the section dedicated to wine, which this year included Arezzo Wine. In addition, we visited various wine estates, met wine professionals, and spent a few days in Sardinia, in the southwestern part of the island called Sulcis.
Among the various exciting events of the last two months, just before leaving for Italy we received the results of the 2010 US Professional Wine Buyer's Competition, in which two estates associated to our Italian Flavor Consortium, Azienda Vitivinicola Caliscana and Azienda Agricola Buccelletti, won a gold and bronze medal respectively, withn two wines: Merlot 2005 and Merigge 2004.
At the end of March we organized an Italian wine tasting featuring eight wines produced by estates associated with the Italian Flavor Consortium, at Pasta Moto restaurant in Novato, California.
Happy reading to you all.
Loris Scagliarini, WineCountry.IT President |
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Articles |
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| Italian Wine Tasting at Pasta Moto, Novato, CA |
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 WineCountry.IT and Michael Pirraglia, Vice President and CFO of Pasta Moto, paired up to present a wine tasting of hard-to-find Italian wines. For the Saturday, March 27 tasting, Mike selected four white and four red wines with very different characteristics, body and aroma, offering his customers a quick tour of some little known Italian wine varieties.
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| Sapore 2010: Italian Sideways - Part 1 |
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 At around 3PM, on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2010, Brigit and I are about to board the Air France flight from San Francisco, California, to Paris, France, when we bump into Kim Burner, whom we have not seen in a few years.
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| Part 2 |
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 We land in Bologna 15 minutes earlier than expected and find our good friend Gastone waiting to drive us to downtown Castelfranco Emilia and the gorgeous frescoed apartment that he and Rita lend us whenever Brigit travels with me to Italy.
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| Part 3 |
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 Tuesday we hang out with my mom, go to the grocery store, cook pasta and soup, and make phone calls to set up appointments for the rest of the week, before going the Gusto DiVino, the wine section of the extensive Sapori (Flavors) 2010 trade show at Rimini Fiera in the seaside town of Rimini.
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| Part 4 |
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 In addition to Chianti, Azienda Agricola I Mori produces Sangiovese, Vermentino and Vinsanto in the Lastra a Signa estate, plus Brunello DOCG and Rosso DOC in the Montalcino estate, Podere Canneta, purchased by the Giannelli family some 13 years ago.
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| Part 5 |
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 In the early afternoon, we drive to Rubiera, in the province of Reggio Emilia, for a visit to the Rota wine estate. There we meet with Fabio Rota, producer of the old style Lambrusco del Nonno (Grandfather's Lambrusco), a Lambrusco Millesimato, and two styles of Lancellotta, a wine made with the ancient, local native grape Ancellotta, under his own label, La Girolda.
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| Part 6 |
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 We drive to Modena under a light drizzle, and Luigi introduces Brigit and me to Ermi Bagni, director of the Consorzio di Tutela dei Lambruschi Storici Modenesi (Consortium for the Historic Mark of Modenese Lambrusco), with whom we have a very interesting and educational meeting.
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| Part 7 |
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 We are guests at the Hotel Levante on the lungomare (strand), and as soon as we have unpacked our luggage, we go for a walk. The air is brisk, and as the afternoon turns to dusk, it cools down some more, thus we duck in for an early dinner at Carlos Ristorante Pizzeria, which the courteous clerk at the hotel has suggested.
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| Part 8 |
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 After an espresso coffee shot for me and a latte with double coffee plus pastry for Brigit, we sit at the table assigned to us for the 'one-to-one' meetings where, at 11 on the dot, we start meeting producers and tasting wines. Apart from a break for lunch at half past twelve, the meetings and tasting continue uninterrupted until 5PM.
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| Part 9 |
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 Today we have a continental breakfast at the hotel before boarding the bus to the Fiera di Rimini. The day is a repetition of yesterday, with 'one-to-one' meetings from 11 to 5PM, except for the lunch break at mid day.
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| Part 10 |
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 There's something between Brigit and Holstein. In fact, away from home (Holstein Road) she could not resist having her picture taken with a Holstein cow statue, at Fiera di Rimini.
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| Part 11 |
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At 8:08AM we board one of the new Italian high speed trains to Piacenza. The reserved seats are very comfortable and quite spacious, so that we are able to review and compare our tasting notes, summarize what we need to do for the follow up with the estates with whom we may work in the future. |
| Part 12 |
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 Leonardo Pascucci Pepi and Seila Bruschi, of Mille Vigne (Thousands of Vineyards) an organization which represents a wide group of Tuscan estates, arrive from Siena and we go to Ristorante La Griglia for a light lunch of Tortelloni di Zucca (Pumpkin Filled Pasta) and Verdure alla Griglia (Grilled Vegetables). We drink a bottle of Bolgheri Rosso by Azienda Agricola Ferrari Iris & Figli, brought by our guests.
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| Part 13 |
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 We rent a small, yet spiffy, Lancia Ypsilon 5 equipped with GPS and head to Calasetta, on the small Sant'Antioco Island connected to the larger Island of Sardinia by a bridge. We have a room reserved at the Hotel Cala Di Seta (Silk Bay), where we are the only guests, since it is low season.
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| Part 14 |
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 Later we drive to Sant'Antioco and check in to the Hotel Moderno, owned and run by chef Achille Pinna, whom I had met a little over a month earlier at the Fancy Food Winter, in San Francisco, California. We set up in a very pleasant, recently renovated room, with a perfectly working heating system which we crank up to 28°C. (82°F.) before going out again to check out the town.
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| Part 15 |
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 We spend the morning and early afternoon taking the so called Archeotur of Sant'Antioco, which includes the archeologic area with the Villaggio Ipogeo (The Subterranean Village), Necropolis, Tofet, Archeological Museum, Fortino Sabaudo (Sabaudo Small Fort), and Ethnographic Museum Su Magasimu de Su Binu (Sardinian for The Wine Warehouse).
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| Part 16 |
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 We drive further north and stop for our cheese, tomato and bread picnic lunch at the deserted Gonnesa beach nearby the town of Iglesias, where we try to visit the Aru winery, which features an ethnographic museum as well.
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| Part 17 |
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 In the early afternoon we arrive in the cozy, clean, small modern town of Pula, less then 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Cagliari, and take a room at the upscale, off-season Sant'Efis Hotel, by the water at Laguna di Nora (Nora's Lagoon).
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| Part 18 |
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 We get up fairly early and, after breakfast, check out and make our way to the small town of Senorbì, where we have a noon appointment with Agostino Pisano, director of the Cantina Trexenta, which produces excellent Vermentino, Cannonau and Monica di Sardegna wines, among others.
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| Part 19 |
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 Later in the afternoon we go back to my mom's where we prepare a simple dinner consisting of mixed green salad, pasta with vegetable sauce prepared from scratch, sliced prosciutto and cheese. For wine I open a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino DOCG by Centille di Sopra wine estate.
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Part 20 |
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 Our amazing friends, Gastone and Rita, come to pick us up at 4:45AM in the morning and drive us to the Guglielmo Marconi airport in Bologna, but not before Rita finds the time to present Brigit with two gorgeous necklaces.
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Vinitaly 2010: 44th Annual Wine Trade Show |
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It's time once again for Vinitaly, the biggest wine trade show in the world. This years' will be the 44th annual for this Verona trademark event which features not only Italian wines, but wines from all the wine regions in the world as well.
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In Vino Veritas: Signaling and Drinking |
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 Abstract from a new White Paper by the American Association of Wine Economics.
Social drinking is widespread in many areas of the world, and there is at least anecdotal evidence that participation in moderate consumption within a social context can be beneficial for individuals.
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Italian Pavilion at Sial China 2010 Trade Show |
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 At the event, the exhibitors will have the opportunity to meet local businesses and sign direct contracts with supermarkets, which will be the major target of the show, as well as Chinese importers, owners of specialized stores and buyers for restaurants, hotels, and wine bars.
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WineCountry.IT
Columns |
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WineCountry.IT Producers |
The estate, which is located at 300 meters above sea level in the enchanting hills surrounding the town of Gambellara, a vine growing area which has produced excellent, no-frills, complex and long-lasting white wines, is small and young. The owners, Cristiana and Riccardo, however are filled with a loving appreciation for this land and the wines that they produce here.
For this couple wine is synonymous with love, passion, involvement and joie de vivre, and it is this feeling they want to communicate with their wines, bottle after bottle.
- Read More...
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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 which are very different from each other: the Fiore Sardo DOP (Sardinian Flower), which is characteristically strongly flavored,
and Fontina DOP, a sweet, delicate cheese produced in the Alps, in the Aosta Valley autonomous region, which is in the extreme northwest of Italy.
- Read
More...
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Tuesday, February 2, 2010, from 4 to 9PM, at the Raffaello Hotel in Modena, 
