How many wine appellations are there in Italy? More than 300. There are so many that most Italian people don’t know about all of them. For context, the law which established the “appellations of origin” for Italian wines was published in 1963. A few years later, in 1966, the very Read More
Here’s a good reason to use that decanter you’ve been meaning to try. From the bottle, at first pour, this wine had aromas containing hints of mint, sweet tomato and spice. It felt bigger on the palate, and the sweet fruit opened up a little, alongside a touch of cedar. Cedary tannin was more Read More
Upon receiving the itinerary for our wine tour of Montefalco, the following entry immediately jumps out: 12:00 - Visit, tasting, and light lunch at winery Scacciadiavoli. Light lunch? In Umbria? Though my skepticism runs rampant, I’m intrigued to discover what might await us. In anticipation, we breakfast in traditional Italian Read More
At a recent tasting of the newly released five-star 2010 vintage of Brunello di Montalcino, I had a chance to go through several wines in depth at a seminar. But the seminar sample of Val di Suga’s was flat and not that interesting, so I headed down to the tasting Read More
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Each week until the end of the year we’ll take a look at different types of sparkling wines -- champagne included, of course -- so you’ll be able to make a great choice for your New Year’s Eve occasion. Rather than an exhaustive explanation of champagnes and sparkling wines, this Read More
When you put a lot of great vineyards making expensive wines in a tiny hilltop region, some conflict will inevitably result — especially when the wine is a long-aged red wine that has been chronicled for over 450 years. These well-known and well-documented wines are called Brunello di Montalcino. Montalcino the name Read More
San Miniato is a delightful town in the province of Pisa, in Tuscany—it is also known as San Miniato al Tedesco meaning “of the German,” to distinguish it from another nearby San Miniato called “al Monte,” which is a convent in Florence about forty kilometers to the northeast. In this Read More