Recently I was invited to a fabulous artisanal Neopolitan pizza dinner at La Pizza Fresca in Manhattan featuring a treasure chest of top Barolo from the very best producers, all from the 2004, 2005, and 2006 vintage. Producers Giorgio Ballarin, Andrea Giordana and Aurelo Settio attended the tasting of 23 wines (representing the 23 [...]

… fabulous experience today tasting the wines of Sartori di Verona at SD26, a fine Italian restaurant in Manhattan, where these excellent wines were paired with five courses. What made the tasting lunch so special was the passion of owner Andrea Sartori, who came across as a very traditionally-minded Italian of the classic world. In [...]

“Label, anyone?” One of the most interesting benefits of the Tuscan wine fair was the ability to see all the different labels. While many producers had traditional labels, the producer above decided to kick it up a notch with a “Millennial friendly” label showing an image that appears to resemble a skeleton. Millennials in America [...]

“What a fabulous fair!” Imagine entering a fantastic space (an ancient train station, from what I understand) rebuilt with the latest technology, and filled with some of the best wine producers in Tuscany.   This was the 2012 Buy Wine event, which allowed the trade to meet producers small and large, and taste some of [...]

  “They’re sacrificing their lives for grapes!” I remark  to a friend, after an amazing visit to Plan dell’ Orino in Montalcino, Italy with owners/winemakers Jan Hendrick Erback and Caroline Pobitzer, who gave us a tour and tasting at their modest winery. It is literally an old farmhouse that they bought after spending many months [...]

  Just imagine excavating a space for a winery and finding rocks so large and fascinating you are compelled to change plans and create a “glass cellar” so that visitors (and workers too, of course) can look out from the underground space and see the incredible collection of large rocks that form the basis of [...]

“This looks like the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco” I exclaim, coming upon the incredible structure that rises from out of nowhere in the Maremma wilderness. This state-of-the-Art winery was designed twelve years ago by Mario Botta (who incidently also designed the SF museum) and is a curious balance of new and old. [...]

“My great-grandmother was famous for being a harsh negotiator,” Gaia Gaja tells me, telling a cute story about her great-grandmother and her marketplace shopping habits, which explains the name of the winery which means “endless negotiations” in Italian. Apparently, buying the land from a merchant family took many years and hence the name. Gaia is [...]

  Isn’t this art incredibly gorgeous? Who would have thought that it is located in a Tuscan winery, not a museum! It is part of a program created by Tenuta dell’Ornellaia in 2009 designed to celebrate the “marriage” between art and wine … one that celebrates the character of each new vintage of Ornellaia. The [...]

Felidia is the fabulous venue for our Wine Media Lunches — it is owned by PBS star Lidia Bastianich — – and you can imagine the pleasure in being invited to join Felidia’s Executive Chef Fortunato Nicotra, along with Michelin-star Sicilian chef Patricia Di Benedetto and Azienda Agricola d’Alessandro for a Sicilian Food and Wine [...]

  Do you like sulfates in your wines? No one does … Last night at Eataly (the new Italian food specialty megastore in Manhattan) I discovered  Domodimonti,  a boutique winery located on the picturesque countryside of Montefiore dell’Aso, in Le Marche Region, Italy. In addition to Domodimonti we tasted other specialty items from Marche, as [...]

“Welcome!” exclaims affable Emanuele Rabotti, his exuberant and expressive face lighting up at the appearance of long lost (very lost!) visitors. Perhaps the first thing you should know is that Emanuele i(beyond being a very nice and fun guy) is that he is the owner and winemaker behind Monte Rossa winery, one of the oldest [...]

  Very excited to visit Brescia, Italy for the wine blogger’s conference! I have been reading a lot about Bellavista and hope to visit the winery. While i have not had every Franciacorta wine, the ones I have enjoyed from this DOCG appelation have been the equal of Champagne in terms of finesse and elegance. [...]

  Imagine yourself in a seminar with two delicious looking glasses of sparkling wine in front of you. One, you are told, is from Champagne. The other, Franciacorta a DOCG region in Northern Italy famous for its sparkling wine using the traditional method. You taste the sparklers and one seems much more elegant than the [...]

  Today I received three bottles of Pinot Grigio, all at different price points, from Northern Italy. I think that this shipment is interesting because Pinot Grigio is one of the most popular wines in the world. In fact, I’ve heard sommeliers say people walk into restaurants and just demand a bottle of PG no [...]

  We’ve all heard the story of Cleopatra’s legendary powers of seduction over Julius Caesar and later, Mark Antony. Yet consider this. What if the tool of seduction wasn’t Cleopatra’s famed beauty, but her secret stash of a bright ruby red sparkling wine with a bouquet of roses and violets? Ancient historians write of a [...]

  Vino Nobile di Montepulciano With just seventy producers making the classic Vino Nobile di Montepulchiano in the Tuscan region of Italy, continuing the tradition of this wine is a labor of love for winemakers and consumers alike. Frequently confused with the Montepulchiano grape, it is important to remember the main grape here is Sangiovese, [...]

"You need a valet!" remarked a trio of friends from Manhattan’s Wine Media Guild on a very cloudy and rainy March 10th, as I stepped into the Metropolitan space on 18th street. I had come from several appointments and among the several books, bags, ipad, and set of glasses from my morning tasting glass were [...]

  Imagine …. Brunello di Montalcino, Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, and Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore all in one room! That was the scene today at the Hilton New York, where presidents of the above named four Consorzios met with journalists in a private room to talk about their regions and vintages. What’s up [...]

Brian Freedman … great title for a panel on social media, yes? The panel was one of many fabulous seminars held at the Waldorf hotel in connection with Vino 2011 in New York, sponsored by the Italian Trade Commission. Moderator Tom Wark and a team of crack social media specialists spoke authenticity, the power of [...]