Vintages: A young Italian, nicely balanced
2008-03-05 16:44:00
Fifth-generation Italian
winemaker Luca Currado was contrite. After the first hour of our conversation during his visit to the United States this month, a few mornings after a tasting that introduced his winery's impressive new releases, the passionate 38-year-old apologized to us in his charming Italian accent: "You wanted to talk with me about wine, and I know I talk too much about food. ..."
Read more: young
2007 A RECORD YEAR FOR ITALIAN WINE EXPORTS
2008-03-02 16:32:00
2007 will be remembered as a record-breaking year for Italian wine on the U.S. market. A total 2.3 million hectoliters were exported for a total worth of 1.13 billion dollars, and a large jump ahead of the main competitors, France and Australia. In 2007, Italy exported double the quantity of its French rivals and 400,000 hectoliters more than Australia.“The most interesting aspect” – declared Jacopo Biondi Santi, Chairman of the Italian Wine & Food Institute – “is that Italy closed out 2007 with an increase of 9% in quantity and value, while Australia registered a decrease in quantity of 3.5% and only a slight increase in value of 3.2%. An even more significant fact, if it is taken into consideration that Italy had more difficulties to confront than Australia, above all, beca
Chianti Steps Out of Its Straw Skirt
2008-02-26 14:27:00
THE Chianti region in the hills of Tuscany is the spiritual home of the sangiovese grape. With its black cherry and violet aromas, its earthy mineral flavors, its lively acidity and its sometimes dusty tannins, sangiovese speaks directly from the Italian soul.Nonetheless, the greatness of the sangiovese grape is winning out. In a tasting of 25 bottles from the Chianti Classico territory, the heartland of the Chianti region, the wine panel found many satisfying bottles. The good ones seemed to speak not only of the grape itself but of the Tuscan hills where sangiovese vines flourish as they do in few other places in the world.
Read more: Straw
A wine tour of Italy
2008-02-22 16:14:00
Italian wine lovers take note: George Schwartz of Vias Wines will return to Cleonice in Ellsworth to present selections from Piemonte and Liguria — paired with a mouth-watering menu — at 6 p.m. Sunday, March 2. The meal begins with an Antipasti de Mare paired with Bardellini Pigato 2006. Next up is Brodetto, a classic seafood stew from Liguria paired with Dolcetto San Luigi 2005. Risotto Piemontese paired with Cogno Barolo 2002 follows, along with an entree of Stufato al Barolo — beef braised in Nebbiolo with rosemary, dried porcini mushrooms, nutmeg, sage and aromatic vegetables, paired with Produtori Barbaresco 2004. For dessert, a Guiandula Cake with hazelnuts and chocolate, served with Gorgonzola, will be paired with Marenco Brachetto. The meal costs $75 per person, and reservat
Read more: Italy
Learn Italian Wines
2008-02-17 17:59:00
Tom Hyland, a Chicago-based writer and educator on Italian
wine, has launched a Web site called Learn Italian Wines
. The site is still in the works, but you can get some idea of how it will develop. The focus is on the top wine producers throughout Italy. (Currently, he's focusing on makers of Barolo.) "I believe this will be as thorough a site on Italian wines as you'll find (once it's complete, whenever that is!)," Hyland writes in announcing the site. "Hope you like it. I welcome any feedback."
Wine makes the old folks dance
2008-02-13 23:56:00
Ten years ago, if you had asked the general consumer to name a favorite Italian wine, Chianti, Lambrusco, Valpolicella and Soave might chime in, with perhaps a Barolo or some kind of Montepulciano in the mix. Today, the talk not only includes Brunello, Amarone and Super-Tuscans, but Bolgheri, Nero d'Avola and Lugana. This is just the tip of a vinous iceberg that is melting and leaving myriad choices at wine lovers' feet. Aside from our weakened dollar, this more intensive labor quite naturally translates into higher prices. Importers now encourage a better product, and the results are often jaw-dropping. This week's column visits regions all over the map—from the tip of Alto Adige to the offshore southern island of Sicily. Some wines are familiar. Some are absolutely novel to America's
Read more: makes
, folks
Wine her, dine her, Valentine her
2008-02-10 03:48:00
Love is in the air — and, in some places, so is that hint of desperation. You've got a week to go before Valentine
's Day arrives and you simply don't know what to get your sweetie. You're dreading another trip to the mall, another mass-produced gift.How about an Italian cookie to go with your Italian wine? At $5.99 a box, Amaretti are crunchy sweet cookies with an almond taste (think Amaretto in cookie,
Fine red wine from Italy's Tuscany region
2008-02-05 15:28:00
As we begin, may i suggest a glass of Altesino Brunello di Montalcino Riserva? This fine red wine from Italy
's Tuscany
region
is aged four years to provide a multidimensional blend of aromas featuring berries, spices, and dried flowers. Its taste is full-bodied and velvety, and it provides a fresh finish. Winebow represents over 70 wine-growing estates, offering some of the finest Italian wines available anywhere to wine lovers throughout the nation.
To know Italian wines, focus on 'Big 10' grape varietals
2008-02-02 04:23:00
Italy can pose a challenge to wine lovers who want to move beyond the familiar Chianti, Soave, prosecco and Asti. With 20 regions and some 2,000 wine grape varietals, it's hard to know where to start. Add to this a four-tiered quality control system that doesn't always guarantee quality and unfamiliar names on the labels, and it's enough to make you return to the well-known charms of California wine.
Read more: Italian
Italian Wine Seminar
2008-01-29 04:16:00
Italian Wine Seminar
with Horizon Beverages and Philip diBelardino, Vice-President of Fine Wines from Banfi Vintners . Please join us for this fun and informative seminar as we host one of the gems of the wine industry as he leads us through six classic Italian wines with cheese and desserts at the Wentworth by the Sea at 588 Wentworth Road in New Castle, NH.
Read more: Italian
“VERONA IN LOVE” The denomination Soave
2008-01-29 04:12:00
The denomination Soave, which includes 6,900 hectares of vineyards throughout 13 municipalities, is located within the Province of Verona. There are 2,781 producers, 249 bottling companies, 116 wineries, and 6 large social wineries. Soave makes up 5% of the total production of Italian DOC wines.In 1931, it was the first wine to receive the royal decree of “fine Italian wine”, which was the equivalent of today’s denomination certified wines. Soave obtained its first DOC certification in 1968, and, in 1998, Recioto di Soave was the first wine in the Veneto to obtain the DOCG seal.
Enjoying Italian vintages
2008-01-29 04:10:00
When I first seriously started getting immersed in the wine industry 17 years ago, I was drinking a lot of Italian
wine, especially Barolos and Barbarescos from Piedmont. Back then I was able to get wines such as Produttori’s Barbaresco Asili, 1985, for $22 with my discount. Trust me, the current wholesale is way more than the high retail from 17 years ago. The first Piemontese wine that made this skeptic see God was the 1982 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Santo Stefano. I want to say it cost me about $40, but I’m not sure.
Italy's wine grape renaissance
2008-01-28 10:08:00
Growing numbers of Italian winemakers are turning to local, often old grape varieties to mark themselves out against foreign competitors. Rare varieties such as Uva di Troia were making a comeback, said Serena Sutcliffe MW at an Italian wine tasting in London this week.
Read more: Italy
Italian wine online
2008-03-12 03:05:00
With Wine Country in our backyard, it's easy to get caught up in local news and forget about the wine industry in Italy. Recently, however, Italian
journalist and wine critic Franco Ziliani and American writer, blogger and translator Jeremy Parzen launched VinoWire.com, a new Web site that focuses solely on that region. Italian wine lovers will find a live newswire with industry-related events and breaking stories, tasting notes and recommendations. Check out longer editorial pieces and commentary from visiting journalists, and links to other blogs devoted to the Italian wine culture.
Read more: online
Five brands of wine from the northern Italian region of Valle d'Aosta applied to receive a Denomination of Controlled Origin
2008-03-18 14:50:00
The region
is authorised to give DOC since 2004. Currently there are more than 1.2 million bottles of Valle D'Aosta wine on the regional, national and international market with a DOC.There are 38 wine bottling companies in the region. Wine production generates around 7.0 mln euro ($11 mln) per year and accounts for 12 pct of the local agriculture.The vineyards in the region produced some 27,000 quintals of grapes in 2007. The wine production in 2007 was down by 15 pct compared to 2006, when Valle D'Aosta produced some 20,000 hectolitres.
Read more: Italian
, applied
, Origin
Italian wine swarmed into China
2008-03-26 06:55:00
In recent years, with the reduce of tax, more and more overseas wines entered China
market. In 2007, most of China's imports of bottled wine from Italy, France, Chile, Australia, Spain, Argentina, German and America. The growth rate of imports of Italian
bottled wine was in the first place by exceeding France. However, Italian wine entered China market later than some countries. And lots of Italian wines hadn't met with Chinese consumers. So, it's considered that there would be a potential market in China for Italian wine. A Zhejiang winery decided to cooperate with Italy GIV to exploit high-end market.
Big Italian Wines at Bargain Prices
2008-04-01 16:12:00
Southern Italy offers price-conscious wine lovers an astonishing array of superb bargains for $25 or less, often made from indigenous grapes that were largely unknown to consumers several years ago. My colleague Antonio Galloni reports that southern Italy offers a wide assortment of wines, with a veritable kaleidoscope of grape varieties and styles. Despite the weak dollar, this region is still a treasure trove for great deals.
Read more: Italian
, Wines
, Bargain
, Prices
Italian wine safe to drink
2008-04-10 15:48:00
The European Union said on Monday Italian
wine was safe to drink after a news magazine exposed a scam involving wine allegedly tainted with toxic substances including acid. Nina Papadoulaki, spokeswoman for European Union Health Commissioner Andreu Vassiliou, said "the Italian authorities have sent us all the information requested and we can affirm that there is no risk to public health." Papadoulaki also denied that the wine at the center of the Italian investigation contained harmful substances.
Italy sees great potential in Chinese wine industry
2008-04-15 11:31:00
"The Shanghai World Expo 2010 and the Olympics" – explained Giovanni Mantovani – "will be a true test as well as an opportunity for the image of Italian wine. There is great potential for Macao, considered the Las Vegas of China with its 30 casinos and 30,000 hotel rooms, which, until now, has been dominated by French and Portuguese offers. But the 6 euro price range, which is the price range that is expected to grow in consumption with three digit numbers, is precisely the range that Italian wines fit into. For now, Italian imports represent only 5% of total imports to China, and France claims 45%. Italy
is preceded only by Australia and has registered growth of 177%.
Read more: Chinese
, industry
TWELVE ITALIAN RED WINES DEFY ECONOMIC CRISIS
2008-04-23 10:32:00
Some wine lovers and experts consider the 1997 vintage as "the last myth of the 1900s". Twelve of the best labels from the 1997 vintage were signaled out for distinction last week at the 42nd Vinitaly, the Italian Wine and Spirits Trade Fair in Verona. Top wine buyers and importers, wine investment fund managers, collectors, Italian Guides (Gambero Rosso, Ais, Espresso, Maroni and Veronelli ), as well as influential wine magazine editors and critics (Wine Spectator, Decanter, Falstaff, Parker) paid homage at a horizontal tasting of the prestigious vintage. According to wine experts at Vinitaly, the twelve bottles are by now only available on the collector's market—with an overall value estimated at mor
The WineNews Corner
2008-05-06 04:28:00
The European CMO (Common Market Organization) wine reform that will go into effect on August 1, 2008, is decidedly geared towards conservation, postponing the resolution of the root of the problems for European wine. Nevertheless, there are a few comforting efforts towards transparency, like the formalizing within the EU of a ban on vinifying and/or mixing wines and musts that come from other countries, as well as the more unscrupulous practices that are allowed in the New World.This theme, often confronted on the website www.winenews.it, was also one of the central debates at Vinitaly 2008.
US may block imports of Italian wine
2008-05-20 15:26:00
Italian authorities last month seized hundreds of thousands of bottles of 2003 Brunello di Montalcino because of the suspected use by winemakers of grapes other than the Sangiovese, the only ingredient allowed in the premium Tuscan wine. The allegations were first made in a news magazine report and the Agriculture Ministry has confirmed that hundreds of thousands of bottles of the wine have been s
Read more: block
, imports
, Italian
Italy to check Brunello wine production standards
2008-06-11 02:58:00
ROME (AP) — Italy
has set up a panel of experts to check if Brunello di Montalcino meets production standards, following an investigation into whether some of the wine might have been cut with other grape varieties, the Agriculture Ministry said Monday.Minister Luca Zaia said the step was taken to protect consumers worldwide and safeguard the reputation of one of Italy's best-known wines, which
Italian wines from organic or biodynamic grapes
2008-06-23 04:50:00
Piedmont had sent 67 wines and was therefore the region represented the most, followed by Tuscany that had sent 60 wines for competition. The gold medals for the best organic wines were given to four manufacturers: San Zeno of Fasoli Colognola ai Colli (Veneto), Villa Guani of the brothers Rovero of Asti (Piedmont), L’Autentica of the cellars of Notaio die Maschito (Basilicata), and Col di Pietr
Read more: grapes
, Italian
Italian wine, unique design
2008-07-04 13:15:00
Resembling something more like a bottle of shampoo, Voga will be marketed towards the younger, more "style-conscious Millenial generation" of wine drinkers, but could result in consumers thinking they’ve ended up in the health and beauty section of Tesco. Simon Bradbury, Sales Director of GAW, said: “We believe that bold innovation is key in order to attract new consumers and trade others up
Read more: Italian
, unique
, design
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