This time I take the stand. In 1984 I spent a couple of weeks on a Paleolithic dig in Gavorrano, one of the towns in the Val di Cornia; the work consisted of digging trenches in an area th...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/10/garantito-igp-san-silvestro.html
There are many ways to meet people at Vinitaly. One is to run into someone you know, and be introduced to who he is talking with, and that's what happened here: I had just left a stand when I met...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/10/tasted-at-vinitaly-michele-castellani.html
This time Stefano Tesi takes the stand. At the last farm in Chersogno, the altimeter on my wrist says 1997 meters. There are another thousand to the peak. Above me are fog, rocks, and a pale trai...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/10/garantito-igp-occitanian-chersogno-to.html
This time Luciano Pignataro takes the standOne can tell from the very word, Forastera. Grapes that come from elsewhere (fuori, in Italian), i.e. forestiera. Certainly, of one were to take a broad...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/09/garantito-igp-forastera-2011-ischia-doc.html
This time Carlo Macchi Takes the Stand:Let's say that the reader remembers La Cucina di Edgardo in Montalcino, and has the good fortune to meet Mario Machetti. Those who have done both can stop r...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/09/garantito-igp-restaurant-in-bloom-il.html
This time Roberto Giuliani takes the stand: After dedicating many Guaranteed notes to more or less renowned restaurants, I feel the need to return to the world of wine. Primarily because I'm inte...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/09/garantito-igp-mossio-brothers-and-great.html
This Time, I take the stand: I must confess, when I go to Piemonte it's usually for the wines, and when I do make it to Torino it's on the occasion of Slowfood's Salone del Gusto. However,...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/09/visiting-torino-mole-antonelliana.html
This time Stefano Tesi takes the stand. Doing the impossible is like getting blood from a turnip, says an Italian proverb. But there are people who get salame from turnips. At Livigno -- a...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/08/garantito-igp-and-if-i-make-sausage.html
La Feliciana is a small winery south of Lake Garda, in the Commune of Pozzolengo, and remarkably peaceful, with gentle rolling hills and vineyards stretching off into the distance; the only thing...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/08/wines-from-la-feliciana-lugana-more.html
This time Luciano Pignataro takes the stand. When we open a bottle we are not always looking for the Wine of Our Lives. I'd say, to the contrary, that 99% of the time we're opening only what we n...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/08/garantito-igp-coda-di-volpe-discovering.html
This time Roberto Giuliani takes the stand:Chance dictated that a month after telling you about the Osteria del Sole di Zocca, in Emilia, I should find myself on the other side, in Romagna, Provi...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/08/garantito-igp-il-piastrino-restaurant.html
Assaggio vini per The Italian Wine Review sia alle manifestazioni ufficiali che in ufficio. Produttori che volessero far degustare i loro vini in ufficio sono pregati di inviare una campionatura,...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/08/come-far-recensire-i-propri-vini-da.html
Looking towards Siena from Brolio Brolio is the largest estate in Chianti, one of the oldest, and also the most important. Because without Brolio we wouldn't have the Chianti Classico we know tod...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-visit-to-castello-di-brolio-and.html
This time, I take the stand: The first few km of the Val Brembana, which goes extends into the Alps behind Bergamo, are decidedly nondescript, with an abundance of relatively recent buildings jum...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/08/garantito-igp-cornello-dei-tasso-and.html
Lombardia has a number of so-called lesser appellations, and Botticino, a red from the Alpine foothills to the west of Brescia (mid-way between Brescia and Lake Garda), is one of them. To be hone...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/07/franzoni-botticino.html
This time Stefano Tesi takes the Stand:Lying on the bed of my room, looking though the shadows to the bit of mountain I could see from my window, A single thought ran through my head. And had sin...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/07/garantito-igp-val-di-cembra-and.html
This time Luciano Pignataro takes the stand: Silvia Imparato's Adventure began precisely 20 years ago, on a hill near Salerno, at the feet of the Piacentini, the mountains of the Massiccio del Te...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/07/garantito-igp-montevetrano-2010-colli.html
The 1962 In the Glass This year marks the 50th anniversary of Fabrizio Bianchi's decision to try something that at the time was a radical innovation for Chianti Classico: Making a wine from a sin...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/07/castello-di-monsanto-chianti-classico.html
This time Carlo Macchi takes the stand: What is the Pianura Padana From six o'clock onFog that seems to beIn a glass Of water and anise This speaks Paolo Conte, referring to the area around...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/07/garantito-igp-bazzini-place-from-other.html
This time Roberto Giuliani takes the stand: Getting to the town of Zocca from the high plains of Mocogno was difficult: one switchback after another leading down 1300 meters from the the plains t...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/07/zocca-vasco-rossi-and-massimo-rivas.html
Rosanna Ferraro has a delightfully impish smile, and is blessed with a sly sense of humor, as I discovered in the course of last year's Pellegrinaggio Artusiano. She also has a fine feel for what...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/07/wines-from-italys-lesser-isles.html
This time I take the Stand: If you drive north from Torino towards the Valle D'Aosta, you'll find yourself following the valley now occupied by the Dora Baltea. It wasn't carved by the river, how...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/06/garantito-igp-i-balmetti-di-borgofranco.html
A couple of years ago Oscar Bosio, who is best known for his Moscato, contacted me via Facebook and asked me to stop at his stand at Vinitaly. I did, for what I thought would be a quick stop, onl...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/06/la-bruciata-moscato-more.html
This time Stefano Tasi takes the StandLight. Large windows. Old photos, almost all B&W. Brick bar. Benedetta Origo and her daughter Katia seem to have chosen a minimalist style for La Foce, t...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/06/garantito-igp-ristorante-dopolavoro-la.html
This year the folks in Montalcino presented the 2007 vintage of Brunello. It's an interesting vintage; in Chianti I enjoyed the vini d'annata, which were rather scrappy, but found the Riserve on ...
http://italianwinereview.blogspot.com/2012/06/benvenuto-brunello-2007.html