Last month, I visited the annual wine fair in Verona, Italy called VinItaly. It’s the second most important wine fair in Europe (ProWein in Dusseldorf, Germany is a bigger deal), and it is always fun and informative. Now, since I am lucky enough to live nearby (in fact I lived in Verona for six years!),…
Last weekend, I was lucky enough to visit Italy’s Piedmont region. Nestled in the northwest corner of the peninsula, Piedmont boasts the captivating city of Torino (Turin) and stunning natural beauty. It also offers some of Italy’s finest wines. The wine, of course, was the focus of…
Last week, I had the good fortune to visit the biennial food party called Salone del Gusto in Torino (Turin), Italy. This is a global event sponsored by Slow Food and designed to feature high quality food products from around the world. A unique offering of the Salone is their “Taste Workshops.” Since I consider…
This past weekend, I was lucky enough to spend time with five established winemakers in northeastern Italy. My summary: WOW! Nestled in Italy’s upper right hand corner is a small wine production zone called Collio. It is a crescent shaped area blessed with great terrain and near perfect weather conditions…
Even though I moved away from there ten years ago, a trip to Verona, Italy is something I always cherish. Last weekend I stopped by to visit some old friends. They were nice enough to introduce me to a terrific new winery: David Sterza from the small village of Fumane. I had the good luck…
Last week, an American family came to this part of Italy to visit relatives. While here, they wanted to explore the area and delve deeply into the riches of the cuisine of northeast Italy (the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia). What better way to delve than a private cooking class? Enter my friend, Silvana Mozzon. Silvana…
The Monferrato and Langhe hills in northwest Italy are where you’ll find some of this country’s greatest treasures. Including wine, of course. Over the Veteran’s Day weekend, eight of us (three were veterans) piled into two cars, drove across the northern part of Italy, and stopped near the town of Dogliani. Our plan was to…
This week my wine comes from Tuscany. Back in the early 1990’s, I was already of a sort to stray from the popular path, so avoided the wine-making area we know as Chianti. Instead, I went a little farther south and drove to a gorgeous little hill town called Montepulciano. To be honest, at…
As if we needed one, I know. But this weekend I re-learned the ability of fine wine to create terrific memories of good friends and good times. We took a ten hour drive to Stuttgart, Germany. Pam, who lives there, is my oldest friend. We met more than 33 years ago. In that period we…
This week, I am going to talk about an Italian wine maker I met in 1995. Giuseppe Lonardi is from a small village called Marano, about twenty minutes northwest of Verona. That puts him in the heart of the “classico” area of the Valpolicella agricultural zone. One of the fascinating things about Valpolicella wines is…
This weekend, we opened a bottle of wine from the Piedmont region of Italy. It was from one of my favorite wine makers, Giuseppino Anfosi. He owns and operates the Ghiomo winery in the village of Guarene, not far from Alba. Don’t worry, I am getting to the wine, I just wanted to put in…
While the rock star of Piedmont wine comes from the Nebbiolo grape (Barolo and Barbaresco are the wines), don’t overlook the dynamic and versatile Barbera. The Barbera Grape Barbera grapes grow well across the Italian peninsula. But the limestone-rich soil and moderate temperatures of the Piedmont region (in northwest Italy) produce the highest quality. This…
When William Shakespeare wrote “Romeo and Juliet,” he made Verona, Italy, famous as a place for lovers. Every April, VinItaly makes the city a great place for lovers of wine. Next year from April 6-9, VinItaly, one of the largest wine fairs in the world, convenes for the 48th time. Planners estimate more than 150,000…
I just had the good luck to spend ten days in Venice (yeah, I know…) during the annual Film Festival there. I saw some terrific movies, and I saw some real dogs, too. Read on! Wolfskinder (“Wolf Children”). A German film about post World War II refugee children. This is a story that needs telling…
Wine Friends 