The second day of the Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) course in Napa Valley continued in the afternoon, with instructor Mary Sugrue covering the many grape varieties and styles of wine from Italy, including the wine regions of Veneto, Piemonte, Lombardy, Toscana, Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Abruzzo, Umbria, Lazio, Campania, Calabria, Apulia and the
Here is an Italian wine you will not likely find at most local wine shops. The 2009 Vini Scilio Etna Rosso is a blend of two of Sicily’s indigenous red grapes — 80% Nerello Mascalese and 20% Nerello Cappuccio – grown nowhere else in the world. Members of the Scilio family have been cultivating these
Beppe D’Andrea, the international brand ambassador for Ruffino, was the featured speaker at a recent wine tasting and seminar on Italian wines hosted by Century Wines. Ruffino has been making wines in Tuscany and other areas of Italy since 1877 and it is now part of the Constellation Brands portfolio of wines. Beppe gave an informative
We tasted another Dolcetto-based wine from the Piemonte region of Italy, the 2011 Marziano Abbona “Papa Celso” Dogliani, from the prized Dogliani DOCG appellation in Piedmont, where the best Dolcettos are generally grown and produced. Azienda Agricola Abbona owner Marziano Abbona produces this wine exclusively from 50 to 60 year old vines in the Doriolo vineyard
We are tasting the signature wines of Italy this month, starting with wines from the Dolcetto grape grown in the Piemonte region of northwest Italy. Dolcetto means “little sweet one” and the grapes are black, thick-skinned, with plenty of dark fruit flavor, generally low in acid and high in tannins. They make intense, fruity dark
Continuing our quest to try some new restaurants this month, we had dinner at The Owl House, a tiny city restaurant which specializes in fresh, made-from-scratch food prepared with ingredients sourced from local providers whenever possible, including many vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options. For starters, we had the potato and leek soup of the day
With our dinners of chicken parmigiano and house made fettuccine with marinara sauce at Mario’s restaurant, we had a superb bottle of 2010 Rocca di Frassinello “Le Sughere di Frassinello” red wine. This is a “Super Tuscan” blend of 50% Sangiovese, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Merlot from the Maremma Toscana appellation in the marshy coastal
We recently attended an Italian wine seminar at Century Wines featuring wines from Castello Banfi, a family-owned vineyard estate and winery in Montalcino, Italy. Founded by John Mariani, Sr., an American of Italian heritage, the Banfi vineyard estate in the Brunello region of Tuscany consists of about 7,100 acres on gentle western slopes facing the Mediterranean, of
The 2010 Caravaglio Vino da Tavola Rosso is a delicious fruity red wine made by winemaker Antonio Caravaglio on a certified 100% organic farm in the tiny town of Malfa on the island of Salina off the coast of Sicily. We enjoyed this wine with a dinner of minestrone soup, ricotta filled manicotti, meatballs, sausage,
At an wine seminar held at Century today, Mark Licata from Winebow, Inc. a large importer of over different 400 wines from Italy, gave a presentation on the history and philosophy of the Azienda Vinicola Falesco winery in Montecchio, Italy. Falesco was founded in 1979 by brothers Riccardo and Renzo Cotarella and is located in the Umbria region