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
During the Court of Master Sommeliers prep class at the New York Wine and Culinary Center this month, the instructors covered wines from five countries: Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Spain and Portugal. Argentina is the world’s fifth largest wine producing country, and the session on Argentina was focused on Mendoza, an arid desert region which accounts for
The New York Wine and Culinary Center (NYWCC) hosted a wine class this month to help prepare attendees for the Court of Master Sommeliers examination scheduled for this fall in Canandaigua. This program was part of a year-long series of prep classes at the NYWCC and it covered the key regions, grapes and wines of five countries: Chile,
Wines of Argentina was the topic for a seminar and tasting at Century Wines this month. Clay Harpending from Polaner Selections, fine wine importers, has visited Argentina and gave a terrific presentation on the climate, soils, wine growing regions, grape varieties and vinification methods of Argentina, the world’s fifth largest wine producing nation after France, Italy,
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
At the recent seminar we attended on the Wines of Alsace, we also learned about a type of cork which has been developed to avoid the problem of “corked” wines. After almost ten years of internal research, Hugel & Fils, a leading producer of wines in Alsace since 1639, has adopted “Diam” corks for all
We enjoyed a really good seminar on the Wines of Alsace given by John McMahon at Century Wines this month. John discussed the unique terroir and style of the wines that characterize Alsace, a small wine region in extreme north eastern France adjacent to Germany and bordered by the Vosges Mountains to the west and the
At a recent wine tasting dinner at Max, we enjoyed a selection of four wines with our meal of salad, beef bourguignon and apple turnovers with vanilla gelato. 2011 Errazuriz Sauvignon Blanc from Chile – pale greenish yellow in color, with aromas of fresh tropical fruits, flavors of apple, lemon and grapefruit and nice acidity
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
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