Exploring Italian Wine One Grape at a Time
At #WinesOfItaly Blab on Tuesday, January 12th, my guest was Valeria Losi from Azienda Agricola Losi in Castelnuovo Berardenga close to Siena. Valeria told us that her role in the family winery is to act as a sort of brand ambassador. Thus, she travels a lot over the world to promote the winery. She continued … Read more
At the #WinesOfItaly Blab before Christmas, Costanza Yael Aviv Castelnuovo-Tedesco, owner of the wine bar Uva Nera in Florence, was a guest. She talked about her wine bar and presented two wines and the producers behind them. The producers are Panizzi, well known for their Vernaccia di San Gimignano, and Vallone di Cecione, producing a … Read more
Last week Lorenzo, the president of Fisar Firenze asked me if I wanted to come along with another two fellow sommeliers to visit the winery Val delle Corti in Radda in Chianti. Of course, I said yes, even though I then realized I knew next to nothing about the winery…yet. So I asked Lorenzo, who … Read more
Last night we had our first #WinesOfItaly Blab, and apart from a couple of smaller glitches it went quite well for being the first time I hosted a blab on my own. I am very happy about and grateful to the people who joined the discussion yesterday, and I hope you will all come back … Read more
This article has been on the agenda for a while, but other things kept coming in between all the time. In mid-August, I was asked by Luigi Cappellini to come and give extra support in speaking English with some American and other international guests who were visiting Castello di Verrazzano for a couple of days. … Read more
A couple of days ago I was invited to attend the press conference of the Associazione Viticoltori Montefioralle, which is an association of wine producers in the area around the village Montefioralle (a district of Greve in Chianti) in Tuscany, that has recently been founded. All the producers are members of the Consorzio del Chianti … Read more
Today at the yearly Sommelier Challenge of Fisar Firenze our team, The Winetrotters, won and took home the ‘gold medal‘ so to say. So, sorry if the first part of this post will talk a lot about ‘our team’ and our victory in this wine competition which is mostly for fun and an excuse to … Read more
As you might have noticed, Tuscany is a land of history going back to the Etruscan era and beyond. Winemaking can be traced back as far in history too. Often I have been talking about Chianti and Chianti Classico in my articles, but this time I will focus on Rosso di Montepulciano and Nobile di … Read more
Last Friday I started a mini-course about wine, a sort of an ABC of wine and wine tasting with my friend and sommelier Nadia Padrin. We have been offered the possibility to do a small introduction to wine and wine tasting at a local wine bar here in Florence (Uva Nera). So for the next … Read more
