Exploring Italian Wine One Grape at a Time
On April 25th we had been told that the rain was going to pour down all day long, but me and my friend Paola Dentifrigi decided to challenge the weather and go on a wine tour anyway. It was a national holiday, as April 25th in Italy is a very important day being Liberation Day, i.e. the … Read more
So this article is even more overdue than the last one about me and Nadia Padrin’s wine impressions at Vinitaly 2016 back in April. However, I have not had much time to write articles during the last couple of weeks due to work, so I will try and make up for it all now. In … Read more
Last Wednesday, March 30th, I was invited to a lunch in Florence with other wine writers to meet with the owner of Valdonica winery in Maremma, Martinย Kerresย and his oenologist Tim Manning. Furthermore, two of Martinย Kerresย daughters were with him at the lunch too. The lunch took place at the Residence Villa Cora which is located on … Read more
Last Thursday Fisar Firenze had organized a dinner at the restaurant La Mรฉnagรฉre in the center of Florence. The wines for the evening were from the producer Brunnenhof in the locality Mazzon in Alto Adige. Mazzon is well-known for being a wine production area in the town district Neumarkt (Egna in Italian) in South Tyrol. The … Read more
Ever since my Master studies in history back in Sweden and all through my Ph.D. studies, I have been fond of the period from the French Revolution onwards, especially the 19th century and the Risorgimento. My focus was more on the image of Giuseppe Garibaldi in Europe in the 19th century, rather than on Napoleon, … Read more
“She walks in Beauty, like the night” from She Walks in Beauty, by George Gordon, Lord Byron Even though it is still somewhere between winter and spring, and on the hills surrounding Livorno last weekend it was fairly rainy and grey, it is still a place that “walks in beauty”. Livorno is known as one … Read more
As you have probably understood by now, February is the month when you can get all the sneak peeks of the Tuscan wines being launched during the year. Together with my friend and fellow sommelier Nadia Padrin, we have so far covered the sneak peeks of Nobile di Montepulciano (covered by Nadia), Tuscany Taste, (the … Read more
This month is the period of the so-called Anteprime, i.e. the wine events organized by the different wine consortiums here in Tuscany, Italy, in order to taste the new vintages being presented for the present year. It is a great opportunity both for buyers, sommelier, journalists and people in general to taste the wines the … Read more
At #WinesOfItaly Blab on Tuesday, January 19th, my guest was Moreno Jep Ferlat from Ferlat Vini in Cormons, Friuli Venezia Giulia. He studied winemaking already at high school and then also at university, graduating in oenology. He has gained experience working in different areas in Italy and he also went to South Africa to work with winemaking there … Read more
Exploring the Treasures of Umbria: Grechetto, Sagrantino & Olive Oil “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever” (from Endymion, by John Keats) Now you might wonder why I begin this article with a quote by Keats when you probably think I should start directly to talk about wine. Well, it is all connected. Beauty, … Read more