If you know what these two things have to do with each other, you are on top of your Italian culture! Last Saturday night, the 71st annual Festival di Sanremo, Italy’s annual music festival, concluded with a surprise win. The rock band Måneskin took first prize with a song called Zitti e buoni (Shut up…
The world of wine offers many first times: new flavors, new aromas, new colors... Truth to be told, every new encounter with an unknown bottle is a first time. And how many first times at Vinitaly, the main Italian wine fair! This was actually my third Vinitaly, but the 2018 edition had many first times…
Wandering through the Tuscan countryside - something everyone should do at least once in a lifetime! - one stumbles upon hilltop towns that seem frozen in time. Montepulciano is a Medieval jewel, a place where the Medici family of Florence left their mark and who could blame them? Marvelous vistas inspire noble thoughts. Is…
Continue reading ➞ The Noblest of Wines: Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
Molise: The Sound of Wine. Love that. Not sure I know what it means. But it doesn't matter. What sound does wine make? Lots of different sounds, depends on where you are, at what point the wine is (pouring? drinking? slurping the last delicious drop?), and who you're with. As the following photos will attest,…
Since Vinitaly kicks off each year with the Wine Spectator-sponsored event, Opera Wine, I thought it would be appropriate to choose an operatic soundtrack for this post. Crank up the volume, because the chorus we're talking about is Verdi's famed Va, pensiero!, a quiet storm. Many voices, and glasses, raised together and together make a…
No, I am not talking politics! I am talking about Donatella Cinelli Colombini, one of Italy's premier Brunello di Montalcino winemakers. This week we visited Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda and Casato Prime Donne, Donatella's two estates that have been in the family since the 1500s. This is big red country, but Donatella does it…
Collisioni - that's what this mega-festival in the tiny hamlet of Barolo is called. And collide you do! With people, with ideas, with tastes, with energy. Talk about bringing things together. I'd heard about Collisioni for years. I'd viewed their over-stuffed programs with skepticism: how could they lure Elton John, Sting, Mark Knopfler to this…
Talk about brand recognition! Masi's unmistakable label is synonymous with Amarone. The Boscaini family, with papà Sandro at the helm - but also Sandro's children Alessandra and Raffaele, not to forget brothers Bruno and Mario - are giving back in spades! Their devotion to culture equals their passion for great wine. For seven generations this…
Continue reading ➞ The Culture of Wine Part II: Masi Agricola
Did you know that Italy has more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than any other country in the world? All that art and nature... wonderful, right? But how can one little country afford to preserve and promote all that beauty? We all have to pitch in, that's how! And the world of wine is doing its…
Continue reading ➞ The Culture of Wine Part 1: Tasca d’Almerita
The people who came up with this idea of Opera Wine really were on to something. The combination of opera and wine isn't incidental: there are divas in both worlds. Great personalities, dramatic stories, love affairs, betrayals, elaborate plans, soaring emotions, figures that are somehow larger than life, exquisite beauty... All the mixings of a great opera…
Suzanne Branciforte's Italian Grapevine 