It is always nice when a nice new wine event appears in the panorama of opportunities to taste. Last weekend in Milan, on May 12 and 13, Best Wine Stars kicked off with a splendid tasting in the Museo Diocesano of Milan, which provided the perfect spring background for tasting in the cloister area. As…
Get the party started! Wine Spectator's mega-event kick-off to Vinitaly, Opera Wine, is a feel-good event that showcases Italy's Top 100 wines (which for some reason, this year were 107!) Maybe because it was the 7th annual Opera Wine? The event sported an oddly American stars-and-stripes theme. Crank up the volume, because this blog post has…
Breaking with tradition: we are not going to talk about wine. This is the Lent period in preparation for Vinitaly: time to give things up, purify, detox, and get ready for the biggest wine event in Italy, held every year in Verona. This year, from Sunday, April 15 to Wednesday, April 18, tens of thousands…
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,…
I love visiting the Bottega stand at Vinitaly - it's so glamorous! Besides, Prosecco makes me happy. This year was special: Bottega was celebrating 40 years of distilling and winemaking. Founded in 1977 near Treviso in the Veneto region, the company has continued to expand. Leaders in brand recognition, who doesn't know these shiny bottles…
Each year at Vinitaly, there are three important tastings sponsored by two famous food&wine journalists, Paolo Massobrio and Marco Gatti, of Il Golosario fame. The tastings are called Young to Young because they feature three young winemakers each day who present one of their wines to bloggers. I have had the privilege to participate over…
Today I had the rare opportunity to taste 19 rare wines made from little known indigenous grapes. Since I decided to focus during this Vinitaly 2017 on lesser known Italian wines and wine regions, this was the perfect tasting for me! I have to admit, I had not heard of the grape varieties Minutolo or…
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…
'Tis the season to be jolly, and no matter what your mood, the bubbly will improve it! So since this is the ITALIAN Grapevine, make sure the bubbly that graces your New Year's table is something from the Bel Paese: Spumante - that's the Italian word for bubbly, but don't jump to conclusions! It doesn't…
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
Suzanne Branciforte's Italian Grapevine 