Out of Balance

Is it me, or was that kind of a nasty summer? I’ve been trying to keep a positive mind but then circumstances seem to conspire and throw everything out of whack – either personal or some wider social context. Between notable deaths, ongoing wars, economic anxiety, that tea-bagging/town hall silliness and a host of other [...]

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VinItaly 2009: Some Impressions

There’s a new post up at Wine & Spirits with some of my impressions from the recent wine fairs in Verona, including VinItaly and Vini Veri. It’s a q&a format although how I managed to squeeze in time to answer everything during a recent marathon tasting of Italian wine in New York is beyond me. [...]

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Amarofest in Verona

One of the great things about VinItaly is that producers often have a little something special at their stands beyond the latest vintage. Sometimes there are older wines, other times it’s a full-service lunch (which is most welcome). And for some producers, the secret stash includes an exotic amaro.
I love amaro: From the power of [...]

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Pic Post: VinItaly, ViniVeri & Verona

A picture is worth a thousand words. Or at least a glass or two of wine…

Above: An aerial shot of the Tuscan pavilion, always one of the most busy — and ostentatious — at VinItaly.

Above: Brunello producer Le Presi makes a new t-shirt each year for the fair. This year, the theme capitalized on Obama’s [...]

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Too Many Vs

VinItaly+ViniVeri+VinNatur = VVV, wasn’t that a Vin Diesel movie?

Take this as an out of office message of sorts because I leave tomorrow for Verona (another V), and the chaos that awaits me there. If you’re a wino and looking for ways to kill time online, the I suggest spending a while checking out Peter Liem’s [...]

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Wine Blogging Wednesday: Piemonte

(For background on Wine Blogging Wednesday, hosted this time by David McDuff, go here)
I’ve not done one of these before but since it’s about a quarter to midnight on the west coast–and thus just under deadline–what the hell? At the moment I’ve got a raging fire to my left and a glass of riesling in [...]

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Distractions

(Above: The Catinaccio, or Rosengarten, dolomite formation rises beyond a narrow valley that runs northeast from Bolzano in the Alto Adige. It takes its name from the pink color of the rocks during sunset.)
Back from a lovely trip to Italy’s Alto Adige region where, besides developing an (un)healthy addiction to speck and knödel — canerderli [...]

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Bumper Sticker Brunello

The other day a colleague of mine expressed his surprise to me when I mentioned that there had been, and continues to be, a scandal of sorts in Montalcino. I meant to get back to him on the subject but owing to the most current and vicious deadline of our publishing cycle, I totally forgot. [...]

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Remembering Genoa

(Above: The heavy boots of the Italian military police. Image courtesy of Indymedia)
Yesterday marked a grim anniversary of sorts. Seven years ago on July 21, during the tumultuous G8 conference hosted by Italy in the Ligurian city of Genoa, Italian riot police stormed the Diaz Petrini school which had been officially designated a housing center [...]

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Pigato & Pesto, or, The Future of Our Past

(Above: an Italian poster for Elio Petri’s 1965 film, “La Decima Vittima”, or “The 10th Victim”)
I love Saturdays. Even in the middle of a crazy busy deadline period (and a trip to Seattle early this week for the second installment of Wine & Spirits’ Hot Picks event), there’s just something magical about Saturday. It helped, [...]

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