Posted in food, italy, san francisco, wine, tagged 10th Victim, Bisson, fembots, pigato on June 22, 2008 | 1 Comment »
(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, [...]
Posted in italy, wine, tagged wolfgang weber, Wine & Spirits, VinItaly 2008, 2007 vintage, 07 Italy vintage report, Brunello militante, Brunello on April 24, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Besides this picture, which I thought captured a certain attitude towards the well-reported Montalcino scandal at this year’s VinItaly, one of the things I came away with from the event was the excitement many growers and winemakers feel towards their 2007 wines. You can read a brief report I wrote about tasting wines from [...]
Posted in italy, rants, tagged Bartolo Mascarello, Italian 2008 Elections, Lega Nord Indian Poster, Maria Teresa Mascarello, No Barrique No Berlusconi, politics on April 14, 2008 | No Comments »
I snapped this picture of the infamous “No Barrique, No Berlusconi” bottle during a visit with Maria Teresa Mascarello at Bartolo Mascarello’s winery in Barolo two weeks ago.* It was out on the table in the homey room at the front of the winery where Maria Teresa receives visitors, a quiet yet poignant political statement [...]
Posted in italy, wine, tagged Brunello di Montalcino, Brunello scandal, David Lynch, Wine & Spirits on April 8, 2008 | No Comments »
There’s been plenty of chatter over the recent ’scandal’ in Montalcino, and you’ll find ongoing coverage of saga at VinoWire as well as a tidy write up by Eric Asimov at the Pour.
For a thorough look at today’s Brunello, and possibly a backgrounder to recent concerns, check out this excerpt from an article by David [...]
Posted in italy, tagged amaro, chronicle, wolfgang weber on April 4, 2008 | 4 Comments »
I have an article in today’s Chronicle on Italian amari–one of my favorite, favorite things to drink.
Had the deadline been a little later, I might have included the amazing Kloster Bitter from Abbazia di Novacella (yes, it’s made by monks), which is made from small pine cones harvested from tiny brush pines that grow around [...]
Posted in food, italy, rants, tagged Brunello di Montalcino, Brunello scandal, Italian scandals, Mozzarella di Bufala, Mozzarella scandal on March 27, 2008 | 3 Comments »
…, he said sarcastically. Then he raised the tumbler of Santa Maria al Monte to his lips–a savage, pungent amaro–and knocked it back, the black, bitter shot an inoculation against the budding romanticism he had begun to feel for this place, his wayward spiritual home.
Trashy, I know, but in the course of developing a [...]
Posted in italy, wine events, tagged centro sociale, Critical Wine, La Chimica, Verona, VinItaly on March 21, 2008 | 2 Comments »
(Above: the entrance to Ex-Forte Prenestino, the Roman centro sociale that regularly hosts Critical Wine in Italy’s capital city)
The city of Verona buzzes with activity during the annual VinItaly fair (April 3-7), and besides the big fair itself, there’s any number of off-campus events happening at all hours every day. In a post from last [...]
Posted in humor, italy, music, tagged claymation, Fernet Branca, italo disco, old Italian television commercials on March 6, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The wonders of YouTube never cease! I recently found these old television commercials for Fernet-Branca while researching Italian amari. Fun! Obviously drinking too much of the stuff leads to either bad animation or worse, claymation.
The first spot, from the early to mid 80s, features the soaring eagle from the Fernet-Branca label come to [...]
Posted in food, italy, wine, tagged bollito, Florence, Giuseppe Mengoni, lampredotto, Mercato Centrale, Nerbone, primitivo on February 26, 2008 | 3 Comments »
One of the nice things about the rather “loose” schedule at the Chianti Classico anteprima event in Florence last week is that it was a cinch to throw down pencil and tasting book and leave.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Mercato Centrale (or Central Market, a rather obvious translation) in Florence’s borgo San [...]
Posted in italy, tasting wine, travel, wine events, tagged 2003 vintage, Anteprima, Brunello di Montalcino, Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano on February 25, 2008 | 5 Comments »
I guess one advantage to jet-lag is waking up early. At least when you want to be productive. Here it is, 6.30 am in New York and I don’t even have to be at work until 9.30. And for a prosecco tasting at that. So who’s got some breakfast/coffee place recommendations out here? None of [...]
