Thursday, September 11, 2014

PIEMONTE 2014/08

Piemonte 2014/08

Something we usually never do is taking a vacation in July or August, because it is to hot and to much tourism, but because of familiar circumstances (babysit) and because the children went on holiday we ware free to do what we wanted.

As wine-writer and wine-lovers we can’t resist making some appointments with at least some wine-growers we met here or there on some wine-tasting, so we did so.

Remarkable, because of the weather conditions these last months, many winemakers seen difficulties in the harvest this year to make their top wine, several are thinking not to make their top-wines.

Our first visit was in Barolo at the Azienda Agricola Virna di Virna Borgogno:

  
A family estate located in the hart of Barolo with historic Crus as Cannubi Boschis, Preda Sarmassa and so on,  now run by two sisters, Virna, enologist and winemaker and her sister Ivana who takes care of the commercial side of the business. They also producing Dolcetto d’Alba, Barbera d’Alba, Nebbiolo d’Alba and a blended wine named as Langhe.


The tasting:

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Harvest 2014

Was the harvest of the vineyards foreseen half august and in good condition of the grapes, because of the rain these last weeks the conditions of the grapes became less good, stressful and less ripe. This is not only in the North of Italy but also in the whole of Italy.
Therefore is the harvest will take place till later this month.

Monday, July 14, 2014

La Selezione del Sindaco 2014.

La Selezione del Sindaco 2014

Because of all sorts of reasons this late overview of this international wine tasting competition held in Bolzano.

After a pleasant flight we arrived in Verona airport to be transported to Bolzano and to different hotels. We ware staying in the city center in a nice family hotel.
Later in the evening was the gathering for the instructions and organisation the judges commissions and to the tastings and diner in the Hotel Laurin. Very nice diner.

Monday, April 21, 2014

PUGLIA 4

PUGLIA  4

19/03:  Because of taking diner in our hotel the night before, we had a good nights sleep and ware ready for the next and last stage of the tour in Puglia.

Today we went to the region of Messapia and Valle d’Itria.
The absolute protagonist over here are without any doubt the grape variety Primitivo of which Primitivo di Manduria excels.
We also will visit the “Messapia” with its countryside and their typical “Trulli”.



For the first stage we ended up in Manduria at the “Fellini winery”, part of the “Racemi winery”.

This winery started only in 1997 and is fully committed in the valorisation of promoting the grape variety Primitivo as in its original concept.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

PUGLIA 3

PUGLIA  3

18/03:  After the rather “short” night, but with a good breakfast for our strength, it was time to discover the Salento region of Puglia.

The most important grape variety in the Salento area is of course the Negroamaro.

The origin of the name leaves absolutely no doubt about the identity of this purple-black colored grape. Negroamaro derives from “Niger” in Latin and “Maru” in Greek, both meaning black.

The excellent grapes and olives in this area are accompanied by fruit, tobacco, sunflowers, herbs and other vegetables.


The first visit for today was at the winery Tenuta di Eméra in Guagnano.


PUGLIA 2

PUGLIA  2

17/03: After a delicious breakfast, we started our tour around Puglia to the Terre di Federico area that extends from the Daunia to the Murgia, home to the most important monuments reminding the close bond between Emperor Frederick II and Puglia.

The wines are mostly made from the Nero di Troia variety, and for the most part DOCG and IGT wines in the region.

We had to visit different wine houses, and the first one was already a shot in the rose. We ware welcomed by Sebastiano De Corato, president of the consortium:


Rivera: The wines we tasted:

Sunday, April 6, 2014

PUGLIA 1

16/03/2014.

The  fifth edition of “Puglia Wine and Land” took place from the 16th till the 20th March 2014 at Savelletri di Fasano, Brindisi. This important international event brings to Puglia a prestigious group of international buyers from around the world, so they can explore the wine-regions and create business with the wineries.

So we can consolidate the reputation of Puglia’s wines across the five continents says Sebastiano de Corato, President of the consortium.
                              
Also journalist are taking part/ Charlotte Van Zummeren (Netherlands); Philippe Kampe (USA); Marta Wrześnieuwska (Poland); Dwight Casimere (USA); Petri Pellinen (Finland); Michael Ritter (Germany); Timé Dierickx (Belgium); Maria Pranzo (Hong Kong); Rod Philips (Canada); Michael Libert (Germany).

The event was hosted by two top-class venues: Masseria Torre Coccaro and Masseria Torre Maizza.

The presentation was done by the organisation “Movimento Turismo del Vino Puglia”, Italy

One could divide Puglia in tree main wine area’s:



Thursday, March 27, 2014

Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux

This year we had the opportunity to taste the white wines 2012 and the red wines from 2011.

The white wines came out as the better harvest than the red ones from 2011.

The red wines lacked mostly body and content but there ware some very good wines.

Overall interesting and hopefully they reduce their prices enough.

Selezione del Sindaco

La Selezione del Sindaco,  Castelfranco Veneto, 30/05 – 02/06/2013

Like every year around this time, end of May, and this year for the 13th time, started the international competition of La Selezione del Sindaco with journalists from all over the world and also with people working in wine to be judging the wines in competition.

This year the competition took place in the region of Veneto, more explicit in Castelfranco Veneto near the hart of the Prosecco region.

4 Days of blind tasting in the historical location of Villa Emo.

We had to taste a variety of Spumante or Metodo Classico wines, white still wines, red wines and sweet or passito wines.

It was nice to see the friends again on this yearly event. Of course we see most of them several times in the year, but it is all about sharing our experiences.

The organisation was as usual impeccable.

For lunch we had a variety of food made by the hotel school of DIEFFE,

Diner we took at different wine houses, and the usual banquet the final evening was the for graduation of the hotel school which was superb.