Although I love to share the lesser known grapes and wine regions throughout Italy, I also can’t pass up sharing wines I come across in tastings with a fantastic QPR, the quality relative to the wine bottle’s price.  This week that wine is the 2019 Falesco Tenuta Vitiano Rosso under Famiglia Cotarella.    The winery – Falesco  Falesco began 3 generations ago in the 60’s with Antonio and Domenico Cotarella whom wanted to start a winery and make their own wine.  In 1979 the Falesco brand was born under brothers Renzo and Riccardo Cotarella.   You may h ..read more

As with many, Tuscany was my first love in discovering Italy.  It’s where I first lived outside the United States and fell in love with the city of Florence.  Chianti were really the first wines that I gravitated to once I returned to the states since no matter where you go you can easily access them and reminded me of my life in Tuscany.  To this day Sangiovese is still one of my favorite Italian grapes, if not my most favorite.  Sangiovese is Italy’s most planted red grape and can be found through a multitude of regions all showcasing this grape through their own expressi ..read more

Sicily has been the talk of not only Italian wines, but the worldwide wine market as a whole mostly due to its unique volcanic wine production.  Looking outside Sicily’s volcanic wines though one will discover a breadth of unique grapes found throughout the island including the Zibibbo grape I’m featuring today. What is a Zibibbo?  Synonymous with the name Muscat of Alexandria, the Zibibbo grape’s origins believe to hail from Egypt and were brought over to Sicily by the Arabs.  It’s an ancient grape that has been cultivated for over 5,000 years.  The name Zibibbo comes from ..read more

Although I love highlighting Italy’s indigenous grapes, wine regions and producers I think it’s also good to take a step back from time to time and highlight some of the basics in understanding Italian wine.    Italy is home to over 2,000 native grape varieties with about 400-500 of them being actively being commercially produced.  It’s always a challenge to understand wine labels, especially ones that you’re not too familiar with when it comes to the land, the grapes nor the language. Let’s break down one of those barriers today in understanding the 4 classifications or designa ..read more

Over the past few months I’ve been highlighting some of the wines of southern Tuscany highlighting some of the differences of those from the more northernly neighbors in Tuscany.  This week we’re exploring the area of Suvereto checking out the Bulichella winery and their “super Tuscan” style wines. The southern Tuscany region Suvereto is said to be the “borghi piu belli di Italia”, one of the most beautiful villages in Italy, based in the Livorno province of Tuscany about 50 miles southwest out of Florence bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea.  This area is considered the Maremma, which you ..read more

In 2024 I plan to focus on more Italian food and wine pairings that are unique to the region.  This month, I’m highlighting the Maremma wine region, often overshadowed by its neighboring wine regions to the north.  Located in southern Tuscany, the Maremma is a stretch of territory between Pisa and Livorno from the north down to the northern part of the Lazio region.  Let's learn all about the Maremma including some wines from a cooperative, Cantina Vignaioli Scansano, along with a traditional soup called acquacotta. The wine region of the Maremma Although you will find wine pro ..read more

Before the end of the year I wanted to highlight the Lombardy wine region and share a wine dinner I attended a couple months back in Boston sponsored by the Oltrepo Pavese Consorzio and wine friend Susannah of Vigneto Communications.  You may remember me highlighting some wines from the Oltrepo in Lombardy awhile back, which I will also rehighlight at the bottom of this article.  It was a splendid evening in the North End of Boston, the Italian section of Boston, at Forcella with great food and wine pairings, great conversation and a reminder of interesting and diverse this region re ..read more

After a couple week hiatus due to wonderful family vacation on a Disney cruise of the western Caribbean, I'm ready to share a recent tasting I had a couple months back including sparkling wines from Borgo Maragliano.  This winery is located in the sparkling wine area of ​​​​Piedmont in northwestern Italy known as the Alta Langa.  They are based in Loazzolo, close to Asti.  We tasted through 6 sparkling wines  mostly based on Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and one from the Riesling grape.  Let's explore! The winery – Borgo Maragliano The husband and wife owners, Carlo and Silvi ..read more

As we round out these last couple weeks of November, this week I'm focusing on the Piedmont wine region and one of its great white grapes, Cortese, specifically the wines produced from the Gavi area. You can find this area located in the southeastern corner of Piedmont where Piedmont merges with the region of Liguria within the provinces of Monferrato and Alessandria. The landscape of this area not only has hills and valleys with the Ligurian Apennines nearby, but it’s only about 30 miles north of Genoa with the Ligurian Sea influences. Wines have shown up in documents within the area of ..read more

As we’re approaching the Thanksgiving holiday we all look forward to good times with family and friends along with good food and of course good wine. The question every Thanksgiving that folks wonder is which is the best wine to pair with your turkey and all the fixings. It’s a tough question considering the variety of flavors all mixed in on our dishes. The simple response is to drink what you like. Although, there are wines that will pair well on your Thanksgiving table due to their versatility. One of those grapes is the Barbera grape and that’s what I’ll be sharing today.  Bar ..read more