tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-122730592024-02-08T01:34:12.314+01:00Kyle Phillips's Italian Wine Review (IWR)The authoritative online consumer newsletter about the wines of ItalyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.comBlogger434125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-14155497505105680122012-10-11T08:00:00.000+02:002012-10-11T08:20:41.469+02:00Garantito IGP: San Silvestro
This time I take the stand.
In 1984 I spent a couple of weeks on a Paleolithic dig in Gavorrano, one of the towns in the Val di Cornia; the work consisted of digging trenches in an area that was destined to become a road and sifting the dirt in search of man-made flint chips and such. Which we found in abundance, though no other traces of humanity had survived in that particular spotAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-68985035439819923442012-10-06T12:22:00.001+02:002012-10-07T00:52:12.735+02:00Tasted at Vinitaly: Michele CastellaniThere are many ways to meet people at Vinitaly. One is to run into someone you know, and be introduced to who he is talking with, and that's what happened here: I had just left a stand when I met up with Lorenzo Begali, who was talking with a gentleman he introduced as Michele Castellani, and suggested I taste the wines. I had another appointment, and when I got back he was gone, so his daughter Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-54294721411638086182012-10-05T00:05:00.002+02:002012-10-05T00:07:05.032+02:00Garantito IGP: Occitanian Chersogno to the last bite
This time Stefano Tesi takes the stand.
At the last farm in Chersogno, the altimeter on my wrist says 1997 meters. There are another thousand to the peak.
Above me are fog, rocks, and a pale trail. Below, the tattered roofs of the town of Campiglione, where a "For Sale" sign hangs over the ancient houses that look like tenements of the sort whose facades have a single open balcony per Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-38234321474163322562012-09-27T13:15:00.001+02:002012-09-27T13:15:27.969+02:00Garantito IGP: Forastera 2011 Ischia doc Pietratorcia
This time Luciano Pignataro takes the standOne can tell from the very word, Forastera. Grapes that come from elsewhere (fuori, in Italian), i.e. forestiera. Certainly, of one were to take a broader, say American viewpoint, it would be difficult to say grapes that have been grown on terraces held up by paramine, dry masonry walls made from green volcanic rock, for more than 150 years are foreignAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-53910920887097236812012-09-20T12:05:00.000+02:002012-09-20T12:05:56.078+02:00Garantito IGP: A Restaurant in Bloom? il Giglio in Montalcino!
This time Carlo Macchi Takes the Stand:Let's say that the reader remembers La Cucina di Edgardo in Montalcino, and has the good fortune to meet Mario Machetti. Those who have done both can stop reading. I suggest everyone else perk up their ears.In the 80s La Cucina di edgardo was one of the best places to eat in Tuscany. Edgardo was unique, and to give an example it was he who came up with Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-70999253420755496172012-09-13T15:54:00.000+02:002012-09-13T15:54:43.629+02:00Garantito IGP: The Mossio Brothers and the Great Dolcetti if Rodello
This time Roberto Giuliani takes the stand:
After dedicating
many Guaranteed notes to more or less renowned restaurants, I feel the
need to return to the world of wine. Primarily because I'm interested in
two brothers, though it would be more correct to say in the entire
Mossio dynasty, which has given the Dolcetto of the Langhe shine for
generations, producing superb wines from a Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-66143955509401559472012-09-06T09:00:00.000+02:002012-09-06T09:00:14.798+02:00Visiting Torino: The Mole AntonellianaThis Time, I take the stand:
I must confess, when I go to Piemonte it's usually for the wines, and when I do make it to Torino it's on the occasion of Slowfood's Salone del Gusto. However, Daughter C is a great fan of the Egyptians, and we therefore took her to see the Museo Egizio in Torino, one of the world's richest and most exciting collections of Egyptian artifacts.
And, when we Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-45132633191081316872012-08-30T10:52:00.003+02:002012-08-30T10:52:49.006+02:00Garantito IGP: And if I Make Sausage from Turnips?
This time Stefano Tesi takes the stand.
Doing the impossible is like getting blood from a turnip, says an Italian proverb. But there are people who get salame from turnips.
At Livigno -- altitude 1800 meters, the coldest place in all of Italy, the Little Tibet that, before becoming the duty-free paradise it is now, was isolated by the snows for 6 months of the year, and the dead were Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-23831296595859767212012-08-28T17:15:00.001+02:002012-08-28T17:15:03.119+02:00Wines from La Feliciana: Lugana & More
La Feliciana is a small winery south of Lake Garda, in the Commune of Pozzolengo, and remarkably peaceful, with gentle rolling hills and vineyards stretching off into the distance; the only thing that would make you wonder if it has always been this way is the massive stone tower built on a low hill a couple of miles away: It's the monument to the Battle of San Martino, fought by the Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-30023370870627063472012-08-23T17:07:00.002+02:002012-08-23T17:09:17.974+02:00Garantito IGP: Coda Di Volpe, Discovering the Low-Cost Irpinian white in 8 interpretations
This time Luciano Pignataro takes the stand.
When we open a bottle we are not always looking for the Wine of Our Lives. I'd say, to the contrary, that 99% of the time we're opening only what we need, to enjoy with friends or with food. Without thinking overmuch.
Italy's genetic reservoir is infinite, and its study is supported by a paucity of funds and therefore incomplete, but there isn't Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-30658432222538108402012-08-09T18:39:00.005+02:002012-08-09T18:39:39.995+02:00Garantito IGP: The Il Piastrino Restaurant in Pennabilli Sets The Standard For The Valmarecchia
This time Roberto Giuliani takes the stand:Chance dictated that a month after telling you about the Osteria del Sole di Zocca, in Emilia, I should find myself on the other side, in Romagna, Province of Rimini, where I enjoyed breathtaking panoramas, wound along dangerous, often unpaved mountain roads and visited gems such as Sen Leo and the heart of Rimini itself. Since I had three full days,Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-37432452403959623732012-08-08T12:58:00.000+02:002012-08-08T12:59:08.020+02:00Come Far Recensire I Propri Vini da Italian Wine Review
Assaggio vini per The Italian Wine Review sia
alle manifestazioni ufficiali che in ufficio.
Produttori che volessero far degustare i loro
vini in ufficio sono pregati di inviare una campionatura, di due bottiglie per
tipologia (nel caso di chiusure non in sughero è sufficente una) all seguente indirizzo:
Kyle Phillips
Via della Chiesa 62
50027 Strada in Chianti (FI)
Tel: 333 470 Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-32843976200918981412012-08-03T02:37:00.000+02:002012-08-03T09:49:28.082+02:00A Visit to Castello di Brolio, and thoughts about Bettino Ricasoli
Looking towards Siena from Brolio
Brolio is the largest estate in Chianti, one of the oldest, and also the most important. Because without Brolio we wouldn't have the Chianti Classico we know today. The estate had belonged to the Ricasoli family for centuries -- since 1141 -- but when Bettino Ricasoli inherited it in the early 1800s at the age of 18, following the death of his mother, it was Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-6953138763392425682012-08-02T09:00:00.000+02:002012-08-02T10:19:13.763+02:00Garantito IGP: Cornello dei Tasso, and The Postal System
This time, I take the stand:
The first few km of the Val Brembana, which goes extends into the Alps behind Bergamo, are decidedly nondescript, with an abundance of relatively recent buildings jumbled together on the valley floor. However, after a few tunnels the construction started to thin, and in the space of a few more km (and more tunnels) you'll find yourself at the bottom of a V, with Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-38543459402726466092012-07-27T10:19:00.000+02:002012-07-27T10:19:06.895+02:00Franzoni: Botticino!Lombardia has a number of so-called lesser appellations, and Botticino, a red from the Alpine foothills to the west of Brescia (mid-way between Brescia and Lake Garda), is one of them. To be honest, the major reason Botticino is obscure is the volume produced; were the appellation larger, and more wine available, it would be much better known.
The climate and topography of the Botticino Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-2900803163157651922012-07-26T19:43:00.001+02:002012-07-26T19:43:14.367+02:00Garantito IGP: The Val di Cembra and The Legionnaire Uncle
This time Stefano Tesi takes the Stand:Lying on the bed of my room, looking though the shadows to the bit of mountain I could see from my window, A single thought ran through my head. And had since morning, when, as I waited for breakfast, I had examined the old pictures on the walls. And seen him: Uncle Luigi.
Photo by Giorgio Def
It was a shot from after the war, in black and white, a Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-17625436766172112652012-07-20T16:50:00.001+02:002012-07-20T16:50:41.335+02:00Garantito IGP: Montevetrano 2010 Colli di Salerno IGT
This time Luciano Pignataro takes the stand:
Silvia Imparato's Adventure began precisely 20 years ago, on a hill near Salerno, at the feet of the Piacentini, the mountains of the Massiccio del Terminio that sit astride the Province of Avellino: She began to make wine with her Roman friends in the old family home out in the country.
It seem like, and is, a standard 1990s story, but with one Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-59505081945112250342012-07-13T16:34:00.001+02:002012-07-13T16:42:20.989+02:00Castello di Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva il Poggio: A Vertical
The 1962 In the Glass
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Fabrizio Bianchi's decision to try something that at the time was a radical innovation for Chianti Classico: Making a wine from a single vineyard. It was Chianti Classico's first, and is from the vineyard that still yields the cuttings for all of Castello di Monsanto's other vineyards.
Not that one would necessarily recognize Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-36521547108961454372012-07-13T00:57:00.001+02:002012-07-13T00:57:47.106+02:00Garantito IGP: Bazzini -- A Place From Other Times In Canneto Pavese
This time Carlo Macchi takes the stand:
What is the Pianura Padana From six o'clock onFog that seems to beIn a glass Of water and anise
This speaks Paolo Conte, referring to the area around Broni and Stredella, known by many as the Oltrepò Pavese. If the six o'clock happens to be on a summer afternoon, with a muggy 95 in the chade, the picture changes. Then the fog is called heat haze Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-29708146670790190592012-07-05T20:16:00.000+02:002012-07-05T20:16:01.947+02:00Zocca, Vasco Rossi and Massimo Riva's Home Town, and a place one must visit for the Osteria del Sole
This time Roberto Giuliani takes the stand:
Getting to the town of Zocca from the high plains of Mocogno was
difficult: one switchback after another leading down 1300 meters from
the the plains to the sea, and then another 750 meter climb to Zocca.
Obviously, if you're coming from elsewhere, say Modena, you need not
follow the path I had to.
Zocca, or "block of wood" (what zocca means Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-11981581267189912382012-07-02T12:56:00.000+02:002012-07-02T12:56:09.162+02:00Wines from Italy's Lesser Isles
Rosanna Ferraro has a delightfully impish smile, and is blessed with a sly sense of humor, as I discovered in the course of last year's Pellegrinaggio Artusiano. She also has a fine feel for what's distinctive in wine, and this year assembled a group of winemakers from Italy's many smaller islands. People who are dynamic and devoted to their craft, but due to the physical limitations of only Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-74807153050207383042012-06-28T18:31:00.000+02:002012-06-28T18:31:08.510+02:00Garantito IGP: I Balmetti di Borgofranco
This time I take the Stand:
If you drive north from Torino towards the Valle D'Aosta, you'll find yourself following the valley now occupied by the Dora Baltea. It wasn't carved by the river, however -- it's glacial in origin, and shortly after Ivrea you'll come to something unique, so far as I know: Borgofranco D'Ivrea's Balmetti.
Balmetti are houses with cellars built into the glacial Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-83787575023969282112012-06-22T15:43:00.000+02:002012-06-22T15:49:00.739+02:00La Bruciata: Moscato & More
A couple of years ago Oscar Bosio, who is best known for his Moscato, contacted me via Facebook and asked me to stop at his stand at Vinitaly. I did, for what I thought would be a quick stop, only to discover he makes all sorts of wines, all worth thinking about. This year I didn't make it to his stand, and he kindly sent samples to me.
La Bruciata Langhe Arneis DOC 2011
Lot AR04.12
Pale Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-8546396198498479222012-06-21T12:05:00.000+02:002012-06-21T12:05:18.001+02:00Garantito IGP - Ristorante Dopolavoro La Foce
This time Stefano Tasi takes the StandLight. Large windows. Old photos, almost all B&W. Brick bar. Benedetta Origo and her daughter Katia seem to have chosen a minimalist style for La Foce, the new restaurant of the historic Valdorcia estate. The one, so we know what we're talking about, with the famed winding cypress-lined road immortalized in all the guides to Tuscany, of the Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12273059.post-35659899621042388522012-06-15T02:23:00.000+02:002012-06-15T02:23:50.912+02:00Benvenuto Brunello 2007!
This year the folks in Montalcino presented the 2007 vintage of Brunello. It's an interesting vintage; in Chianti I enjoyed the vini d'annata, which were rather scrappy, but found the Riserve on the whole less convincing -- that lively scrappy brambly character of the young wines didn't carry over well into the more structured, refined character one expects of a Riserva -- and was Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10696427696950439469noreply@blogger.com0