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Friday, February 3rd, 2012
 For months I have been struggling with how much “bad” wine there is in Italy, and how much people defend it with national pride.
Don’t get me wrong, there is incredible wine in Italy, maybe even the best wines in the world; but 99% of the wine in Italy is drank out of a glass jug filled in the trunk of your car at the winery through a garden hose. It is THE substitute for drinking water or soda or milk with your meal. In the USA we often drink ice tea or water or soda or milk with our meals, in Italy you drink “daily” wine. And 60 million people drink a lot of daily wine. And have been drinking it since they were small children. The FUNCTION (or purpose) of 99% of the wine in Italy is not to enhance the meal, but to be the liquid part of it.
There are a significant number of people in Italy who have not drank wine out of a bottle for years, yet they drink wine every day. You go to the winery each week, fill your jugs with enough wine for the week, stick a stopper in it, and you are “good-to-go” for another week. And if you do buy your wine at the grocery store, it’s cheap Italian wine which costs between $5 and $10 a bottle. The US equivalent of box wine, or jug wine.
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Tags: Danna's Wine Scale, David Muhleman
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Saturday, January 21st, 2012
It’s no secret that I love Vietti wines. There………I said it. From the entry level, everyday Dolcetto with its juicy flavors to the small production single vineyard “cru” displaying the finest structure and balance you’ll ever taste in a Barolo, vintner and owner Luca Currado never takes his eyes off the vineyards and winery.
Blessed by grandfather Mario and father Alfredo, Luca has been infused with the best of tradition and innovation. He knows that the greatness of wine does lie with a single man or woman, but rather in the vineyard where terroir sets the stage. Once that foundation is set, the vintner can work with his or her inherent skills to guide and refine what nature has bestowed.
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Tags: Barbaresco, Barbera, Barolo, Castiglione Falletto, dolcetto, La Morra, Luca Currado, Serralunga, Vietti
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Wednesday, January 4th, 2012
There comes a day in every wine drinkers life, when they hit the “tipping point.”
Mine was New Year’s Eve, three years ago, at the Starr Pass Resort, in Tucson, Arizona. {To be fair, the Starr Pass resort has a fine sommelier, and some great wines, but not THAT night.} THAT night the best wine I could find in the entire resort was a Robert Mondavi jug wine.
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Wednesday, December 28th, 2011
As I sit here writing this and think back to 2008, when the financial universe was imploding at warp five speed, I recall having a discussion with my wife as to whether we should launch our very tiny wine site or sit tight for a bit and wait for our crystal ball to send a message. This came on the heels of two years of planning but then again, what do the financial Gods care about that? (As it turns out, I’ve since discarded the crystal ball). With the knowledge that sometimes, a very small niche concept can survive the worst of conditions and begin to grow once the worst has passed , we elected to go for it. If you can emerge from the fire with only a few scratches, chances are that you have a sound business model. Well, here we are three years later, that small niche concept, not only on a firm foundation, but growing.
2011 was a breakout year for us, our visitor volume swelling to over 80% from that of 2010 while our Facebook community tripled to 1000! We added new contributors such as Dr. Dave Muhleman and Gina Freize of Venissimo Cheese while expanding our Video segment. And our advertisers, so very important to our support, expanded significantly, as well.
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Tags: 2012, Wine Inquirer
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Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
I believe there are two major types of people in this world; people who find what they like and stay with it, and people who are always exploring for something new. It doesn’t matter if we are talking cars, or beer, or food, or wine; one group of people know what they like and continue to enjoy it, and the other group will continue to bounce from item to item, based on the sheer joy of trying something new. In my life I have been both.
The first group of people I refer to as the “Dog food syndrome.” Your dog eats the same food, day after day after day. These folks know what they like and they stick with it. Most of America believes in great consistency, and this is the group of people who do not like surprises.
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Tags: wine and food pairing, Wine choices
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Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
The holiday season is upon us and so many will be gifting bottles of wine and spirits to family, friends and business colleagues. We attended two parties last weekend, attended by a bottle of wine for each host. At one of the events, the host kindly took us aside and asked if we would like to share a special bottle of fairly “expensive” California Cabernet from the case he’d recently ordered. All of this made me wonder what prompts us to spend more on a bottle of wine. I’d bet if researchers could figure this one out, wine retailers would pay a not so small fortune for the data.
There are several “triggers,” if you will, that encourage me to spend more on wine. Celebrations are a classic for me; a key birthday, birth, graduation, dinner party, and business events are classic. If someone thinks enough to invite me to a meaningful celebration, I just can’t show up with a two dollar bottle of wine.
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Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
Our visit in Piedmont would not have been complete without a visit to the storied estate of Vietti (www.vietti.com), run by Luca Currado. With storied Barolos such as the Brunate, Lazzarito and Rocche, an outstanding Barbaresco in the Masseria and the highly sought after Tre Vigne and Scarrone Barberas from Alba and the Tre Vigne from Asti, this estate is firing on all cylinders.
After greeting us, Luca took us on a tour of his facility that included a fascinating look at ongoing cold maceration. You can read more about this a see the photo here. From there, we headed for the barrel room, through some very ancient corridors, one of which displayed three very old large flasks from Napoleon’s time which were filled with several days rations of………………..you guessed it……………….wine for the troops. I think it’s safe to assume that it wasn’t the Brunate or Rocche.
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Tags: Alba, Asti, Barolo, Luca Currado, Vietti
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For months I have been struggling with how much “bad” wine there is in Italy, and how much people defend it with national pride.
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