Categorie
Brunello di Montalcino…
Who knows? One day, you might find yourself live on TV, taking part in a competition. Imagine: you’re in 2nd place, there are only 5 points between you and the person in 1st place. The host asks you to pick a category. You smile broadly and pick ‘the Brunello category’ because the […]
Merano Grape Festival (‘Fest dell’uva’ or ‘Sagra dell’uva’)
Merano is a city situated in the northern part of Italy. Even though it is surrounded by snow-peaked mountains, the city is conveniently nestled in a valley which ensures that it stays cool in the summer, and mild in the winter.
The city is sometimes referred to as the ‘City of Flowers’ for […]
How Wine is Made…
(How wines are made can vary. This is just one example.)
Harvesting
The Italian grape harvest season is usually every September/October (depending on the weather). From the time the grapes ripen, they are picked fairly quickly in order to get the best out of them.
Destemming/ Crushing
The stems are then removed from the grapes and the grapes are […]
The Wine Show…
So I’ve been checking out the website of the other wine event I mentioned previous posts ago on the off-chance that I might be able to attend it (that’s if I’m not away on holiday on a secluded beach being served copious amounts of Chardonnay and fish by a very tall and fine waiter with […]
Care for a Tall Glass of Spumante?
‘Spumante’ (pronounced spoo-mahn-tay) means ‘foaming’ in Italian and is the name given to sparkling Italian wines (other terms used: ‘bubbly’ or ‘fizzy’ wine).
Italy wears the crown for producing the widest range of Spumante wines in the world. What a title to carry. And deservedly so, I might add! You can sample a range of Spumante […]
Scandals: Made in Italy…
There are two scandals that are, unfortunately, currently rocking the Italian-wine industry.
1) Contaminated cheap wine…
70 million litres of cheap Italian wines (sold for under 2 euros per litre) were discovered to be contaminated with traces of horse manure, acid, fertiliser, hydrochloric acid and lots of water. The bootleg production has been placed firmly on the […]
Do You Really Know What Tannin Is? (Part 2)
A quick recap from Part 1 (and a short explanation):
…the more unripe a grape is, the more tannic (bitter, sour) it is. The riper it is, the less tannin it produces, the sweeter the berry gets. However, to some degree, the seeds, the skin, and the stalk maintain some level of tannins - the skin […]
Do You Really Know What Tannin is? (Part 1)
When you’ve heard the word ‘wine’, you might have often heard the word ‘tannin’ too.
Tannin is a word that’s thrown around quite a bit, but can you say you really know what it means? Hand on heart?
If you do know, then good, it means you can explain it to the rest of us!
What is […]
Yeast: Your New Best Friend!
Often, when we’re sitting around talking about wine, how many times do we give a thought to the one essential ingredient that works really hard at making it possible to yield such wonderful, beautiful, tongue-tingling liquor?
Don’t worry; I’m guilty of it too! So forgive yourself! I’m usually busy talking about ‘Italian wine tour’ this and […]