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Native Italian Varietals
Guided recommendations, pairings, and tasting notes.
$29.99
Handcrafted from 100% Sauvignon Blanc fruit from Prepotto in Friuli, the fruit is hand picked in early September and fermented in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks and left on the lees for a few months prior to bottling. The wine shows as pale yellow with greenish hues in...
$34.99
This beautiful wine is hand crafted from 100% Riesling fruit harvested mid-October. Fermentation is temperature controlled, 50% in stainless steel and 50% in large oak barrels, then aged in stainless steel on the fine lees for 4 months. The wine shows as straw yellow with greenish tinge color...
$35.99
Handcrafted from 100% Cannonau fruit grown in their vineyard in Sorso-Sennori. The vineyard faces the Gulf of Asinara, overlooking the sea at an altitude of about 300 meters (1000 feet). From this point you can also see Stintino and the Pelosa Beach, as well as the coast of Platamona and...
$45.99
Handcrafted by Stefano Traverso, this reserve Merlot from 50 year old vines in the Ronco area is hand picked then fermented on the skins for 20 days, and aged 18 months in French Oak then further in concrete tanks prior to bottling. This wine shows deep, dark ruby...
Just back from Italy with wines from the Marche (“MAR-kay”) region located on the eastern side of central Italy, on the Adriatic coast, I returned to California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. I brought two different bottles of Verdicchio from Tenuta dell’Ugolino. Verdicchio is a popular white wine in Italy but is not well known outside the country. I also brought two other little known Italian varietals, from the Madonnabruna winery, one called Passerina and another called Pecorino (which is not to be confused with sheep’s milk cheese!) Dan Berger says that there are a lot of Italian white wines that are all delicious, and quite different among them. Italy is known for reds. They have been making wine for...
Ornella Molon and Loris Traverso joined me on the radio with hosts Steve Jaxon and Dan Berger. Ornella Molon and her husband, Giancarlo Traverso are two of our producers in the Veneto and Friuli regions of Italy. Loris explained how his parents started in the wine business in 1982. Neither his father nor his mother had a background in wine. When his grandparents gave them a vineyard when they were married in 1977, they started making wine, first for friends and then professionally. When they registered the winery as a business in 1982 at the Chamber of Commerce in Treviso, it was the first time that a woman was put in charge of the company. People were skeptical of a woman...
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius (Monte Vesuvio) in AD 79 blanketed the region in volcanic ash and rock, and it also created one of the most unique viniculture regions in Italy known today as Campania. We journeyed into the province of Avellino in Campania in April in search of the "Barolo of the South"- Taurasi- crafted from the ancient varietal Aglianico. After landing at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport and pointing our rented cinquecento south on the E45 for two hours, we were navigating the country roads around Avellino and hill towns of Taurasi and Tufo. Vineyards of the ancient varietals Aglianico, Greco, and Falanghina blanket the hills at remarkable elevations—400-500 meters above sea level. The Irpinia district of Avellino...