What grows together goes together. Tribune food & wine critic Bill daley talks to a local expert about the art of pairing Italian wines with Italian dishes.
http://www.pip.net.au/ The single most important aspect of Italian wine is its astonishing variety. Wines of Italy is a 14 part half hour series which not only includes major wine producing regions: Piemonte, Veneto, Friuli, Tuscany and Umbria, but others, perhaps lesser known including Val d'Aosta, Lazio, Puglia and Sardegna whose intriguing and satisfying wines are now being discovered by the outside world. This series is not only about Italian wines, but takes in the land, the costumes and the people.
What are some of the grapes used to produce Italian wine? It could be the Nebbiolo, maybe TSangiovese or even an Aleatico grape. Each region of Italy brings its culture, history, climate and wine knowledge together to make distinctive wines for their area. Find out more at ClassicWines.com
SelectPlusItaly to Guarantee Wine AuthenticityItaly to Guarantee Wine AuthenticityThe Associated PressItaly has set up a panel of experts to check if Brunello di Montalcino meets production standards, following an investigation into whether some of the wine might have been cut with other grape varieties. (July 4)The Italian government announced today it will guarantee the authenticity of Brunello of Montalicino...(SOUND OF PEOPLE TOASTING WITH BRUNELLO)Brunello is one of Italy's best known wines, made exclusively from San Giovese grapes... Italians say it has brought them honor and prestige around the world. But a scandal this spring tainted its elegant name..It began when investigators in Tuscany confiscated hundreds of thousands of bottles saying they suspected the wine was being "cut" with another variety of grape, such as sauvignon or merlot.25-percent of Brunello produced every year IS sold in the United States- so american wine-experts were not pleased to hear that the Brunello they were drinking might NOT be the real thingThe US threatened to block all imports of Brunello unless Italian authorities did laboratory tests to prove that the wine was made with only San Giovese grapes. But experts say those tests are slow and costly. Now the US and Italy have reached a compromise. The US Ambassador to Italy Ronald Spogli explained .... SOT: RONALD SPOGLI, US AMBASSADOR TO ITALY: "the issue was simply having the assurance that it was 100-percent San Giovese.... that is the reason why the determination was ultimately made to this agreement whereby the Italian government would stand by the notion that the wine that was exported to the Untied States being called Brunello was indeed brunello according to the rules established by the consortium."Under the new decree, government inspectors will visit the vineyards, examine the grapes and check the wine to guarantee the product is made with San Giovese grapes and nothing else. STAND-UPTo some this may seem like a tempest in a wine glass, but Brunello sales bring in more than 185 million dollar a year to Italy, so its purity and authenticity must be unquestioned.Trisha Thomas, the Associated Press, Montalcino
Falesco Vitiano 2004 is from Umbria of Italy. Umbria is right at the centre of the Italian boot nick-named the Oven of Italy - very hot! The Vitiano consists of equal parts of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It has been consistently rated both by WA and WS with high eighties and low nineties. I have tasted the previous vintages - solid but my ratings were consistently lower by 2-4 points. Dark red and purple in colour. It has a nose of "Italian wine" followed by dark cherry Jello (Robertson's) or cherry jam, red licorice, dry cranberry and dry wild flowers (popourri). This respectable medium body wine has good balance of fruit, body and good grippy tannin but it is meant to be a juicy quaffer with fair structure than a serious wine. The finish is fair with some dark bitter chocolatey notes. Drink it up in the next few years. I keep failing to understand why the big boys rate this wine with such a fuss?! (Rated 86-88 points) by Michael Lam of the Beverage Review.
