Displaying items by tag: Italian Wine

Summary: 

By examining Mount Etna's peculiarities, history, and modern practices we are able to learn why these inimitable volcanic wines have everyone talking about Sicily. 

Presenter: Benjamin Spencer DipWSET 

Benjamin Spencer is an award-winning American author, journalist, and the founder of the Etna Wine School, a wine consulting company on Mount Etna, in Sicily. After making wine on California’s Central Coast for a decade, he moved to Mount Etna in 2012 to study and share his love of Etna’s inimitable volcanic wines. The New Wines of Mount Etna won The Best European Wine Book from Gourmand International in 2021.

Summary:

Presenter: Tanya Morning Star

Tanya Morning Star is a full-time wine educator and writer with nearly 3 decades of industry experience. Her school, Cellar Muse is the approved program provider for Wine Scholar Certifications (French, Italian, and Spanish) in the Seattle area. She is also a Certified Wine Educator, an approved WSET instructor for L1-L4 curriculums, an official Ambassador of Bourgogne Wines, the Official Educational Ambassador of Orvieto Wines, and a Vinitaly Academy Italian Wine Ambassador!

Tanya is deeply interested in the why and how of wine. Through her studies at the Sorbonne and New York University, coupled with her love of travel, Tanya became interested in history and cultural identity, which guides her work, and research, she has been teaching Wine History at the college level for 10 years, and developed an online course on Wine History.

Summary:

Join us for a WSG Live on wines from Oltrepò Pavese, Lombardy’s largest viticultural area. The region sits on the border of three regions and is a center of excellence for Pinot Noir in Italy, for Sparkling wines, and indigenous varieties of note such as Croatina and Barbara. From sparkling to sweet, Oltrepò Pavese will surprise you!

Presenter: Susannah Gold

Susannah teaches Italian wine classes for the Italian Trade Commission and presents seminars and webinars for individual wine producers and wine regions at various schools, trade fairs, and consumer events. Through her company Vigneto Communications, she and her team promote wine and food products in the U.S.  She does media, trade relations and often helps to find importers and distribution.  

She holds various wine certificates from schools around the world including an Italian sommelier certificate from the Associazione Italiana dei Sommeliers (AIS), the Diploma in Wines & Spirits (DipWSET), the qualification as an Italian Wine Ambassador from the Vinitaly International Academy, the CSW and CSS from the Society of Wine Educators, the French, Spanish, and Italian Wine Scholar certificates from the Wine Scholar Guild and a certification from the Spanish Wine Academy and Lustau as a Sherry Specialist.  

She has written for The Financial Times, Santé, Palate Press, Gourmet Retailer, Food, Food & Beverage Business, Snooth.com, the Organic Wine Journal, the Sommelier Journal, F&B Magazine, GDO Week. She pens a wine blog called Avvinare.com and has done two Podcast series, one on sustainability and one on wine books.

Fluent in English, Italian, and French, she also speaks Spanish and is learning Portuguese. She works with clients in all four languages. Susannah is a proud member of Les Dames d’Escoffier’s New York Chapter, co-Chair of their annual event entitled, “The Next Big Sip,” and current Treasurer of the Chapter.

When the Consorzio Brunello di Montalcino was established in 1967, one year after the wine received DOC status (it became one of the initial DOCG wines in 1980), there were only twenty-five members. Today, there are more than two hundred Brunello producers; given the reputation of this wine for its ability to age for twenty-plus years in the finest vintages, this is hardly surprising.

Summary: 

Lambrusco has a bad rap. Many wine drinkers dismiss it as simple sweet commercial fizz. And perhaps much of it was when it made its international debut in the 1960s and ‘70s. But that was a long time ago. And there’s much more to Lambrusco than many are aware.

In this webinar we will investigate the ancient origin of the Lambrusco family of grapes in an atypical growing area in the Po River valley, focusing on three of the most important, site-specific sub-varieties.

We will meet some of the key producers — small and larger, new and older — and discuss some of their most interesting, representative wines employing various production methods (Tank, Ancestral, Traditional) and length of time on lees.

We will also explore the Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, which has its own unique production process and extended ageing regimen. Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale was traditionally made by winemakers from the same vineyards and grape varieties, and therefore constitutes an additional expression of Lambrusco.

Finally, we will consider how Lambrusco-based wine and vinegar complement the traditional regional cuisine and how all three reflect and express the unique culture and terroir of the area.

Presenter: Alan Tardi

Alan Tardi is a wine journalist (Wine and Spirits Magazine, Wine Spectator, The New York Times, Sommelier Journal, Wine Folly), educator, and author of two award-winning books: "Romancing the Vine: Life, Love and Transformation in the Vineyards of Barolo" (St Martin's Press 2006/James Beard Award Best Wine Book of 2006) and "Champagne, Uncorked: The House of Krug and The Timeless Allure of the Worlds Most Celebrated Drink" (Hachette 2016/Gourmand Best in the World Award 2016).

His interest in wine developed while working in some of New York City’s legendary restaurants and as chef-owner of his own acclaimed NYC restaurant. He lived in the Barolo village of Castiglione Falletto for over a decade, working in the vineyards and wineries and managing the town's Cantina Comunale and functioned as the first US Ambassador of Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco.

Alan teaches the IWS program online with the Wine Scholar Guild and is a frequent presenter at SommCon and the Society of Wine Educators annual conference. Alan is a Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW), WSET Level 3, Champagne Master (WSG), and Italian Wine Scholar (IWS).

Here is the list of featured wines/traditional Balsamic vinegar Alan will be referring to in his webinar in case anyone would like to taste during the webinar: 

1. Lambrusco di Sorbara DOC “del Fondatore” 2020  CLETO CHIARLI chiarli.it 
2. Lambrusco Salamino di Santacroce IGT “Rosso Viola” 2020 LUCIANO SAETTI vignetosaetti.it
3. Lambrusco Grasparosso di Castelvetro DOC 2020  FATTORIA MORETTO fattoriamoretto.it
4. Salamino di Santa Croce Rosato Frizzante DOC "PerFranco" 2020 TERREVIVE terrevive.net
5. Lambrusco di Sorbara DOC “Lariserva” Spumante Brut 2020 PALTRINIERI cantinapaltrinieri.it
6. Lambrusco Metodo Classico “1984” Rosé 2014 ZANASI zanasi.net
7. Lambrusco di Sorbara DOC Metodo Classico 2016 SILVIA ZUCCHI vinizucchi.com
8. Lambrusco Salamino DOC “In Correggio” Metodo Classico Rosso 2006 LINI 910 lini910.it

Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena Affinato (12 Years)                     GIUSEPPE GIUSTI giusti.it

Summary: 

Alto Adige is a land of spectacular contrast and diversity. Positioned in northeast Italy, on the sunny side of the Alps, it is an area where men and mountains have met for centuries. It is a frontier region; not just politically but geographically, climatically, and viticulturally. Winemaking here requires a special skill set.

Vineyards are planted from 200m to 1000m and experience huge diurnal swings in temperature, while alpine geology delivers an immense diversity of soils.

This goes part way to explaining how, in a region no larger than St Emilion in Bordeaux, there are nevertheless over 20 different grape varieties grown. These are cultivated by around 5000 individual wine growers owning, on average, just 1 ha of vineyard each, and yet between them, they manage to produce 98% of Italy’s DOC, top-quality wines which are increasingly successful in finding their way into international markets.  

Join Nancy Gilchrist MW to learn more about this extraordinary yet relatively little-known region, and discover some of the measures this finely balanced ecosystem is adopting in the face of climate change. 

Presenter:  Nancy Gilchrist MW

Nancy is an independent wine educator and a Master of Wine since 1995. She was the wine columnist for The Boston Globe before returning to the UK where amongst many other things she created Academie du Vin @ 67 Pall Mall and was a director of Christie's Wine Education. She still lectures at Leith's School of Food & Wine and is an acknowledged reference on the interaction of food & wine. She also specialises in the wines of South Africa and is UK Ambassador for the Consorzio Vini Alto Adige.

Wine professionals and consumers share a similar aspiration when they visit a wine region; they want to enjoy the area’s best dining experiences so they can pair their favorite local wines with the territory’s typical food offerings.

While commonplace throughout Italy, this situation is nowhere more prominent than in Piedmont, especially in the region’s southern Langhe district. Lunch or dinner in the Barolo and Barbaresco production zones here is more than a simple pleasure; this is wine, and food pairing elevated to an art form.

Summary:

In 2009 Prosecco was re-mapped in sweeping changes that created an extensive new zone for the production of Prosecco DOC on the plains of the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia and elevated the traditional hillside growing areas of Conegliano Valdobbiadene to DOCG status, Italy's top denomination.

One of the innovations of the revised "Disciplinare di Produzione" ('production norms') of the DOCG was the categorization of the sub-zones called "Rive"  which are the subject of this webinar.  

We will be exploring the soil and climate features of the Prosecco Superiore Rive zones and matching them to wines which give a revealing insight into the subtle diversity and pure class of an Italian sparkler often perceived as a standardized commercial product.  

Presenter: Richard Baudains

Richard Baudains was born and brought up on the Island of Jersey, a formerly French-speaking part of the British Isles, hence the French surname. To satisfy his wanderlust he studied to become an English language teacher, a profession he has had the good fortune to pursue in many of Italy's top wine regions. He published his first article with Decanter in 1989 and has been writing about Italian wine for the same London-based magazine ever since.

He is a regional chair at the Decanter World Wine Awards, on the team of the Slow Wine Guide for Friuli Venezia Giulia and teaches M.A. Courses on Wine Journalism at the Università delle Scienze Gastronomiche. He has previously led webinars for the Wine Scholar Guild on the wines of the Collio and the macerated whites of Friuli Venezia Giulia. Outside of wine, he works as a Cambridge University English language examiner.  He lives in Gorizia.