Displaying items by tag: Italian Wine

Summary:

In this WSG Live we will explore Abruzzo's varied terroir and indigenous grape varieties and see how much this beautiful region has to offer. We will discuss the DOC/DOCG appellations as well as the principal grape varieties. Abruzzo has remarkable white, red and rose wines and a long history to boot. We will also look at the styles and aging vessels winemakers are using to express the nuances of their locations.

Presenter: Susannah Gold

Susannah teaches Italian wine classes for the Italian Trade Commission, presents seminars and webinars for individual wine producers and wine regions at various schools and events and through her company Vigneto Communications promotes wine and food products in the U. S. with her team. 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) from the WSET, the qualification as an Italian Wine Ambassador from the Vinitaly International Academy, the CSW and CSS from the Society of Wine Educators, the Italian Wine Scholar and French Wine Scholar certificate from the Wine Scholar Guild.  A certification from the Spanish Wine Academy.

She teaches wine classes and has written for Civilta del Bere, Palate Press, The Financial Times, Gourmet Retailer, Food, Food & Beverage Business, Snooth. com, the Organic Wine Journal, the Sommelier Journal, F&B Magazine and GDO Week. She pens a wine blog called Avvinare. com. Fluent in English, Italian, and French, she also speaks advanced Spanish and elementary Portuguese. She works with clients in all four languages. Susannah is a proud member of Les Dames dEscoffiers New York Chapter and co-Chair of their annual event focused on the Beverage Industry entitled, The Next Big Sip.

Summary:

As Hugh Johnson first grasped in the late 1960s, there is no greater tool to wine understanding than fine cartography: the chance to read a landscape from a single sheet of paper. More and more wine regions around the world, moreover, are now refining the manner in which both growers and producers are able to express terroir via geological and topographical surveys, and high-quality mapping is an essential adjunct to this. No contemporary cartographer has had more impact on today's wine world than Alessandro Masnaghetti: the guest on our third edition of WSG Live.

Guest:  Alessandro Masnaghetti

Alessandro began his career in wine as a taster -- for the influential Luigi Veronelli, and then later for Vinum and l'Espresso, as well as for La Revue des Vins de France. He is the only Italian founder member of the Grand Jury Européen. Since 2007, though, he has gone back to a former passion of his, cartography, on the basis that "the true essence of journalism lies not in purveying opinions but in carrying out research and in-depth analysis". His magnificent maps of the Langhe and of Chianti Classico have led to new ways of thinking about these classic regions, and he has also mapped both Valpolicella and Bordeaux. He is currently engaged on a major, long-term project to map California's wine regions for Antonio Galloni's Vinous.

Apart from the Côte d’Or in Burgundy, perhaps no other wine territory has been dissected in greater detail than the Barolo zone. This makes perfect sense, as these are arguably the two most ideal representations of the concept of terroir; just as Pinot Noir from one village in Burgundy reveals different flavors than that of another nearby hamlet, so too offerings of Barolo from various communes often display diverse characteristics, despite the fact that every wine here is made exclusively from Nebbiolo.

There are 11 approved communes in the Barolo production zone. For this article, we will deal primarily with the five largest: La Morra, Serralunga d’Alba, Monforte d’Alba, Castiglione Falletto and Barolo itself. The remaining six are Cherasco, Diano d’Alba (interestingly, planted more to Dolcetto than Nebbiolo), Grinzane Cavour, Roddi, Verduno and Novello; these last two are home to two of the most in-demand vineyards in the entire zone: Monvigliero in Verduno and Ravera in Novello.

The Italian wine world is full of wine-related terminology that many consumers struggle to understand. Learning the meaning of a few key terms can increase your confidence level and help you make informed decisions when selecting your next glass, or bottle, of vino. We have compiled a list of 25 common terms and phrases that we know will help you navigate the delicious world of vino Italiano!

Whether it is in the bilingual wine labels of Alto Adige, or the occasional Slavic grape name in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italian wine often reveals the duality of culture present in some of the country’s border regions. Tucked into Italy’s northwestern corner, Valle d’Aosta certainly demonstrates this, as its language, cuisine and wine seem to have one foot in Italy and another in France.

Summary: 

Calabria is one of the most undiscovered wine regions in Italy, although its wine history and heritage goes back to very ancient times. The ancient Greeks called it “Oenotria”, land of wine, when they first reached the Ionic coast of Calabria, discovering a wonderful land with perfect conditions of climate and soil to grow grapes and produce wine. A wine that was even offered to the winners of the Olympic games as a special award. 

This webinar will guide you through this amazing region, showing the diversity of terroir, grape varieties and styles of wine it can offer and revealing the new wave of producers who are bringing this region back to ancient fame. 

Presenter: Tommasella Perniciaro

Tommasella Perniciaro was born in Italy, but her professional career took her to Spain and Sweden, where she currently lives. After taking the WSET Diploma in Wine and Spirits in London in 2015 and the French Wine Scholar (FWS) in 2016, she became WSET Certified Educator and founded The Good Wine Habit wine school in Gothenburg, where she runs the WSET Level 1-3 wine courses. Moreover, she teaches the online WSET Diploma in Wine for the WSET London School. Tommasella is a Vinitaly Italian Wine Ambassador (VIA), Vinitaly Certified Italian Wine Educator and Valpolicella Wine Specialist (Consorzio Tutela Vini della Valpolicella) for the Swedish market, where she organizes masterclasses and tastings about Italian wines for the trade and wine lovers.

Summary: 

In this live one hour webinar we will explore a very small but unique appellation in Italy which produces one of the best expressions of Nebbiolo.

An appellation where the Alpi Retiche mountains, climate and influence of the Adda River and Lago di Como play key role in the evolution of its wines.

Valtellina Superiore DOCG, its Subzones (Maroggia, Sassella, Grumello, Inferno and Valgella), and its jewel Sforzato have always been considered a hidden gem and are quickly gaining more attention all over the world. This in-depth webinar focuses on the characteristics of each subzone, the spectacular landscape and heroic viticulture, and offers experts insight to the origins of Nebbiolo grape, locally known as Chiavennasca.

Presenter: Mario Cagnetta

Mario Cagnetta is the head sommelier at Buca Cucina and has worked for prestigious restaurants like Buca Yorkville, Buca King and Don Alfonso 1890 in Toronto. He developed Wine Education Programs for King Street Food Company and he is very passionate about wine and food pairings. He has achieved Italian Wine Scholar, Spanish Wine Scholar, Burgundy Master level, Bordeaux Master Level with highest honors and also owns Master Level in Champagne and Provence. He is also a Certified Sommelier from AIS, the Italian Sommelier Association and from the Court of Master Sommeliers. Before starting his wine and sommelier career he worked as a journalist for 15 years in Italy and Canada. He holds a Masters Degree in Literature and Journalism from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano.

Italy’s wealth of grape varieties presents wine connoisseurs with many tantalizing prospects, particularly on the red wine spectrum. While Sangiovese and Nebbiolo still reign supreme, numerous grape varieties have re-emerged from hiding in recent years to spellbind wine lovers around the world. In Italy, the story of how some of these grapes transitioned from obscurity to fashionably cool can be just as compelling as the wines themselves. In many cases, the wines from these grapes are shining in a way they never have before, thanks to more informed decisions in the vineyard and winery.

Here are five up-and-coming Italian red grapes to pay attention to. While all of these grapes have been around for centuries, their resurgence has meant a quality revolution and increased interest from the international marketplace.