The biggest news that came out of Vinitaly 2012 last week was the announcement of an agreement the Italian government reached with the EU in Brussels to accept the proposal for a level of wine similar to the DOCG within the European DOP protocol. Giuseppe Martellino, President of the Com.Media Nazionale Vini had this to [...]

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Last day at Vinitaly and I was making one last run through the Sicilian pavilion, trying to soak up any last minute molecules from all the Sicilians who populated the space for the last three days. A winemaker friend, Stefano Salvini, sees me and says, “We just opened the 1952. Let’s stop by the [...]

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Lingue di suocera

It’s been a long three days at Vinitaly 2012. A few pictures to highlight some of the things we have seen. One day to go and then it’s on to the vineyards for a few days in the field, or as Ron Washam likes to say, on and on and on and on [...]

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That was the kind admonishment from the galleries as my young friend Paolo Bressan was showing the wine from his winemaker friend Christian’s Cà dei Zago farm. The young winemaker was a few minutes in coming, but when he arrived, with the sun on his face (“We just finished pruning”).
A short entry as day two [...]

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From what I can gather the D.O.C. and D.O.C.G. is no more. A document was signed by the Director General ad interim, Stefano Vaccari back in November but I imagine it will take time to become “official” and more time to become “recognized.” Sure the Italians have just printed up pretty new neck bands for [...]

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