At one of our tastings, a guest, who was born and grew up in Rome and now lives in Brussels, told me that she prefers French wines to Italian wines. To be specific, she prefers haut medoc. I was very surprised, and asked her why. Basically, it’s because if you are not an expert on…
We wanted to make a trip out of Buonrespiro. An incentive to have dinner outside was a block of the draining pipes to be repaired only the next day. So we decided to go to Lubriano a charming village just on the other side of the Umbria/Lazio border. On the way we visited Casa Vespina…
usly there are many good wines from other parts of the Umbria too. Some really brilliant sangiovese and elegant but resistant orvieto classico for example. But they are made of grapes also growing in other regions. while montefalco makes important wines made of typical umbria grapes exclusively. Sagrantino and trebbiano spoletino, this trip is all…
Italians don’t believe in the aging potential of their white wines. but they really should. I have rested again and again, and I confirm that a high percentage of italian wines can age really well. Years ago, I imported an entry level orvieto classico to China (Soana, COOP Monrubio). and there was one bottle forgotten…
There are 2 kinds of wines are difficult to achieve and more precious than others:one kind is the powerful wines with strong character but stay balanced and fine, still have subtle nuances and details, such as quality sangiovese and sagrantino,heavy wines are more likely to give an impression of grandiose, but grand and heavy, are…
In the last two weeks, we had a wine trip in Germany. We had a fun time, despite the totally messed up German train system. It is very convenient to have a wine trip in Germany, you don’t even need a car. Wine countries are accessible by train. In these villages, wineries are more concentrated…
in Chinese art there is a concept of “leave a free space by purpose(留白)”, which is considered essential for all the artworks. And this wine we are talking about is too full in all dimensions, leaves no free space, and ends up lack of character except for being loud
sangiovese is a brilliant grape,but very instable. the easy way to stablize it,is blend it with something else. umbria producers often blend it with cabernet or trasimeno gamay,or both. cabernet could be too square and boring, but it is very stable.even a small amount of cabernet can provide a stable frame for the blend. trasimeno…
