Tuscan is located in west-central Italy and includes the cities of Florence, Siena and Pisa. It is also the birthplace of the Italian renaissance. Wine production in Tuscan started before the rise of the Roman Empire and is believed to have begun in ...
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2014 Opolo Fusion Red Blend ($28) Several years ago, I was given a bottle of Opolo Reserve Zinfandel and thought it was one of the best bottles I had ever had. I’ve remained a big fan of Opolo and have visited their tasting room during a visit to ...
Read more →Nebbiolo is a grape that is grown almost exclusively in Italy. In the Piedmont region. And, most famously in Barolo and Barbaresco. The Nebbiolo grape is named for the Italian word for fog which is “nebbia.” This grape thrives in the cool and foggy ...
Read more →Much like France, Italy has a long tradition of wine. In the 1960s, Italy formalized their wine appellation system modeled after the French system. Under this system, each wine region in Italy was required to operate under strict rules for the types...
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J Vineyards California Cuvée ($18) I recent had an opportunity to share in a celebration and wanted a nice sparkling wine for the occasion. Seeing this bottle of J Vineyards California Cuvée already chilled at the store made my decision an easy on...
Read more →Sangiovese (san-jo-VEH-zay) is a famous grape from Italy. Some believe that this indigenous Italian grape dates back to the second century BC, where it was first known to be cultivated by the Etruscan winemakers of Tuscany. Literally translated from...
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2017 Rombauer El Dorado “Twin Rivers” Zinfandel ($42) Rombauer’s El Dorado (“the golden”) Vineyard is located 1,650 feet above sea level in the Sierra Foothills of El Dorado County, California. Its sandy soils, high elevation, and warm days and co...
Read more →Montepulciano (mon-ta-pull-channo), as you might guess by its name, is an Italian wine. You might also guess that it’s from a region or town of Montepulciano, Italy. There, you’d be wrong. Montepulciano is a beautiful medieval town in Tuscany, in ce...
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2017 Ravines Wine Cellars Maximilien ($24.95) Ravines Wine Cellars is an artisanal winery in the flourishing, world-class wine region of the Finger Lakes, located in upstate New York. It is the passion of Morten & Lisa Hallgren, a European Win...
Read more →Fifty years ago, Soave was the most popular Italian wine in the U.S., it even outsold Chianti. Soave (“swah-vay”) is an Italian white wine made of Garganega (“gar-GAN-nehgah”) grapes grown around the village of Soave in Northern Italy. Soave means ...
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