You gotta love an Italian’s sense of historical perspective. In the case of Torre Rosazza (whose wares I sampled during a virtual media tasting earlier this year), they’re named after the “Tower of Roses” (Palazzo De Marchi, near Oleis di Manzano), which was originally a fortress, but was converted to a dwelling… in 1550. So…
Category: elegant wines
Natural Science (Rhys Vineyards Recent Releases)
Given its current darling status among the wine media cognoscenti, I suppose that I should have been predisposed to like the wines that Rhys Vineyards is plying. But the first two minutes of a Zoom tasting with winemaker Jeff Brinkman (formerly of R.H. Phillips, Antica, and Husch Vineyards & Winery) almost sealed the deal before…
Yo Yo YO Sannio! (A Sannio Campania Deep Dive in Philly)
A few months ago, I braved the utter hellishness of I-76 rush hour traffic (along with several other fine Philadelphia-area wine pro folks) to attend a media dinner at the venerable Old City restaurant Panorama. The star attraction? Wines from Italy’s Sannio DOC in Campania. Sannio was awarded DOC status in the 1990s, though its…
“The Circle Is Now Complete” (Visiting Donnafugata in Vittoria)
I’ve spent a good amount of time getting to know (and, of course, writing about) Donnafugata, one of the largest and most important producers in Sicily. Hell, I was even present for their first-ever retrospective tasting of Ben Rye (which either makes me insanely lucky, or old, or probably both). During the previous decade+, I’ve…