There’s a movement afoot in Italy’s Romagna to get Predappio Sangiovese—long the jewel in the crown of the region’s top reds, thanks to the diverse ochre and brown calcareous clay and yellow sand soils of its vineyards (thought to impart the wines with their distinct minerality—its own DOCG status. It’s a bit nascent for the…
Category: kick-ass wines
Etna Flexes Its Premium Muscles (Palmento Costanzo Recent Releases)
Etna has spent the better part of a decade becoming the wine media’s darling, with many of us waxing poetic about the quality of “volcanic wines” (guilty!). And Etna is finally capitalizing on it. The Consorzio Tutela Vini Etna DOC has (as of early November 2023) voted unanimously to pursue “DOCG recognition for the entire…
Towering Pillars of Fresh (Torre Rosazza Friuli Recent Releases)
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…
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…