Viewing the volcanic rock strewn about the foothills of the still-active Mt. Etna volcano, one would be forgiven for imagining that it must take a crazy person to want to farm anything there. After meeting the wily and eccentric Peter Wiegner, the paterfamilias of Etna’s Wiegner Winery, and his huge Tibetan Mastiff patrolling the grounds…
Category: on the road
They Can Be Heroes (Ben Rye Retrospective At Palate Press)
Continuing the coverage from my Sicily jaunt earlier this year, if you head on over to Palate Press you can now view my take on a bit of a vinous historic first (“Heroic Viticulture on the island of Pantelleria”). While in Sicily, I was lucky enough to have a chance to visit both the wind-swept…
How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Carricante (Highlights From Sicilia En Primeur 2015)
It’s somewhat ironic, as I kick off a series of posts about my press jaunt to Sicily earlier this year, that the wine region I often cite as a source of reasonably-priced wines made from international varieties will now be compressed into a highlight reel focusing primarily on one indigenous variety. But hey, we gotta…
Sweet Niblets! (2010 Anakota Helena Montana Vineyard Cabernet)
The gravelly, sandy soils of the Helena Montana vineyard sit about 950 feet above sea level in Knights Valley. It’s where we’ll be wrapping up the recent spate of California coverage her on 1WD (…and all the Europhiles rejoiced…). When I visited said vineyard, I resisted the urge to shout “Sweet Niblets!” – which, I…