Tag: vino
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Keep Your Eyes on Sicilian Wines
Starting on Friday, Oct. 21, the Sudest Wine Fest a Siracusa takes place in Ortigia. Within the charming setting of the Antico Mercato di Ortigia, cooking demos, street food offerings, theater presentations, jazz music performances will please attendees, and of course, wine tastings will take center stage. I can only hope that the spectacular wines…
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The Grapes of Sicilian Wine
The terraces and stone walls of Randazzo on Mount Etna’s north face make for a special environment to grow grapes from ancient vines. Grape varieties such as Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccino grow about a half a mile above sea level, where the salty sea winds meet fresh, crisp mountain air that converges with volcanic,…
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Sicily’s Wines: Taste for Yourself
In recent years, Sicily has attracted the interest of serious wine connoisseurs. And with good reason: its terroir offers rich, volcanic soil, many grape varieties, numerous microclimates, and multiple generations of vines. Combine that with a new generation of vintners, and that equates to fantastic wines. You may be familiar with Nero d’Avola, Marsala, Grillo,…
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Liberation Celebration
April 25 is Liberation Day, a national holiday in Italy. Liberation Day (No, definitely not libation, as the bottle of wine may make you think.) celebrates when in 1945 during World War II, Allied troops once and for all liberated the Italian peninsula and islands from Mussolini’s Italian Social Republic. When I saw this bottle…
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Our May Tour, Day 9: A Multi-sensory Experience
We’ll walk into the vines with the owner of Feudo Montoni vineyard on Day 9 of our Experience Sicily May 19-31 tour with Chef Melissa Muller. Fabio will explain to us his wine-making process, take us through the estate’s cantinas, and pair his different wine varietals with the food that we’ll be making with Chef…
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Wine Connection
Connecting people to their heritage in Sicily brings me great joy, and this weekend I was thrilled to be able to connect two sisters to Sicily, this time through wine. They explained that their last name is Aitala, and asked if I knew how they could purchase the Sicilian wine of the same name. Well,…
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High Tech Vintage
Once wine grapes are harvested and pressed, the juice is brought here to begin the fermentation process. Today, wine making is very high tech. The wood barrels are still important, but they come later. First, however, stainless steel, temperature controlled, light controlled, and closely monitored containers create the liquid that becomes the wine we love.…
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Time to Taste the Wine
The end of September marked the grape harvest and the start of the wine-making season. Once made, the grape juice is left to age for all different lengths of time, depending on the varietal. However, November 11, or Saint Martin’s Day, marks the first tasting of the new wine, also known as “novello.” In towns…
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The Stakes are High
Vines (These are special because they stand singularly apart from other vines.) photographed on the slope of Mount Etna in Randazzo. Cheers!