Layne Randolph, Napa Valley Register, August 2017 Technically, it’s the French who say rosé; the rest of us have adopted their usage of the word. It’s right that we use the French version; France is the indisputable land of rosé wine. From Côtes du Rhône to Provence, rosé has been a French favorite since long before its recent boom in popularity. Scoffed at for decades, rosé hasn’t gotten a lot of respect from the typical wine drinker since it went out of fashion in the 1990s. That’s why, when I lived in the Salento region of Puglia, Italy almost ten…Continue reading You Say Rosato, I Say Rosé
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James Suckling
James Suckling believes millennials will change the way the world approaches wine. The members of his small staff of innovators are all under 30, and he relies on them heavily to influence the look and feel of his brand. These days, James Suckling does more than write wine reviews, he produces wine-related documentaries, puts on international wine events, and collaborates with luxury designers to create new products for the wine industry. James divides his time between his homes in Napa Valley, Tuscany, and Hong Kong. Napa Valley is the site of the premier wine scene in the US, so it makes…Continue reading James Suckling
Tormaresca
“The Tormaresca project began with the dream, now a reality, to discover and enhance the precious native varietals of Puglia, leading the wine renaissance of the region.” Tormaresca Website We actually cheered when we finally saw a building in the distance. We had been driving for hours across Italy from Rome and in the last half hour, we had seen very few signs and only one indicator of our goal: Tormaresca Winery, in the Castel del Monte DOC in the southeastern tip of Italy known as Puglia. The Tormaresca estate is almost as remote as Tasca D’Almerita’s Regaleali in central Sicily,…Continue reading Tormaresca
JCB Tasting Salon and Atelier by JCB
Jean-Charles Boisset is known as a winemaker with inimitable style, and he’s curated some of his favorite things and put them on offer at the JCB Tasting Salon and Atelier in Yountville, California. And the glamorous and decadent JCB tasting salon is not your average tasting room, either. The room sparkles as brightly as the JCB bubbles, punctuated by a glorious chandelier over a gigantic extended table in the center of the room. The myriad of gilded mirrors hung upside down on the ceiling set off the scene, including the Surrealist Boutique glimmering with fine luxury products such as JCB’s…Continue reading JCB Tasting Salon and Atelier by JCB
The Baths of Bormio
Bormio, just south of the Swiss border and smack in the middle of the Italian Alps just a few hours from Milan. The natural hot springs of the area have been in continuous use for thousands of years and are now contained in a lovely resort called the Bagni di Bormio, (the Baths of Bormio). Pliny the Elder was already going on about their beneficial properties back in the first century A.D. And throughout the ages, Leonardo Da Vinci, European royalty and the like, regularly flocked here to “take the waters”. The Hotel Bagni Vecchi (Older Bath Hotel) is a…Continue reading The Baths of Bormio
Salento: Italy’s Best Kept Secret
Years ago, I lived in the seaside village of Otranto, Italy, and studied Italian at Porta d’Oriente, a school that advertised a half-day sea/half-day school approach to learning. Since then, I have dreamt of this region of Italy known as Salento. It seems God has blessed this part of Italy with glorious treasures: turquoise water, rock cliffs, long stretches of natural beaches, and bleached-white buildings that make up the tiny villages that hang over the sea. This is all topped off with extraordinary southern hospitality, which its natives lavish on visitors. I fell in love with the seemingly untouched beauty,…Continue reading Salento: Italy’s Best Kept Secret