Turbiana grapes at Cà dei Frati in Lombardy

Lombardy, located in northern Italy with 90 UNESCO World Heritage sites, continues to enjoy being one of most populous and richest region with Milan the second largest city after Rome. Always prosperous Milan has a cuisine made for those who can afford expensive ingredients like saffron and foods like osso bucco. Layers of richness are offset by the light, tart grapes of the region. 

Beyond lighter and tarter grapes, Lombardy’s size and diverse geography including alpine lakes, tall peaks, broad lakes, glacial moraines, and broad plains means it lacks one dominant and recognizable grape or style, which makes it harder to fathom for consumers. This month, I am hosting the Italian Food, Wine, and Travel group of wine writers as we explore the diverse terrain and wines of Lombardy, a region that the Wine Media Conference visited in 2022 where I went on excursions into the DOCs of Valtellina in the Alps near the border with Switzerland and Lugana which straddles the border with Veneto.

Read my invite post here to learn more about Lombardy’s long history of winemaking and about the various DOCs, grapes, and wine styles.

And while as much as I am enamored by Continue reading →

Lost to Found in Chile: Intro to 6 Carménère + What to Pair

Carménère has quite a lost to found story. On this day, Nov. 24, 1994, everyone in Chile thought it was Merlot until ampelographer pointed out why Chilean Merlot vines and wines were so different when he found them to be  Carménère, a grape originally from France which was thought to have been just about lost during the pholxera epidemic! Now November 24 is known as Carmenere Day to commemorate this important event. Read all about that Carménère story here in “Extinct No More”.

But there’s much more to Carménère than a case of mistaken identity and a fun story to tell at table: with regional differences to be explored, modern interpretations and elegant herbal elements being produced, with a range of price points from affordable to splurge worthy, and with many potential food pairings from Thanksgiving turkey leftovers to Christmas and other holiday dinners to traditional Chilean dishes like chicken chimichurri and beef stew with squash, Carménère is a wine that you should get in your glass.  Continue reading →

2016 Georges Dubœuf Domaine des Rosiers Gamay, Moulin-à-Vent, Beaujolais

Around St. Martin’s Day on November 11, the Talhas are tapped in Portugal and elsewhere, and on the third Thursday in Beaujolais, the Nouveau is released with much fanfare. The fanfare is well justified when you consider that n the past, wine would run out and you can imagine how happy everyone was to have it replenished! Today, while we are not at risk of running out of wine, we continue to find the release of the new wines a happy time, and Beaujolais Nouveau, which gets bottled shipped around the world in time to be opened and enjoyed on their third Thursday of November, is the best known.

So how long can a Beaujolais wine last? Continue reading →

Amphora Wine Day at Rocim

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2016 Halter Ranch Ancestor with gourmet burgers

Bordeaux and burgers? We’re not the only ones who say so!  In fact, in Sideways, one of the most famous wine movies ever, the main character Miles goes for a burger and Bordeaux; go here for more on that story.  Honestly, when we have expensive wine samples I feel guilty if we don’t do a high end expensive meal: Continue reading →

Abruzzo press trip tasting: biodynamic winemaker Stephania Pepe, Maia Parish, Gwendolyn Alley in Abruzzo June 2022

On this morning in 2007 16 years ago, I woke up, went to my laptop, and checked out my new blog. It was almost like a dream: I started at 10pm the night before, the Saturday of the time change which gave me a magical extra hour, and I used it to create “Art Predator.” My family couldn’t believe what I had done. It’s hard to believe where I am now–packing for a press trip to Portugal once again! Continue reading →

Unite for water rights

While many have heard about the wildflowers in the Carrizzo Plain National Monument, fewer people know just a few miles up toward the Los Padres Forest and Ojai, is an up and coming wine and olive growing region — and one that is already at risk from a water grab that is disrupting the hydrologic cycle in the area for farmers and residents. 

Home to Condor’s Hope, a largely dry farmed and agro-ecological project as well as Sagebrush Annie Winery and Quail Springs permaculture farm, the area is threatened by carrots grown at farms by Bolthouse, Grimmway, and a Harvard investment group’s venture into wine grapes which is sucking the area dry. Continue reading →