e Greek wine and cuisine: so distinct, so delicious, so ideal for our grill friendly lifestyle! So why don’t we do Greek wines more often? Perhaps it’s because the wines aren’t easy to find — or easy to say! Names like Assyrtiko, Moschofilero, Malagousia, Savatiano, Retsina, Agiorgitiko, Xinomavro, Rapsani, Vinsanto, and Mavrodaphne may be challenging to most Americans to say, but it’s time to Go Greek and give Greek wine a try in 2022! The Greeks have 200 indigenous grape varieties with 50 used commercially for you to sample. Continue reading
In Memoriam: Lorenzo Corino and His Beyond Biodynamic Nebbiolo
Centin by Lorenzo Corino
In late August 2020, just before harvest started in earnest, I sat and enjoyed a glass of wine and the sunset with the legendary Lorenzo Corino where I learned about the patented Metodo Corino, the vegan biodynamic system he developed with La Maliosa’s Antonella Manulli. They worked together to develop a protocol and a process which lab tests showed significant enough differences, so that with the production of a scientific paper, they received their patent in May 2019.
“Biodynamics is yesterday,” said Lorenzo. But the moon is eternal: “I trust the moon. The moon is very important. When a new moon, the vines grow faster. The moon is something we know well and follow.”
Lorenzo Corino 1947-2021; photo courtesy VeroVinoGusto
Not Just A Blending Grape: 4 Cabernet Franc for Holiday Happenings
“Cabernet Franc? Isn’t that a blending grape?” my friend Kathy asked. “You’re right,” I assured her. “It’s probably best known as part of a Bordeaux blend. But in the Loire in places like Amirault and Tete Rouge, all biodynamic certified, Cabernet Franc stands alone. And people in the US and other parts of the world are growing it too to make stand alone wines!”
Barolo in His Blood: Aldo Clerico, Bagna Cauda, and Duck #ItalianFWT
Aldo Clerico and Bagna cauda
Aldo Clerico grew up in the heart of Barolo country in his family’s vineyards in Monforte d’Alba in the Langhe in northern Italy. He studied accounting in college, but in 2004 he returned to his roots to become a wine maker:
“After all, he has Barolo ‘in his blood’, Continue reading
Artistry and the Clos des Amis Field Blend Bottling: Ventura County Vineyards November 2021
FOTM Donna Granata, Gretel Compton, Bruce Freeman
“Artists teach us to see the world with refreshed vision, they force us to ask questions about society, they console us and even enrage us. But, above all, they engage us and remind us of our own role in the world,” says Donna Granata, founder and leader of Focus on the Masters (FOTM), a non-profit, 501(c)(3), art appreciation program that documents, preserves, and presents the lives and works of accomplished contemporary artists, with most of them from here in Ventura County, California.
Dreaming Impossible Dreams: Tilting at Windmills with Tempranillo and Verdejo from Castilla La Mancha #WorldWineTravel
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
And to run where the brave dare not goTo right the unrightable wrong
And to love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable starThis is my quest
To follow that star
Ooh, no matter how hopeless
No matter how far…
the beginning of “The Impossible Dream”
by Mitch Leigh (scroll down for complete lyrics)
from The Man from La Mancha
Growing up, we had a player piano, and “The Impossible Dream” was one of the 100 player piano rolls I grew up playing and singing. Continue reading
What Wine to Pair with Giving Thanks at Home
LOVE… one another
I love the idea behind Thanksgiving– the idea that we as families and friends, that we as a nation, that we as individuals pause, even during a pandemic, to give thanks, to be grateful for what we have, for the bountiful harvest the earth provides for us year after year. The actual holiday of Thanksgiving and what it represents? Not so much.
Turkey
The Thanksgiving story we grew up with is largely a myth that erases the people who lived here for millennia before the Pilgrims and the Puritans made their way to these shores. The first Thanksgiving celebration didn’t even take place in Plymouth, Continue reading
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 