A one night layover in Rome and it was my first time in this city. Luckily I had a few tips in my pocket. After a short walking tour (Our Alitalia flight was 3 hours late, so we had to skip a few landmarks) we took a cab and headed to La Pariolina, a pizzeria and restaurant located in Parioli, one of the nice bourgeois parts of the city behind the Villa Borghese park. The tipp came from Winepunk Marco Zanetti, a sommelier turned “terroirist”, importing indigenous grape wines to Germany and maybe soon to your country as well. The particular thing about this Roman pizzeria is that it not only offers a nice wine list, but also a great craft beer list. Beer friends among you might know that a huge microbrew wave has been hitting Italy these last years. So here are a few impressions and I can only say that it was a great place to stop by, not only for the beer but also for good food emphasizing quality ingredients and also for its great atmosphere with not many tourists. Read the rest of this entry »

Andrea Farinetti, the winemaker at Giacomo Borgogno e Figli  is only 22 years old. The estate however, which his family bought in 2008, was founded back in 1761. What a contrast! And somehow all is said: at Borgogno both tradition and modernity are very important. Tradition translates through the use of big Slavonian oak casks as opposed to new, smaller Barriques and also through a very late release of the wines, as to prevent disappointment with wines that might be opened too early. On the other hand there’s modernity which probably shows in the pragmatism that each vintage demands from the winemakers and the implementation of modern findings into the vineyard work.

At the Rheingau Gourmet festival we were lucky to attend  a tasting of 8 Borgogno wines with the comments of Andrea Farinetti and his colleague from the marketing side of the estate. The tasting was held at Weingut Georg Müller Stiftung, a Riesling and Pinot estate in Hattenheim within the Rheingau region. Here are my tasting notes: Read the rest of this entry »

Meine erste Erfahrung mit diesem Einstiegs-Chianti des Weinguts Badia a Coltibuono stimmen zufälligerweise mit Piero Sini’s Interview und der gemeinsamen Verkostung mit der Dame des Hauses überein. Eigentlich könnte ich es auch bei diesem Link belassen, denn dem Urteil von Piero kann ich nciht mehr viel hinzu fügen. Read the rest of this entry »

Well… not entirely, as this so called “Super Tuscan” is composed of only 50% Cabernet with the remainder being 20% Merlot, 20% Petit Verdot and some 10% Cabernet Franc. Using these Bordeaux varietals in Bolgheri has become pretty standard nowadays; it used to be revolutionary 35 years ago when Antinori initiated this movement illegaly (read the story here). Podere Sapaio is an estate that has only been founded in 1999 by a bunch of passionates wanting to express the best of a land composed of quaternary and flood deposits with sandy beds and calcarous soils. The estate has quickly established as a bargain Supertuscan (although it still costs around 40 Euro a bottle) – I managed to get my hands on a bottle of 2008, let’s see how it showed. Read the rest of this entry »

Mmmmh, dieser leichte Stinker, “chaussette mouillée”, etwas kuhstall, genauso wie bei den französischen Vins Naturels. Ich mag das. Aber es ist ja auch Frucht dabei, von der feinen rotbeerigen Sorte. Am Gaumen, ein Wein der bizzelt, nach 5 Jahren auf der Flasche (!!), der hat wohl ein ausgeprägtes Eigenleben.
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Man lernt immer dazu. Zum Beispiel hatte ich noch nie etwas von der Rebsorte Durella gehört, doch zum Glück gibt es Tausendsassa Finkus Bripp, den zum Weinhändler transformierten Video-Weinblogger aus München. Er hat es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, möglichst authentische Weine ins Sortiment zu nehmen, die von “guten” Menschen gemacht wurden. Also von Winzern, denen es mehr um guten Wein als ums grosse Geschäft geht.

Aber zurück zur Durella-Traube. Es handelt sich um eine weiße Traube, die einst in Venetien vor allem als Grundlage für Read the rest of this entry »