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AntiquaTours
Rome, Italy
Wine educator based in Rome, Italy I teach Italian Wine Culture and host guests in Rome and Lazio. www.antiquatours.com
Interests: Wine, food, dogs, cats, hiking and researching the holy grail of wines.
Recent Activity
Thanks Alice! As always it is a pleasure to meet up!!
Where to eat/drink in Rome
When I'm late (!) neglecting the blog, getting sick, otherwise occupied sometimes I share snippets from The Feiring Line newsletter (you really, really should subscribe.) Here's a cutting from my voyage to Rome with some recs you might want to clip and save. The links are not engaged, but you ...
This is an important post. I have found this to be true even when I am with people who dismiss a bottle as faulty. and hour or two later the bottle is fine. I suppose we've all been taught that once opened bottles need to be consumeed RIGHT NOW or else.
Patience is rewarded
Wait! Don't throw that disappointing bottle out. There might be gold inside after all. I recently opened two wines I'd raved about to drink. The 2011 Domaine Chandon de Brialles Louise and the 2010 Goyo Garcia Viadero Finca el Peruca. But instead experiencing nirvana, I plotzed. They ju...
I more or less print out every post you have on Georgia for my eventual trip there. Thanks you!! Sarah May
When hanging in Signagi
If you come to Georgia for wine, sooner or later you’ll find yourself in the sweet little town of Signagi. Or at least, if you're smart you will. It's about 1.5 hours southeast from Tbilisi towards the Caucasus. It's a picture perfect, hilltop touristic town, complete with an image ruini...
Wow.
Skinny Jeans (is it April 1?)
Got this in the email just before and I was like, is this for real? Hello, My name is AAAAAAAA with Aiko Importers. I have two new wines that I would like to get a review for. The first one is called Skinny Jeans. This is a light wine that is only 67 calories per serving. We have Skinny jean...
This needs to shared far and wide! And I 100% agree with you about Paolo Bea wines. They are indeed iconic. But have you ever had Italy's greatest wine? they are no longer made by the prince, but honestly, Fiorano whites are the most wonderful wines that have ever existed and I am not the only one who thinks this. i drink them on my birthday every year. Why am I even sharing this in public?
The iconic wine list (natural style)
Who can afford to taste the iconic wines? The 1947 or 1961 Bordeaux for example? The DRCs and the Jayers? They are simply outside of financial reach, unless one has a rich uncle with a wine cellar. I had one of those rich uncles but he was a fool. Uncle Jack's wine cellar was tiney: half-dozen...
This is such a great story!
Lil Wayne and the D'Oliveiras
Once upon a time there was a sommelier who worked in Hollywood. I was scouting stories for The Hollywood Reporter, for a deep throat-like column, dishing on what people drank, but all anonymous. The column never materialized, but I loved this one young wine geek's particular story and so here ...
The bottles is so ugly. The more you report, the more I learn and the more I realize how the world of wine is Frankenwine. I will stick with my contadino wines for now.
The Brangelina rosé, the whiter shade of pale
When the news broke that Brad and Angie were soon to debut a Chateau Miraval rosé, I was struck by the pale onion skin color, the blush of a virgin, the cuisse de nymphe. As I looked at the oversized, Hollywood-like bottle, I remembered a story about when past Meilleur Sommelier du Monde's, O...
I have a Lazio wine like that. Constantly searching for it, feeling so lucky when I found it. Blissful. Sarah May
Henri Jayer Echézeaux
"Which one?" the gentleman asked me. "Jayer," I said. Quite frankly I didn't even note the producer or the year on the Meursault alternative. There was no choice. No matter what you think of my life, this curtain or the box scenario doesn't happen that often. Becky and Russell spoil me and I...
I can never understand why "they" care so much what type of wines other people like? My sister-in-law loves oaky jammy Tuscan type wines. I don't care. Sure I'd love for her to come to the other side, but I don't get angry. They get so angry that we like something different. Why? Sarah May
Michel Bettane and the scourge of natural wine
What happens when you, like Parker, base your life's work on one kind of wine, ignoring a whole subculture that has found a huge audience? What you do, especially if you're incapable of saying something like, "I didn't know that," you go on attack, because you perceive danger. Vini naturali. ...
HI Alice thank you for the link. I also appreciate your responce to Mr. Joseph and your point, "This natural wine banner was only a banner for the past few years when consumers starting to love them and then press had to identify and discuss them.
As a result they've become something for the market to consider." This would have been perfect in the powerpoints on that panel.
On a side note, last night I was at I was at a Slovenian wne tasting here in Rome and luckily the winemakers were there. Usually at these events they have sommeliers in suits who don't really know much about the nature of the wine. Anyway, I was able to get the lowdown on many of the winemakers' philosophies. One stood out because when I asked him about his yeasts they sounded like this to me "Obi-Wan Kenobi"
Also I agree that taste comes first.
EWBC--the natural wine edition
The latest stimulant to drag me out of natural wine commentary retirement was the 'debate' during the European Wine Blogger's Conference in Turkey. Turns out this wasn't a debate as much as it was a presentation--one that could have been entitled, Natural Wine? Sorely missing on the panel w...
I was at that "debate" and I was the last person to ask a question. My concern is and has always been about GMO yeast and our health and the environment. I felt that Dr. Ugliano was very helpful for a lot of people because he answers in a very straight forward manner. I went to one of his workshops by accident and it was the most informative of them all. I think people have gotten really overly concerned about the label of being a naturalist or not rather than what are the real issues. Why is there even a movement in the first place? I am concerned about loss of autochthonous grapes, I am concerned about GMO yeasts invading the entire planet and eventually mutating and working their way into other ecosystems. I am concerned about small famers losing their way of life because they can’t keep up with Big Agro, even in the wine world. I am concerned about the use of petro chemicals and I don’t want to drink wine that has been fined with animal blood. Everywhere in this world I feel that there is a constant onslaught of fake food, fake drinks fake everything. My hope is that one of the traditions that made humans civilized will not die out for the cause of greed and money.
While conversations and debates are good, this one in particular had no answers and no point. I don’t believe that any of the 4 people on the panel had any idea about what the other panelists were going to talk about so it is was just 4 presentations, some people in the audience clearly irritating and nothing new was said.
Sarah May
www.tastingrome.blogspot.com
EWBC--the natural wine edition
The latest stimulant to drag me out of natural wine commentary retirement was the 'debate' during the European Wine Blogger's Conference in Turkey. Turns out this wasn't a debate as much as it was a presentation--one that could have been entitled, Natural Wine? Sorely missing on the panel w...
Great. I have been looking at their website for the past fews months. And I meant Armenia. There is a crumb under my R. Thanks you and congratulations on the translation.
Selected scenes of Georgia
The reason for going? The presentation of Naked Wine in Georgian! Turns out it is really the only wine book that is not a guide that has ever been translated. Okay. Big honor? Yes! At the recently opened natural wine bar in Tbilisi, the most delicious bread from do...
Great post. I know you are a vegetarian, was it easy for you to travel in Georgia? I am planning on visiting next way for 2 weeks. Do you have a translator or guide you like to use? I don't want to rely on Lonely Planet. I am going on a wine journey. Hopefully stopping in Amenia for a few days.
Selected scenes of Georgia
The reason for going? The presentation of Naked Wine in Georgian! Turns out it is really the only wine book that is not a guide that has ever been translated. Okay. Big honor? Yes! At the recently opened natural wine bar in Tbilisi, the most delicious bread from do...
As a vegetarian I don't think I would buy these wines, but the conceptis stillvery interesting.
Animal skins the new qvevri?
In the market, hunting for purple Cherokees I bumped into Kevin Mckenna of LDM (Louis/Dressner/McKenna). We were standing between the cucumbers and the red peppers when in the course of catching up, he told me that Louis-Antoine Luyt of Clos Ouvert had just finished his first fermentation in an...
Thank you for introducing us to these remarkable ladies.
Are (wine) women different from men?
I think so. Yes. Mostly. +When it come to making wine list? Perhaps. +Is it accident that four of the more interesting and thoughtful lists gathered in New York (and Brooklyn) right now are created by women? I don't think so. +Why? Because women tend to react more emotionally-- even to wine, ...
That was not just a can of whoop ass you done served but a TANK full of whoop ass.
Sweet Stuff (word proud, sherry poor)
The somewhat lukewarm New Yorker review of Francesca's located in the old Frankie's space on Clinton didn't bother me, but the writer's take on drinking there made me do a double take. The most notable risk that Francesca takes is encouraging patrons to drink sherry with dinner instead of wine (...
Yikes indeed. I never even thought about why there are so many out of control weeds. The word "deathspray" says it all.
Monsanto watch
One of the best myths in ag is the "I'm organic, except for Roundup®." Or this other version, "I farm sustainably." = Roundup®. This is often the senseless use of a chemical to get rid of weeds, and promoted by Monsanto ("Improving lives, that's what we're all about!") as harmless to the environ...
Paolo Bea wines changed my life in a profound way. They are wines I have been searching for for so long. When people ask me what is your favorite wine it is no contest, the Paolo Bea Arboreus-Vino Bianco 2008 It was LUSCIOUS. I mean just pure nectar, but still off dry, fresh. Fruits, pears, bread, citrus, flowers, complexity I never thought possible in an Italian white wine. On the palate, explosions of flavors, slight maderization, similar to a good quality Madeira, and THAT COLOR, intense golden yellow, no hint at all of additives to make the color more brilliant. I felt like I tasted the hills, it was strongly mineral; it tasted like the heat of the Umbrian summer when the grapes are ripening. Ahhh, what can I say, this wine was a true wine moment for me, a true epiphany! For the first time I knew what an Umbrian flavor was. There was something mushroom, sunny, nothing green, pure summer and fall. Rich and intense long-lasting fruity and mineral finish. I am sad to read about the use of the name. It coud be confusing for a person not familiar with Bea's labels. They could take that wine instead because they may have read about Bea's wines and want to try them.
www.tastingrome.blogspot.com
Bea hookup at The Real Wine Fair
When I saw Sagrantino -maker Filippo Antonelli last month he told me that our friend, Giampiero Bea was in a tempest. It seems as if Davero, (the brand that I helped out with the 2008 Sagrantino) had issued a wine by the name of Rosso Di Bea. As it happens two weeks later I saw Giampiero at The...
This vineyard makes me happy.
first day in Burgundy
Don't hit me. I know I owe you London reports but meanwhile. First Chunnel trip, landed me in Beaune. First night, Grivot. Not a bad entry. I crashed Jasper Morris' private little week of wine tutorial in Bouilland. The Grivots were dinner guests. Best Burgundy night in ages. 2000 Boudots, 1999 ...
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May 27, 2012
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