Sophia Loren
Just Because ????
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Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Bottega del Vini The Super Bowl of Wine
Bottega del Vino
aka Bottega Vini
VERONA, ITALY
One of the oldest and historical Osteria in Verona. Bottega del vinowas founded in 1890 and nowadays is one of the most renowned restaurant in town, especially for the huge wine selection it offers. More than 1500 labels and 40.000 bottles with rarities and exceptionally valuable vintages. A chance to taste and discover not only almost all the local Veronese, but also other Italian and world wines.
Antica Bottega delVino is an illustrious survivor of the hundred osterias that once dotted Verona, meeting places
for guilds and corporations. This was where the local dialect poets hung out together with Berto Barbarani, the bard of Verona, joined by journalists from the L'Arena and Gazzettino newspapers.
Painters such as Dall’Oca Bianca and Umberto Boccioni came here to down quinti and goti.Antica Bottega del Vino is the only restaurant in Verona to be officially recognised as a “historic
establishment” and boasts one of the 10 best restaurant wine cellars in Italy.
Inside The Bottega del Vini
VERONA
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Me (R) with COUSIN ANTHONY BELLINO (L)
Cosuin JOE MACARI and FRANKIE
At BOTTEGA del VINO
During THE SUPER BOWL of WINE
Vinitaly 2003
ITALY
Me at The BOTTEGA del VINI
with Cousin Joe (Left)
VERONA
2003
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The Board at BOTTEGA del VINO
I first went onto the Bottega Vini on a trip I made to Italy in 1995 .. I fell in love with the place immediately. What Italian Wine lover wouldn't, for the Bottega del Vini iw without quetion Italy's single most famous WIne Bar of all. Some have coined it a Shrine to Wine, and I attend to agree. Over the years I've coined a number of terms myself that no one else had ever thought of until I myself, terms like Meatball Parm Mondays and others including one I thought up for the famed Bottega d' Vini of Verona, Italy ... The term I invented pertains to the Bottega Vini for just 5 days of the year. These 5 days are during the great Italian Wine Expostion held every April in Verona which is known as Vinitaly, which happens to be the largets wine exposition in the world incuding the great one they have in Bordeaux.
Vinitaly for an Italian Wine Freak like me is one of the highlights of the year. I usually go to Veron and the fair the last three days of the event, to see and taste wine at Vinitaly with my many friends who have vineyards all over Italy. Friends like Nadi Zenato (Zenato Amarone), Sebastiano Rosa (winemaker of Sassicaia & Barua), famed wine-maker and owner of Podere Scalette in Greve Mr. Vittorio Fiore, Marchese Ferdinando Frescobaldi, Luigi Cappellini of Castello Verrazzano (Chianti), the Columbini's of Fattori Barbi (Brunello) Raffaela Bologna of Giacomo Bologna (Barbera), The King of Barbaresco my buddy Italo Stupino of Castel Neive and others.
I see all my friends who have vineyards all over Italy, we tatse their wines ; Brunello, Barolo, Chianti and ??? We chi-chat and I make plans with some to visit their vineyards for 5 days after Vinitaly has closed. I wake up, have breakfast, head to the fiar grounds and taste wine for about 6 hours before heading back to my hotel to freshen up, take a shower and a nap for a couple hours before going out for dinner at one of my favorite osteria or trattoria in Verona. We have a splendid meal each night with antipasti, pasta, Amarone, Valpolicella and what-not. After dinner it's off to Bottega Vini which is packed to the gills with Italians, Japanese, New Yorkers and others in the Italian Wine and or restuarant business along with some hardcore Italian Wine Geeks. The place is packed and for a New York Italian Wine Guy (formely Wine DIrector of; Barbetta, Bar Cichetti, and Bar Stuzzuchini) it's pure heaven. After the Italians the second highest number of peoples ahppens to be New York Italian Wine Guys such as myself. These New Yorkers are made up of people who sell wine on either the wholesale level (Wine Distributors and Importers) or the retail level (mostly at Italian Restaurants in NY or wine stores) ... Yes it's great to be in this shrine to Italian Wine in the beautiful little Italian city of Verona during the greatest Italian Wine EVent of all, Vinitaly. We're here at this historical wine bar with our Italian friends who make wine along with our friends and fellow New York Italian Wine Peeps and it's pure Bliss, and thus when describing it one day to a friend who wanted to know a little bit about it, I gave him a description and then just told him that being inside the Bottega Vini during Vinitaly was like the Super Bowl and for Italian Wine Guys it was quite literally
The Super Bowl of Wine.
Priming a Grand Burgundy Glass
at Bottega Vini
VERONA
This is the preferred Wine Glass to Drink Amarone
in Verona and its surrounding wine towns
The BOTTEGA
VINI
With COUSIN JOE MACARI
at BOTTEGA del VINI
2003
Severino Barzan
Former Owner of the BOTTEGA Del VINO
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Severino Barzan
longtime owner of Bottega Vini
has sold this famed Osteria
to a consortium of Amarone producers
The Amarone Families
as They are Called
Who Now Own The Bottega Vini
ALLEGRINI
MASI
SPERI
MUSELLA
TEDESCHI
TOMMASI
VENTURINI
ZENATO
The BAR
MANGIA ITALIANO
MEMORIES of ITALIAN FOOD
.
Giampaolo Motta (owner La Massa ... Greve)
and Author Daniel Bellin Zwicke at Bottega Vini
TOMMASI AMARONE
One of The Top Producers
ZENATO AMARONE
Author / Italian Wine-Guy DANIEL BELLINO
with NADIA ZENATO
VINI
.
.
Inside The BOTTEGA del VINI
VERONA
ITALY
Piazza San Marco
Sommetimes we ht Venice wehn going to Vinitaly
"You Can Never Get Enough Venice"
Me on The Grand Canal
Venice, Italy
2001
Traghetto on The Grand Canal
VENICE
" A Traghetto is the way to get from one side of the Grand Canal to the other.
There are only 3 Bridges that cross the Grand Canal, so if you want to cross in-between those three bridges, then you take a Traghetto across the canal. The fare is only .50 Cents each way."
Me and Cousin Joe Macari
Enjoying a Prosecco
at a Bacaro in VENICE
2003
SUNDAY SAUCE
When ITALIAN-AMERICANS COOK
.
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Joe Macri of Macari Vineyards Mattituk, New York
with Giovanni Folnari of Nozzole
Author Daniel Bellino Zwicke
and Anthony Bellino
Vinitaly 2003, Verona, Italy
JOE and TONY
and AMARONE
VERONA , ITALY
2003
Having a CAMPARI
Me and Cousin Tony
PIAZZA SAN MARCO
VENICE
.
.
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Saturday, September 24, 2016
Contratto Barolo
How Robert Parker Destroyed WIne
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Robert Parker
Most Wine Drinkers may not know this, but they'd be well advised not to ever listen to Robert Parker and his ill-advised wine news-letter The Wine Advocate. Not if they want the best wine drinking experience possible and they want to choose a good wine to go with their meal, they will not follow the terrible advice and reviews that Robert Parker gives on wine. The kind of wines Parker loves the most are overly oaked, Overly-Rich, heavily concentrated wine that are crafted to be Heavy Thick Full Bodied Oaky Fruit-Bomb Wines. Wines that clash with food instead of complimenting it. If it was up to Robert Parker he'd have all the wines in the World tasting like over-manipulated, big, fat powerful wines like California Cabernets and Meritage Blends instead of wonderful food complementary wines like; Chianti, Barolo, Brunello, Beaujlais, some Bordeaux wines and the like. Wines that go well with food instead of clashing with it as many of the so-called Parkerized Wines do. The man has ruined the publics perception to what good wine is and should be. The public thinks because he is a famous wine writer, that he knows best and what he's talking about. Maybe he does, but the style of wine he likes, well?
If the general public wants the best wine drinking experience possible, they'd be wise to steer clear of The Wine Advocate and any wine advice dished out by Parker.
Robert Parker's advice on wine is advice that steers and influences peoples perceptions of what great wine is, into a quite a bad, almost one-dimensional place of homogenized overly thick un-natural wines. People should stop taking advice of Robert Parker, the World of Wine would be a much better place, a place of real wine that is It SUCKS! Robert Parker's advice reviews, and Ratings of Wine that is.
If you want to is true to the local terroir of whereever any particular wine might come from. In other words, Chianti should taste like Chianti, Barolo like Barolo, and Bordeaux like Bordeaux and not like a "Big Fat" California or Autralian Cabernet or Meritage Blended Wine and such.
People should drink Wonderful Wines that go great with food and are "Real Natural Wines" the kind of Wines that were made for 100 of years and still are except for those wines made by owners who have fallen into to whole Robert Parker "Spin Doctor" realm and make "Overly-Concentrated Wine" that taste fake and un-natural, they are manipulated and are the kind of wines that Parker likes and gives High 90 Plus Ratings to.
Drink real Chianti (not any that contain Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot), drink Barolos that have been aged in large gentile Slovenian Oak Cask instead of small 225 liter Barrique Barrels that make many wines taste more of Wood (the way Parker likes them) than beautiful unadulterated with natural fruit (Grapes). Wines like; Brunello, Cote du Rhones, and just about anything other than overly-concentrated, overly Oaked, minipulated overly-oaked wines from Australia and over-powering Californian and Australian monsters and you'll be doing OK.
"Just DON'T Listen to anything ROBERT PARKER and his highly popular but we say awful newsletter "The Wine Advocate" has to say or Write about Wine." The man almost single handily Destroyed what Good Wine "is" and should be.
Be "Anti-Parker" you'll be glad you did. "Do."
Daniel Bellino Zwicke
NO BARRIQUE
NO BERLUSCONI
NO ROBERT PARKER
Barolo Paulo Scavino
Paolo Scavino Barolo
Rocche Dell Annunziata 1990
Well, anyway la Pizza Fresca makes some great Pizza. They also have a full menu of Antipasti, Pasta, Meat, Fish, and Poultry and they have one great wine list. Besides the great Pizza, La Pizza Fesca is realy into wine, and is in fact one of the top Italian Wine focused restaurants in New York. They have a great wine list that is very extensive and world class. And like they did last night that have many great wine dinners each year. The wine dinner I attended this night was hosted by Elisa Scavino who is one of Enrico Scavino 's two daughters working with him in the family wine business in Peidmont. Well the dinner was awesome, we started with Beef Carpacio, followed by some awesome Pizza, Pizza Funghi (Mushrooms) and Pizza Bianco with Fontina Cheese, Black truffles, and Prosciutto. The Pizza was amazing. We drank Paolo Scavino Barbera and Nebbiolo Langhe with the Carpacio, and ewere quite fortunate to have a couple of Paolo Scavino 's fabulous Barolo with the Pizza .. Yes, with the Pizza we drank Scavino's Barolo Carobric 2000 . This wine was phenominal. It was in perfect balance, full of great fruit and earthy flavors of Truffle and Mushrooms. You couldn't ask more from a great Barolo from one of the great Barolo vintages of all-time in the 2000 .. Lucky we were at the dinner to follow this great Barolo with Scavino's Barolo Bric del Fiasc 1998, 2000, and 2010 . Needless to say, they were all great, and drinking quite nicely.
We were then treated to an amaing line-up of an amazing 3 Vintage Vertical Tatsing of Paolo Scavino 's Barolo Reserva Rocche dell' Annunziata. The vintages we had were 3 of the greatest Barolo vintages of all-time in the 1990, 2000, and 2001 ... Wow what a treat? It was a great night of socializing, drinking great Barolo accompanied with the awesome Pizza, Pasta, and Bue al Barolo (Beef Briased in Barolo Wine) and our gracious host Alisa Scavino talking about all the great winew we were drinking and of the histroy of the family's winery founded by her grandfather Lorenzo Scavino . Bravo Elisa !!!!
Alisa Scavino with Author Daniel Bellino-Zwicke
The Scavino Family
Friday, September 23, 2016
BAROLO
Barolo is a red Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) wine produced in the northern Italian region of Piedmont. It is made from the Nebbiolo grape and is often described as one of Italy's greatest wines. The zone of production extends into the communes of Barolo, Castiglione Falletto, Serralunga d'Alba and parts of the communes of Cherasco, Diano d'Alba, Grinzane Cavour, La Morra, Monforte d'Alba, Novello, Roddi, Verduno, all in the province of Cuneo, south-west of Alba. Although production codes have always stipulated that vineyards must be located on hillsides, the most recent revision of the production code released in 2010 goes further, categorically excluding valley floors, humid and flat areas, areas without sufficient sunlight, and areas with full-on northern exposures. Barolo is often described as having the aromas of tar and roses, and the wines are noted for their ability to age and usually take on a rust red tinge as they mature. Barolo needs to be aged for at least 38 months after the harvest before release, of which at least 18 months must be in wood. When subjected to aging of at least five years before release, the wine can be labeled a Riserva.
In the past, Barolo wines tended to be rich in tannin. It could take more than 10 years for the wine to soften and become ready for drinking. Fermenting wine sat on the grape skins for at least three weeks extracting huge amounts of tannins and was then aged in large, wooden casks for years. In order to appeal to more modern international tastes, those that prefer fruitier, earlier drinking wine styles, several producers began to cut fermentation times to a maximum of ten days and age the wine in new French oak barriques (small barrels). "Traditionalists" have argued that the wines produced in this way are not recognizable as Barolo and taste more of new oak than of wine.
Some Great BAROLO Producers
Bruno Giacos, Giaccamo Conterno, Francesco Rinaldi,
Aldo Conterno, Giuseppe Mascarello
Barolo is one of the hottest wine collectibles today. But Italian laws and classifications can make navigating the landscape a tar pit for the collector who simply wants to get in, find the best of these great Italian wines, and get out. Unlike Burgundy, which has official categorizations for vineyards and the Médoc, which ranks its estates, Italy's Piedmont region has no official hierarchy of the great Barolo vineyards.
It was Renato Ratti who first put his imprimatur on a map ranking the top "prima" categories in the 1970s. Ratti's map was inspired by an unofficial Barolo classification written by Francesco Arrigoni and Elio Ghisalberti for Luigi Veronelli's book "The Wines of Italy". His became the map everyone hung in their winery or office. And while Ratti was a visionary, winemaking practices, vineyard management and global climate have changed since his day.
Two of my Favorite of ALL BAROLO VINTAGES -1989 and 1996
from one of my Favorite producers BARTOLO MASCARELLO
The aromas and flavours of Barolo
If you’re wondering “what does Barolo taste like?” the best thing to do is open a bottle and take a sip. Once you’ve tried it, you’re unlikely to forget the experience.
Barolo is a powerful wine with lots of tannins, and experts sometimes call its aroma “tar and roses”. Each mouthful brings a world of flavour. It starts with notes of liquorice, rose petals, blueberries and prunes, mingling with black pepper and cinnamon spices. This is joined by rich dark chocolate, old leather and sweet tobacco.
The Town of Barolo in the Piedmont Hills
Barolo, also known as “the king of wines”, is a fine Italian red wine with complex and powerful aromas. It’s produced in an area called Barolo DOCG in Piedmont, north-west Italy. The wine is made from a grape called Nebbiolo, which is famous for its flavours of dried rose and liquorice. The typical harvest time is the second half of October. According to DOCG rules, Barolo must be aged for at least 38 months, and Barolo Riserva for at least 62 months. This is because Nebbiolo grapes are very high in tannins. A long ageing process is required to soften and mellow the tannins, and give Barolo more time to develop its fine aromas. The recommended minimum time for bottle ageing is between 5 and 10 years. 14 million bottles of Barolo are produced each year – five times fewer than Chianti. If you’re wondering when the best vintages for Barolo are, 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2016 are considered the best years. As for vintages to be careful with, 2011, 2012 and 2014 were challenging.
Barolo is a red wine with complex and powerful aromas. Dry, and very rich in tannins, this wine benefits from ageing as its distinctive taste gets even more refined and sophisticated over time. It is best to keep Barolo for at least 7-10 years after harvest before opening it.
Barolo is made from 100% Nebbiolo grapes, grown in a small area of Piedmont – or Piemonte in Italian – in North-West Italy. It is only made in and around eleven comunes (villages), which are shown on the map of the Barolo DOCG below. The most important villages, which are thought to produce the best examples of Barolo, are:
La Morra
Castiglione d Faletto
Monforte d' Alba
Serralunga d'Alba
There are 181 vineyards in Barolo known to produce wines of superior quality. They are officially called menzioni geografiche aggiuntive (additional geographic mention) or MGA. Their names can be added to the label to show superiority. Unofficially, they’re known as the cru vineyards of Barolo. We delve into key communes and crus later in this article.
MAP of BAROLO
As of 2018, there were 1,928 hectares of vineyards in Barolo. That year, winemakers produced approximately 11.67 million x 75cl bottles of Barolo wine. To put this number into context, there was eight times less Barolo produced than Chianti (91 million bottles), and slightly less than Amarone (14 million bottles)
Barolo DOCG wine must be made according to the winemaking rules, or “wine laws”, officially known as the Disciplinare Di Produzione[4]. They set out very strict rules: from how many grapes can be grown, to what’s the permitted levels of acidity, to how the Barolo wine must be aged, and much much more. You’ll find a whole section dedicated to Disciplinare later in this guide.
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