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Wine – GT Food & Travel
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GT Food & Travel

Category: Wine

This category celebrates all that is the beauty of wine.

  • Taste of Sicily in Boston

    Taste of Sicily in Boston

    Nearly one year ago, I co-founded Casa Mia Italy Food & Wine with two culinary professionals. We set out to share our love of Italian food, wine and cooking with travelers in a joyful and convivial way. Casa Mia provides local culinary experiences, through delicious food walks and wine tastings, cooking classes and exclusive, food & wine excursions in and around Rome, Naples & Amalfi, Florence and Sicily.WineToast

    In celebration of Casa Mia’s first birthday, I’ll be in Boston for Taste of Sicily, an 8-course Sicilian meal with Sicilian wines. We’ve teamed up with Sicilian chef Nino of Sicilicity to take over The Fireplace Restaurant for the event. I’ll be at the events to share our Sicilian travel adventures and love of Sicilian food and wine with you. I hope to see you there!

    If you have any questions don’t hesitate contacting me directly at gina@italyfoodandwinetours.com or at +17815100358.

    Event details:

    When: Wednesday, April 13 and Thursday, April 14 at 7:00 pm

    Where: The Fireplace Restaurant, 1634 Beacon Street, Brookline, MA 02466

    Cost: $60 per person for an 8-course tasting menu (excluding beverages)

    To reserve please call: +1 617.975.1900

    The Tasting Menu:

     

    Taste-of-Sicily-V4

     

     

  • Wine Tasting Basics

    Wine Tasting Basics

    Have you ever attended a professional wine tasting? Not all tastings are the same but often the wine color is noted, the wine swirled, noses sniff into the glass and tasters proclaim “strawberries, raspberries, roses ” all before they taste the wine. Puzzled onlookers may wonder what’s in that glass?

    I can’t help but think of my 80-year-old cousin Rocco. He drinks sweet red jug wine. He’s one of the most happy-go-lucky people I know. He sat across from me at a wine tasting in Sicily bewildered and confused, as I observed the color of the wine and proceeded to swirl, sniff, taste and spit (not ingested) my wine. Neither the color of the wine nor the nose entered into his wine appreciation equation.Planetawineglasses

    I don’t use wine vocabulary like nose, tannin and acidity to confound or confuse readers although my editor at theAmerican may not believe me. Wine knowledge and terminology do not equal wine pleasure. There are no rights or wrongs in wine appreciation. It’s subjective.

    Enough said. This month I am happy to share 3 steps to wine tasting on theAmerican. Now grab a glass of your favorite sparkling, red or white wine, bring a clear nose and open mind. Enjoy!

  • Meet Anna of Vino Di Anna on Mt. Etna

    Meet Anna of Vino Di Anna on Mt. Etna

    Last year, I had the pleasure of meeting Anna Martens at her vineyard on the slopes of Mt. Etna, Sicily. Anna hails from Adelaide, Australia where she grew up surrounded by vineyards. At Adelaide University, she earned a post-grad degree in viticulture and oenology, while working for the Petaluma Winery. In 2001, she packed her bags to harvest in Argentina before landing in Tuscany, Italy. She never looked back.

    DSC_0159In 2005, she first set her feet on Mt. Etna. She fell in love with the terraced vineyards, breathtaking Etna, and the indigenous grape varieties of Nerello Mascalese and Carricante. In 2008, she bought two parcels of fruit on Etna and she produced 600 bottles of Vino Di Anna using only indigenous yeasts, no sulfites – wine made naturally. The rest is history. Last week, I had the chance to chat with Anna about her journey and Vino Di Anna. Continue reading “The Martens mission” for excerpts from our talk.VinodiAnnaVineyards

  • Les Vignerons on Natural Wines

    Les Vignerons on Natural Wines

    Happy New Year! 2016 is off to a great start especially since Les Vignerons is moving from the off-the-beaten-path area of Tor Pignattara to Trastevere which is a mere 15 minute tram ride from my home. Les Vignerons is my favorite wine and craft beer shop in Rome. While there is no shortage of wine shops and markets in Rome, for a natural wine drinker like me, there is no substitute for Les Vignerons. I’ve been fortunate to get to know owners Antonio Marino and Marisa Gabbianelli over the past few years as they have evolved along with their knowledge of natural wines and craft beer.

    Antonio_Marisa_LesVignerons

    Clients often ask me why I break out into song and dance when talking about natural wine? We’re used to hearing “we are what we eat”. I’d say “we are what we eat and we are what we drink”. Natural wines – not necessarily organic which I’ll leave for another post – in its simplest definition is a wine made with minimal intervention and no artificial additives, it’s nothing new. It’s the way wine has been made for thousands of years. I had the chance to chat with Antonio and Marisa about the definition of natural wines over coffee as well as their philosophy, their individual paths and craft beer. Continue reading “The naturalists” for excerpts from our talk.

    Les Vignerons (opening in February 2016)
    Via Goffredo Mameli 61 in Trastevere
    Opening hours: Monday from 16:00-21:30; Tuesday-Saturday from 10:30 – 21:30

     

  • Christmas Eve & the Feast of the Seven Fishes

    Christmas Eve & the Feast of the Seven Fishes

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    As an Italian-American I grew up with traditions that arrived on the shores of Boston with my grandparents from Southern Italy in the 1930s. These traditions remained somewhat frozen in time and for that I’m lucky. My most cherished tradition – the feast of the seven fishes prepared for Christmas Eve – involves, family, food and wine. Surprise!

    My maternal grandparents, the Pompeo-Aliberti’s from the region of Campania hosted this meal. At its height we numbered 70+ (aunts, uncles, cousins and the plumber). Family and friends trickled in and out of the Aliberti kitchen for an afternoon brandy to to toast to the holiday and years gone by. Fried crustaceans and eel (pictured above) were devoured and wine was at the ready, always red, in a jug by Papa’s feet.

    As the 24th quickly approaches prep in underway at Casa Tringali. I’ve become mom’s sous chef and this year I’m having a blast choosing wines for our seafood marathon. I’ve shared my wine and beer pairings with the American Magazine | In Italia but remember my rules are made to be broken. Please drink what you love. That’s what I’ll be doing on Christmas Eve as I pull up my chair to our table with spirits of Christmas past and a jug of red wine by my feet.

    Continue reading “The sumptuous 24th”  for my wine and beer suggestions.

    Happy Holidays!ValCerasaWhite

  • Wines of Campania

    Wines of Campania

    IMG_5909Last month I had a blast learning more about the wines of Campania and writing Part I for The American|InItalia in ‘Campania Awakens, I’. It all started thanks to a gorgeous group of clients. They insist on delving into the wines of a different region each time they visit Italy. We’ve visited Basilicata and Puglia in the past. This year Campania was on deck as they we’re heading to the Amalfi Coast. Our pre-trip ritual includes  a relaxing meal in Rome where we discuss the region, vineyards and wines we’re about to sample and we put our pairings to the test. As a frequent visitor to Naples and the Amalfi Coast, I usually drink natural wines and highly-rated DOCG wines – crisp whites such as Fiano d’Avellino and bold reds like Aglianico del Taburno. IMG_0704 (1)In our pre-trip dinner, I knew it would be futile to attempt to jam in all the region’s wine zones in a single chat. There are too many diverse areas to cover. Instead, in Part I, we focused our travels on Campania’s less-mentioned coastal areas, Capri, Vesuvius, Paestum and Cilento. These areas are most often remembered for the sea, archaeological sites and mozzarella di bufala cheese but each has a highly specific wine history to discover.IMG_1297In Part II, we headed inland to the southern end of the Apennine Mountain range and the unique territory of Irpina where temperatures get quite chilly. It’s not surprising given that vineyards sit up to 1900 feet above sea level. These elevations combined with temperatures that fluctuate greatly throughout the year can be quite trying. How does this affect the glass of Fiano that we’re about to taste? To find out continue reading ‘Campania awakens, II‘.

  • Puglia Wine Discovery

    Puglia Wine Discovery

    I’d been meaning to visit Puglia for years. Its raw beauty, fabulous beaches, crystalline sea and uncomplicated food like burrata cheese, orecchiette pasta with turnip tops and grilled fish make it a destination for beach, food and wine lovers alike. Reading that half of Italy’s olive oil is produced in Puglia and that Puglia produces more wine than any other Italian region didn’t quite prepare me for what I’d see on our three-day August family escape. As we drove across the Pugliese border my eyes were drawn to the whitewashed flat-roofed houses, the sea and seemingly endless olive groves littered with gnarly thick trunked trees and curved grapevines. Greece came to mind.On this trip, my brother-in-law and I — he’s a sommelier — decided to shake things up a tiny bit by seeking out and trying some more obscure Pugliese wines. Part of the joy of wine is discovering new ones, and for wine-lovers learning means tasting. A tasting in a relaxed setting among friends and family can be a memorable occasion. Setting aside Negroamaro and Primitivo, for a list of four local wines (two whites and two reds) well worth discovering take a look at my “Southern Gems“.Puglia_grisola

     

     

     


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