Tag: Rondinella

The theme country for the Vancouver International Wine Festival 2024 is Italy.  If you have not yet checked out the website to see the participating wineries, I can tell you that Monte del Frá will be pouring their wines for you from the area bordering the south and east of Lake Garda and west of Verona.  The red grapes from…

Valpolicella may not be as well-known to many wine lovers compared to Chianti Classico in Italy but deserves to be.  There are different levels of quality of Valpolicella wines to satisfy everybody’s palates.  I was fortunate to attend a Valpolicella Masterclass with Daenna Van Mulligen leading the class.  Following is information that I thought would be of interest to you followed…

Although France was the theme country this year at the Vancouver International Wine Festival, there was a great contingent of wineries from around the world and from BC to pour their wines for us.  Below are wines that I enjoyed from countries other than France.  Enjoy! White and Sparkling Wines Cantine Giacomo Montresor Rose Royal Brut NV, Italy – Light…

North and east of Verona, Italy is where Valpolicella wines originate and a little to the north of Valpolicella you find Prosecco wines.  You may have heard of Prosecco, the sparkling darling of people around the world at the moment.  It is not as complex or expensive as Champagne, but many people want an inexpensive, typically off-dry bubble to share…

Wine Meridian a web-based wine magazine celebrating Italian wine dropped by Vancouver this week with 20+ wineries and some of their wines from across Italy to sample.  From Piemonte to Puglia, from Sicilia to Veneto, we had plenty of interesting wines to try. I worked my way through Prosecco and other sparkling wines, through many interesting white wines made with…

Italian wines can make any day feel like a holiday. But we do have holidays upcoming so here are a few Italian wines that I recently tasted in downtown Vancouver that you may want to consider purchasing.  Of particular note are the white wines made with indigenous grapes you may not have heard of; Carricante and Grillo exclusively grown in…

Did you know that Italy has more than 500 DOCs, more than 2000 Italian grape varieties, and covers nearly 700,000 hectares of vineyards?  That dwarfs BC and all of Canada’s production and grape variety.  Recently Wine Meridian, a wine magazine from Italy brought fifteen wineries to Canada to show us about lesser known, smaller wineries that are in the more…

Indigenous grapes excite me.  Learning about these grapes and their flavours and aromas make wine tasting interesting.  We can travel around the world and sample Cabernet Sauvignon, and it will in general have a very similar flavour and aroma profile, depending if you are in a cooler or a warmer climate.  Indigenous grapes, that are from their original country and…

The history of Masi is the history of a family and its vineyards in Verona, part of the Veneto. The name itself derives from the Vaio dei Masi, the small valley purchased at the end of the XVIII century by the Boscaini family, still its owners today. Masi now has lands in the best terroir sites of the Venetian regions…

Enjoying some Italian antipasti, like olives, prosciutto, and cheese together with a glass of Italian wine is a pleasure.  I recently had the pleasure to enjoy this through a visit from the Italian Trade Commission and several food and wine producers.  Below are a few wines and some pictures of great food I had to sample.  Enjoy! A Few Excellent…