Sometimes I feel like California vintners don't experiment enough ... While they may be trying a wide range of rootstocks, clonal material, yeast strains, trellising methods, barrel regimes, and the various other minor, yet important variables that can make for higher quality wine, far too few wineries are trying to grow different grape varieties from around the world ... That's a generalization, of course, and there are plenty of exceptions, but by and large most California winemakers stick to
TravelGrove, the compare and save travel website, has asked us to take a close up view of their latest website, so let's take a look ... The message is clear, TravelGrove.com obviously wants to become the default, indispensable travel planning site. Travellers have the opportunity to compare prices and hopefully get the best deals available on major travel categories such as flights, hotels, car hire, cruises and vacations. Of particular interest to us here at "Casa Dolcetto: Italian Insights"
The best wines in the world all share at least one thing in common, and that is a winemaker who brings a unique combination of both vision and passion to their work ... At the age of thirty, winemaker Ron Laughton found himself managing the southern hemisphere's largest cheese factory, and with a total absence of passion for what he was doing. Having grown up on a farm and gotten degrees in chemistry and food science, Laughton worked all over the world for Kraft Foods before being headhunted by
Italy has so many local delicacies it's hard to know where to start. Here are a few of the best trattorias, caffès and ice-cream parlours from a new foodie guidebook ... Market, Liguria ... San Remo is a familiar name, yet its charms are little known, and its mercato comunale is one of Italy's best. Walk through it and discover why the food of this region – pesto, wild mushrooms, splendid seafood – is so prized. Volpedo peaches, Albenga artichokes and basil from Prà are all gold
San Pellegrino and Restaurant magazine's list of world's 50 best restaurants for 2010 ... Interactive: the world's 50 best restaurants 2010 ... 1. Noma ... Noma so perfectly encapsulates the current zeitgeist that it's easy to forget the part it has played in shaping current global restaurant trends. Local, seasonal ingredients? Check. A simpler, more informal style of dining? Check. A restaurant that's more connected to its local environment? Check. But to suggest that the genesis of Noma was
Here is a wonderful Barbera I had at Il Poeta paired with an appetizer of porcini mushroom risotto with truffle oil and a main course of short ribs. The woody character of the truffles compliments Barbera's smoky nuances very well. Good acidity also cuts through the richness of the red meat, with aromas running the gamut from lavender, to pepper, to barnyard and smoke. Lush, creamy, ripe dark blue fruits, medium to heavy body with dark purple ruby colors, a velvety texture with extracted but
The latest addition of our 'Italian Hotelroll', features more than twenty links to Italian hotel selections ... that are, according to their promotional literature either boutique or chic, cool or hip, historic or intimate, luxury or romantic, secret or just some of the best designed hotels in Italy ... Casa Dolcetto recommends you check out the links below or look out for the 'Italian Hotelroll' now featured on the right hand side of the front page of this blog ... Abitare la Storia ...
I love broadening my own wine horizons, and I'm always surprised at how narrowly most non-wine-focused media see the world of wine ... So I was quite surprised to see a whole segment today on CNN all about Georgian wine ... No not the Southern State ... The country ... The country of Georgia hosts one of the oldest winemaking cultures in the world, and is regarded by some as the birthplace of winemaking. Georgian wine, of which I've had a scant couple of bottles in my life, comes in many
It is that time of the year again!! Spring is here, VinItaly just wound up, and Donato is hosting another of his marvelous wine and food events at Enoteca in Redwood City. 100 Italian wines poured by the glass from all the best US importers, including many varieties of Barolo and Barbaresco and many lesser-known [ ... ] ...