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The Italian abroad wine blog is my wine blog and diary. I founded Italyabroad.com in 2003 and have been living abroad for almost 20 years and this blog is a collection of my thoughts mainly about Italian wine and food, but also wine and food in general. I come from an Italian wine making family and got acquainted with wine at a very early age, but I don't just love Italian wine, I love any good wine and enjoy plenty of it, as well as good food and travelling, and often my posts include a bit of everything.
To help you understand Italian wines, we have designed a series of Italian wine regions maps featuring DOC and DOCG wines showing the origins and the grapes making your favourite Italian wines. I also wrote a post on the Italian wine appellation system explaining and demystifying the Italian wine classification system and what it really means for Italian wine lovers and wine drinkers in general.
Lastly, we have a Youtube channel where you can watch me tasting some of our wines and answer your questions about Italian wines and grapes, from the real meaning of DOC to what is an orange wine.
Hope you enjoy reading this wine blog and please get in touch if you have any question.
Andrea
2023 has been a significant year for us, first and foremost because we celebrated our 20th birthday. I still can’t believe, 20 years have flown by, and what a rollercoaster has been, plenty of ups, with very highs, and downs, including very lows. But 2023 has also been one of our busiest year ever thanks to all of you who trusted us for their “Italian” shopping, and on that positive note, I want to bid farewell to 2023 and welcome the 2024, hoping that it will bring all of us joy and health and success, whatever it means
I did not and it is not the case, prosecco is made following the Charmat or Martinotti method, where the second fermentation takes place in the tank, however, this was what I read on an award winning wine merchant website
If you follow my blog, you read more than once of my frustration in not being able to find natural wines. I believe that a wine is first and foremost a wine, and whether natural or not, becomes irrelevant if the wine is not drinkable. Until recently, all natural wines I had tasted were either undrinkable or with an unjustified price, so we decided to wait despite the trend. Making natural wines is certainly more expensive compared to conventional wines, but also more difficult, since it follows the natural process and the wine maker can do very little to control and guarantee the outcome
For Italians, pizza and wine are both in our DNA but until recently, the two were rarely served together, pizza would go with beer and everything else with wine. As time has evolved, and pizza has become "gourmet", pizza and wine is now an accepted and refined pairing but it has also become a challenging and fun exercise due to the myriad of toppings that can be used for a pizza and the thousands of wines. Not only there is a wine for every palate, but there is also a pizza, lets combine the two together for a delicious journey through the Italian's flavours
The 2023 harvesting will be remembered, yet again, from winemakers all over the Italy for its many challenges, due to the unpredictable weather patterns. From the devastating floods in Emilia-Romagna to the scorching temperatures in Sicily, to the lack of dry days during the spring that has caused the Peronospora to attack the vines. The 2023 grape growing season is one that has been marked by extremes across the country, from north to south, with no exception. Climate change is now widely acknowledged as the cause of these extremes and unpredictable weather events. Italian winemakers have not had a “normal” harvesting for several years now and each harvesting brings more and new challenges
Starting from August, unless of a last minute scrap or extension which we are all hoping for, climate change will affect the price of our favourite wine. The duty on wine will be determined by the alcohol content affecting wine produced all over the world especially warmer climates. Any wine with an alcohol content of 11.5% and above will see an increase in duty, increase that will force importers to put prices up
For nearly two decades, the Association of Moscato di Canelli producers, have battled with the Italian bureaucracy and wine establishment to get the Canelli DOCG recognised. Canelli is considered the home of Italian sparkling wine production and to produce the best Moscato d’Asti but until recently, it was only recognised as a sub zone of the Moscato d’Asti with some producers indicating Canelli on the label. Finally, the Ministry of Agriculture has granted the application and Canelli has been granted DOCG status.
Creating the “superiore” denomination not only will not make any difference on the wines’ reputation, wines because the article mentions all regional DOC wines, but will create even more confusion for the consumers, the wine drinkers, the people that will eventually buy it. To protect the appellations and the consumers, much more needs to be done
Unfortunately, when price becomes the determining factor driving our food choices, we are not saving money, we are slowing shutting down our bodies. And having a gluten intolerant in the family, I noticed that the “free from” range in supermarkets is getting bigger and bigger and even includes gluten free ice lollies, I wonder where the gluten comes from since they should only be made of water and fruit or at least, flavouring. I believe this tells us the direction we are heading to. Paying a premium to eat better quality food
We have been approached and asked to contribute as an expert on an article about storing wine and since we believe that storing wine deserves more attention, even more in an era where each kitchen comes with some sort of wine rack and as you will read below, the kitchen is the least suitable place to store wine, we thought of publishing the answer on our blog as well
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