Wine Fictions

 More than any other time, Christmas is a time for special wines.   As many other people I have carefully thought about which wines to open in these special days. Always keeping in mind what I would be cooking I ended up choosing a welcome present I have got from my chief when I have started working at Andronaco.  Described by him as the best Italian wine in the market, I have decided to open it and prove whether he was right or not. Having a rather late harvest, it is quite fascinating to feel how both Sangiovese and Malvasia Nera reveal such a tremendous density revealing fascinating ripe cherries taste along with tobacco notes and a somehow blood depth. After having decanted for about an hour it was amazing to feel how the tannins got softer to a pleasant and full bodied experience.  I also recommend a reading of their technical sheet as it offers quite some interesting details not only on the wine facts but also how the whole making process was made. I have ...

  Before start reading this post, I would like to invite you to a have a look at this cartoon by Posy Simmonds which I came across while reading her Literary World. I have recently came across an article about the price a German citizen, who drinks an average of 20 liters of wine per year, pays   for a liter of wine: 3,64€   This same study also indicates that every second bottle of wine is bought at a so-called discounter (Lidl, Aldi, Netto, Penny) being Aldi the biggest wine retailer in Germany. This raises quite some earnest concerns to the ones working in the wine sector in Germany. The fast growing of online business has also represented, for many small businesses, quite a hard blow on their income and has even led to the closure of quite some.  That is the case of a small family business close to me. With a bit more than 100 years on the wine business, the Weinhaus Reimer in Wandsbek Markt will be closing doors till the end of this year. I know it is quite an ...

 Following my former post , I have decided to taste a 99 Luca Maroni points home.  Based on five of the most iconic autochthonous grapes from southern Italy, this is a wine with grapes from both Abruzzo and Puglia regions, which automatically classifies it as a VDT or table wine. This does not mean, in any way, that it is a low quality wine.  Much the other way round. This is the result of a careful work from two different oenologues in order to try to create a wine which can reflect the spirit and identity of  these grapes. For all those who have been in touch with Italian wines, you may have come already across Montepulciano, Primitivo, Sangiovese, Negroamaro or Malvasia Nera. This is quite a deep and full bodied wine with strong nutmeg and cloves taste, light tobacco and ripe berries which makes it quite an ideal partner for the colder days which have just invaded the north of Germany.  The wooden notes are quite predominant and it is, somehow, not a big surp...

 On Monday the 28th November, Luca Maroni , the famous Italian creator of, probably, the most known wine  classification point system in Italy, has been in Hamburg not only to present his concept but also to present some of the wines he considers most exciting in the current Italian market.  Set in the iconic Hotel Atlantic, it was a warming surprise to be welcome by Luca's sister as soon as I have got into the room. Besides three tables with wines which figure on Maroni's list , there were two seminars where Luca has explained some of the main features that have made him choose those wines. Besides the whole theoretical part, I have to confess that what has impressed me the most was his constant appeal to the most sensorial aspects of wine drinking.  Pleasure on drinking was set as his main point of both seminars, which may have annoyed some of the people who have joined them.   His invitation to always drink a little sip from each wine was received with s...