Wine Fictions

Sometimes wine sellers use certain words to warn customers about a particular wine that they think may not be the best or what exactly the customer expects. Even though this is something that I normally do with certain customers I could not hide some surprise as it was done to me last week. At a small wine shop with focus on Italian wines I was warned by the owner that this cuvée of Syrah and Merlot from Baglio di Pianetto was "special" when I was about to pay. I have to confess that I have grabbed the bottle in a rather subconscious way as it was on a promotion and had the 3 Bicchieri Gambero Rosso sticker on it and this is a distinction that I do trust. I have also had previous good experiences with Sicilian Syrahs and being theoretically slightly matured has sort of promised a more interesting experience where tertiary aromas should start showing. How special is it?, I have asked back.  Well, I would definitely have a steak with it, he answered. Translated, this means tha...

 How can what we read influence what we drink? If, on the one hand, it is already proven that listening to certain kinds of music can condition or influence not only how you perceive wine but also your shopping behaviour, as this study indicates ,  can reading also play an influence on your daily wine decisions. While recently reading Jhumpa Lahiri's Roman Stories   I was often confronted with a tremendous desire to have Italian wines. This feeling has grown so much inside me, that yesterday at a tasting in the shop where I work I have ended up choosing four Italian wines out of five I have given the guests to try.  Of course there was someone who has asked me the reason of my obsession and I just simply admitted that I was on the verge of finishing Lahiri's book. For the guests who knew me there was a complicity laughter. From the others, there was a rather puzzled look at me.  Nothing that you cannot conquer with the quality of Italian wines. Even though not a...

Sometimes I hardly find words to describe the multiplicity of worlds that we can find through a simple bottle of wine.  In this case, I have to first refer to the impressive social project developed by the Valdibella Cooperative  and its strong commitment to nature, to the quality of their local products and specially to their local grapes. This Acamante is no exception. Made from Perricone, it reveals intense red fruits with a light leather scent and spices. Its vigorous tannins make it a perfect wine for tomato sauce dishes or red meats like lamb. In fact, every new sip I had form this wine awoke in me new gastronomical ideas.  I have to confess that I ended up having part of it with a homemade codfish ceviche as I found its acidity matching the  lime juice marinade and the stronger texture of cod.  And as I start biding goodbye to the long Hamburg winter, I leave you this Claude McKay's To Winter for all the ones who will miss it:        ...

 One of the things that I often experience when buying Italian wines is the recognition of my lack of knowledge about their grapes, specificity of the territory and an almost complete feeling of diving into the unknown.  That is as well as part of the fascination of buying them. This personal discovery of new worlds and sort of empiric gathering of information in order to try to understand what I have in my glass has been one of the most exciting wine experiences I have been through in these last times. In this particular case, I knew Chardonnay and Viognier and I could not resist to see how they would react to the warmer climate of Sicily as well as to the mix with the autoctonous grapes.  The result was quite positive, I must say. Pure freshness with a delicate citrus taste, making it a perfect pairing for summer dishes, with a special focus on seafood. Still, it shows quite a nice character due to its flowery taste and pleasant, long ending. A great wine to accompany ...