The last winery visit during our Sicily adventure was to Caruso e Minini in Marsala. This is a relatively young winery that was created when fourth-generation winemaker Stefano Caruso partnered with Northern Italian marketer extraordinaire Mario Minini to create this brand that now exports mostly indigenous Sicilian varieties, including Grillo, Catarratto, Grecanico, Inzolia, Zibibbo, Nero d’Avola, Frappato and Perricone as well as some international varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Syrah, and Merlot. Today, the company is helmed by Stefano’s two daughters, Giovanna and Rosanna. I am a huge fan of their wines. In addition to the Perricone, I have enjoyed…
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The Weekly Pour is the culmination of the micro posts on Strong Coffee to Red Wine. Each week subscribers will be notified via an email that posts are available to read and enjoy. This does not apply to folks using another RRS feeder. Contesa dei Venti 2020 Vittoria Doc Nero D’Avola Sicilia Last October in Sicily, on our visit to Donnafugata, we had the good fortune to have Tommaso Bellisola, the Senior Hospitality Manager at the Vittoria tasting room, lead our tasting. His depth of knowledge and his passion for Donnafugata wines was a perfect match for our needs. Contesa…
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The inhabitants of Sicily have been making wine for millennia. However, the Phoenicians in the 1100 – 1000 BCE brought vines, advanced enology, and viticulture knowledge to the island, which began the quest for quality wine. Sicily’s wineries have been raising the bar ever since. Wine grapes are grown all over Sicily, including 23 DOC sub-regions and one DOCG sub-region. The island is most known for wines from Marsala DOC, Vittoria DOC, and Etna DOC. Etna DOC wines drew me to Sicilian wines, so we started our trip there. Side Note: In preparation for this trip, I read a couple…
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We have been home from our wine trip to Sicily for two weeks. Jetlag was a real ogre. I was almost non-functional for days. But now there is excellent clarity. We were on the island for a two-week trip using my self-guided itinerary. We accomplished a lot and covered a lot of territory, probably too much. But when I am in a new foreign location, FOMO takes over. I fear I may not return, so I cram the schedule full. Even though I left several days for sightseeing, it sometimes felt rushed, and I did not like that. But such…
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More Paso Robles Wineries Not to be Missed It was quite a thrill to see what the co-owner of LXV Wine said about our first post about Paso Robles. “Omg, super thorough and explains the Paso Robles wine region extremely accurately!” said Kunal Mittal. I have to say, it is always nice to be affirmed by a community member. If you missed the post, be sure to click on the link above. This post will continue to share information about the remaining wineries that hosted us during WWET Paso Robles. And I should start with LXV Wines because that is the…
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As you all know, my favorite vacation is a wine-tasting vacation. What is available at the source is so much better than what distributors choose to bring to our wine and grocery stores back home. At the winery, the variety is greater, the limited production wines are available, the scenery is beyond beautiful, and you always get to try before you buy. I could keep the list going, but there is no need. I am sure you get the drift. Recently, Gary and I traveled to Paso Robles for an annual wine writers event. The “deets” on our trip After…
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It’s Who We Are Tasting In January The very first winery that Gary and I visited on our last trip to wine country was Harney Lane Winery and Vineyards in Lodi, California (you can read my intro post about Lodi here.). They made a great first impression that set the bar quite high for all the other wineries that followed. We enjoyed these wines so much that we are putting together a tasting in January. If you are interested, you can join in either locally or virtually. Email us or leave a comment if you are interested. Harney Lane Winery…
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I first started my reporting of Suisun Valley wineries and AVA back in September. I genuinely have no idea where the time went, but it is time to get back on this. So this post will continue sharing many of the other wines we sampled and the fabulous and enthusiastic winemakers we met on our first day of presentations. Two of the winemaker’s families have been working this land for decades. Parents, grandparents, and sometimes great-grandparents settled here to become fruit farmers growing cherries, plums, and others. Some slowly moved into wine grapes as supply and demand proved to be…
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