On our left, the vineyard extends along the slopes of a small closed and concave valley, protected by winds and sudden changes of temperature and guarded by the castle of Albana, rising at the beginning of the valley.
Like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot is a successful grape of Bordeaux region in France, that has been planted all over the world. There are sought-after wines made with Merlot like Château Petrus in Pomerol (France). At the same time, Merlot is sometimes blamed for its simplicity.
At parties, you know, the sparkling wine is inevitable. Bottles, slightly rounded in shapes and with slender necks, stand out in the centre of large tables, ready to be uncorked.
Kafka came to Lake Garda twice in totally different circumstances and both stayed in Riva del Garda, which, at that time, was still under the Habsburg Empire, but which for him, as for many other guests, was already considered Italy.
In a border area between the Chianti Classico and the Val d’Elsa, halfway from Florence and Siena, overlooking the marvellous city of San Gimignano and its towers, for almost 40 years I Balzini has been producing long-lived, elegant wines. The winery was founded by Vincenzo D’Isanto, later joined by his wife Antonella and more recently by his daughter Diana. Since few years Diana is leading the family business.
Written during Covid-19 lockdown..
It’s the end of September, one of the last opening weekends of Telegrafo refuge on Monte Baldo: our final destination. The day is cloudy, we begin to climb slowly from Prada and the more we get up, the more the fog falls. During the journey, my friend and I tell each other about our lives and despite the wind that plays with our words and the fog that surrounds us, our thoughts are clear in the light of day.
Driven by curiosity for the birth of the new vintage, we started for a ‘hit and run’ in the heart of Umbria by Sagrantino, visiting my friend Paolo Bartoloni from Cantina Le Cimate, a full-blown intrusion during the harvest.
Towards Easter they decide to move to San Gaudenzio “a farm about two miles above the lake […] a lovely place. There is a garden around for over a mile, with vineyards and olive trees. It falls precipitously on the edge of the cliff above the lake. I sit and write in a desert lemon garden that catches the sun and keeps it.”
Bresciatourism, a non-profit company that promotes tourism in the city and province of Brescia, patronises the Italy4golf project.
The boom in winemaking along the coast of Tuscany is relatively recent. Sassicaia, on the market since 1972 (harvest 1968), acted as a trailblazer of an incredible enological progress of the area to the south of Pisa (province of Livorno).
