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Orange Filled Dreams

Paleokerisio
Traditional Semi-sparkling Orange Wine
Ioannina
2018
Domaine Glinavos S.A.
Zitsa, Ioannina, Greece

What a beautiful weekend! (May 2-3) My lovely friend Claudio, even while social distancing, introduced me to Paleokerisio. This is quite a welcome surprise, and means I’m now traveling to Greece. 

The color is bright orange w tiny bubbles. Breathe in and there’s orange peel, cloves, dried apricots, pine, and hoppy beer. The taste is an explosion! There’s honey, cloves, orange peel, maybe orange blossoms and oddly orange jolly rancher, pine, and here comes that beer taste again. Tingle tingle. Am I going insane?

Pairs with Cheez-Its: brings out more of the tang and bubble zing, and the beer feel. 

I love this wine because it hits so many different notes. It’s sweet, semi-dry, tingly, it’s heavenly, and a little bit like a beer

Domaine Glinavos has quite a history (which is beautifully documented on their site). Lefteris Glinavos had a passion for wine, and left Greece to study in Bordeaux and hone his craft. Upon return to Zitsa, he kicked off Domaine Glinavos bringing in modern methods yet sticking with the local native grapes. His son is now at the helm and continues this same passion and creativity. According to the site, they are still dedicated to the native grapes such as vlahiko, bekari, and debina; and they are now also including many other grapes such as malagouzia, cabernet sauvignon, merlot of Epirus, traminer, and sauvignon blanc. They also make three different types of tsipouro, which honestly I had never heard of before. From what I’m finding it is an un-aged brandy, and their award winning Tsipouro Asimenia Limni, received the bronze medal in 2019, and the silver in 2017 from the Thessaloniki International Wine and Spirits Competition. Someday, I’m going to have to get my hands on a bottle.

So starting to look into Ioannina. Wow, what a beautiful land. The Perama Caves are other worldly. From what I read they go 5 kilometers down, but only 1 km has been explored. Would love to go on a tour and see their collections of fossils, which one is a “rare cave bear”. Can’t find out more about the bear, but am curious as to what makes it rare. The images, I’m finding conjure up images from the book “The Devil’s Cave” by my favorite author Martin Walker. If you haven’t heard of him, check him out. His books will help you travel in your head. Back to Ioannina…every google comes up with incredibly beautiful images. Then there’s Lake Pamvotida which has the only inhabited island in Greece that doesn’t have a name. From what I’m finding the lake also sounds like great place for birding. There’s so many other natural sights, architectural wonders, artwork, and more, but the moment I saw a page about Pavlos Vrellis Museum of Wax Effigies, I was immediately intrigued. It’s a private institution that chronicles the local history of Epirus, all the way back to 500 B.C. The figures are said to be life-size, so I wonder how big this space must be. Info and great pics click here. It’s really cool and yet creepy doll at the same time. I can’t wait till we can all mingle again, and I can experience all of this in person!

#wine #worldbyglass #Ioannina #pandemic #covid19 #greece #orangewine #martinwalker #needmorewine #pairswithcheezits @cheezits @docwineshop @docwinebar @worldbyglass @domaine_glinavos #tsipouro

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A Bottle of Sunshine

“Sunny day
Sweeping the clouds away”
This is a bottle of sunshine

Cantine Su’entu 
Nina Rosé 2018
Isola Dei Nuraghi Rosso IGT
Sardegna 

Grape: Bovale and a small touch of vermentino (anyone that knows me, knows the Dean Martin song stuck in my head now. Lyrics way below)

The color is a beautiful bright salmon. Opening it up, and the first that hits me is grapefruit (don’t kill me, it’s an ipa grapefruit) then fresh strawberries and floral.

 Now for the first sip, whoa there a lot more to this wine than I originally thought. Just like the nose, there’s just picked strawberries, grapefruit (but now not like an ipa), and salt. It’s fresh, bright, but has a body. Sweet w a hint of tart. Lovely. This is a wonderful touch of summer. Wish I was outside, but one can always dream…

My really sweet dad keeps sending me wonderful care packages including Cheez-Its. So here goes “Pairs with Cheez-its”:  My Cheez-it brings deeper strawberries to the yard

Otherwise: Would be great w shrimp and scallops. *Edit: I would love this with fried shrimp (Carolina or Gulf) and hush puppies and sitting on a deck staring at the sea

 #wine @cheezits # Sardegna #sardinia #rose #rosé #bovale #pandemic #covid19 @docwinebar @docwineshop #wereallinthistogether @worldbyglass @cantinasuentu http://www.cantinesuentu.com/en/ #ipa worldbyglass.com

Lyrics

Volare, oh oh
Cantare, oh oh oh oh
Let’s fly way up to the clouds
Away from the maddening crowds
We can sing in the glow of a star that I know of
Where lovers enjoy peace of mind
Let us leave the confusion and all disillusion behind
Just like bird of a feather, a rainbow together we’ll find
Volare, oh oh
E contare, oh oh oh oh
No wonder my happy heart sings
Your love has given me wings
Penso che un sogno cosi non ritorni mai più
Mi dipingevo le mani e la faccia di blu
Poi d’improvviso venivo dal vento rapito
E incominciavo a volare nel cielo infinito
Volare, oh oh
E contare, oh oh oh oh
Nel blu, dipinto di blu
Felice di stare lassu
E volavo, volavo felice piu in alto del sole ed ancora piu su
Mentre il mondo pian piano spariva lontano laggiu
Una musica dolce suonava soltanto per me
Volare, oh oh
E cantare, oh oh oh oh
No wonder my happy heart sings
Your love has given me wings
Nel blu, dipinto di blu

Felice di stare lassu

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Tomas Cusine “El Geol”

This was the first wine I broke into during the lockdown. Now I only wish I could get more of Tomas Cusine “El Geol” 2016 Old Vines. 

Lovely dark ruby color. 

Nose was warm & loving. Black peppercorns, deep cherry and fig mix, whiff of cola, stone fruit, small oak; and would love to be sitting by a fireplace. Also had balsamic notes that reminded me of a reduction that my friend Stefano makes to go with his steak. Full disclosure, last one I had, I drank straight from the to go condiment cup. He makes the best damn reduction. 

Taste was rich, dark cherry, plum, dried figs, and blackberries. Velvety and full and if it were a sweater I’d wear it every day. Comforting and strong. 

#wine #spain #worldbyglass @vilaviniteca @docwinebar #eatlocal @tomascusine #needmorewine https://worldbyglass.com

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A Bottle of Love

Rossese Di Dolceaqua, 2018
Maccario Dringenberg
San Biagio Della Chima

The color is a bright happy glowing garnet, like shimmering through a stained glass window. Opening the bottle and the first pour is cherry, mineral, and floral. Reminds me of magnolia or azaleas, but not overpowering like your eccentric great aunt’s perfume. Just reminds me of flowers from home. I remember climbing magnolia trees…Aunt Eula had them in them out back. She was a unique soul, and I always keep a piece of her in my heart. FYI she didn’t wear the before mentioned perfume. She was my hero and a very distinguished nurse. Her backyard always reminded me of a fairy land. The moss, the flowers, the earthy damp humid smell. It was just enchanting and magical. The forest hints in the wine take me fully there.

Bring on the taste: cherry and strawberries. Fresh and tart and fun fruit that opens up to sweet but not too sweet loveliness. Summery floral but not overpowering, light leather, salt and a touch of olive pit. Bellisimo! Happy, happy times

My really sweet dad keeps sending me wonderful care packages including Cheez-Its. So here goes “Pairs with Cheez-its”: All of above but a tingle and more smooth less tang. Actually has a full on prune w it. More sweet. More concentrated. Does it really matter if I’ve hit the point of eating Cheez-its in the dark during a pandemic while sipping wine and watching Chris Cuomo. Oddly the wine makes the Cheez-its more toasty

Onto the travel. Been having a hard time finding a lot specifically about San Biagio Della Chima, so any feedback would be very welcome. So far I’m finding it’s a comune in the province Imperia in Liguria. The comune sounds like it has close tight climbing roads and staircases. Sounds like it would be great exercise, which I could really use right now. There’s also the Chiesa dei Santi Fabiano e Sebastiano, where you can find artworks by Jacopo Rodi di Montalto, Giovan Battista Casoni, Maurizio Carrega and Anton Maria Maragliano. They also have a wonderful restaurant La Vecchia Ostaia (“Mamma Angela”) which has recently been reviewed by “The World’s 50 Best”. Back to the winery, it’s evidently steep planting, so everything is by hand. Sounds like this is a lot of hard and dedicated work by Giovanna Maccario and her husband Goetz Dringenberg. Everything I’m reading is that they both changed their lives to keep the winery open. She switched career first, then love happened and Goetz came on board. Such a romantic story. 

As I said, I’ve had a hard time getting info, until I stumbled upon Patricia Thomson’s article on Rossese. I’m just going to directly quote her on the developing wine history: “But passing generations have witnessed a hacking away of the viticultural landscape. Where once 3000 hectares (7400 acres) of vineyards blanketed these valleys—50 percent more than in the Langhe—now there’s just 100 hectares. Wars and phylloxera started the shrinkage. But farmers voluntarily continued it once the flower industry was introduced. Seeing they could make the same amount of money in half the time with half the property, they started ripping out vines and building greenhouses. Now those multistory monstrosities sit empty, for Dutch buyers have turned to cheaper sources in Chile, Kenya, and Tunisia, where flowers cost one-tenth the price.”

That’s pretty distressing, but evidently there are younger vintners seeking to bring all the wineries back and cultivate the old vines. Thank goodness Maccario Drinngenberg is keeping up this hard work. Please check out Patricia Thomson’s site. She writes about film, wine, etc. and it’s all fabulous. 

Also in Imperia there is another comune, Dolceaqua, which (according to google maps) is a 22 min car ride from San Biagio Della Chima. Monet captured their Castello di Dolceacqua and the Old Bridge Dolceaqua in a few paintings. I can definitely see why he chose to paint this magical place. The bridge is truly enchanting. During research on these works, I stumbled onto another site that is a gold mine of information on Liguria. https://thatsliguria.com/en/
A wonderful woman named Agata fell in love with Liguria, and also fell “in love” in Liguria, and built the site so everyone else can see how beautiful the places, people, and the food are. She’s even keeping up posting from quarantine. She is definitely stirring my love for this beautiful region. 

One more take away, as I keep looking into wine, the people, the communities, and the land; I keep finding tales of love, dedication, and perseverance from all over the world. During this tense stressful time of the pandemic/covid19/isolation, I find these stories inspiring and bring a bright light to my day.

#wine #worldbyglass #rossese #pandemic #covid19 #liguria #sanbiagiodellacima #MaccarioDringenberg #RosseseDiDolceaqua #italy #imperia #dolceaqua #needmorewine #pairswithcheezits #monet @cheezits @chrisccuomo @docwineshop @docwinebar @worldbyglass

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Living in a Whole New World

Last Thursday (4/24/20), I made my weekly order from my favorite restaurant D.O.C. Wine Bar. Been trying to do the little I can to help my friends and keep our local businesses open during this pandemic. They’re really awesome caring people that I’ve known for years and are truly my friends. Anyway, Claudio Coronas (he and his wife Rossana are owners) added a wonderful present in my delivery of a bottle of Ancarani Romagna Sangiovese Oriolo DOC 2016. Man, did this bottle of wine brighten my night. Wine is always my happy place, but even more so during this lockdown. This bottle took me on a trip outside of the walls of my apartment and all the way to Romagna Italy.

Opened the bottle, poured the first glass and held it up to the light to see a beautiful deep garnet and as I turned the stem little highlights danced on my wall. First whiff was a little diesel (which to me is not a bad thing and I did just open the bottle) but it quickly dissipated. Let it breathe a bit and violet and other delicate flowers pop out. There’s some cherry and toasty warm maybe spice that I can put my finger on scent. It just smells like a warm hug which we all need right now. Seriously, I can’t wait to hug again.

Now back to the wine. Oriolo taste : cherry, a little dried fruit, raspberry, salt, and a little earth, and also a wonderful tang/zip to it. It’s full of fruit with a dry finish. Made me want to be sitting outside by a river with friends having a picnic and sharing this bottle, or even relaxing with my S.O. in front of a fireplace….or it makes me want to travel. This yearning leads me to the Ancarani website. https://viniancarani.it/en/

What a beautiful vineyard! Also not only do they make wine but they also grow wheat, make pasta, and you can contact them about lunches, dinners, and tastings on their sustainable farm. Claudio Ancarani dubs himself the ‘agricolo’ and Rita Babini ‘the energy’. Claudio’s grandfather was the beginning of this venture buying the land in 1934, which is located in Faenza and near Torre de Oriolo. This led me to wonder what is this Torre? First ended up on the Oriolo Dei Fichi wiki page (what an amazing historic structure) and then to Torre Di Oriolo’s Facebook page. Ok, there’s an event with fire listed. I love festivals with fire! Lom a Merz is a festival filled with food, wine, music, games, etc. and a huge bonfire of dry branches, pruning and such; to drive off the winter, welcome the new season and bring on a prosperous one. Sadly, it appears that this year’s had to be cancelled due to the virus, but they had an optimistic note on the event page: “We want to think positive and look beyond the emergency we are experiencing. And so let’s try together to hypothesize a date: Sunday 26 April! When maybe we will already be out of our houses for a few weeks and meet around the fire to burn all the additional effort and difficulties of this longer than usual winter will be even more beautiful! In the meantime, stay at home, take care of yourself: united, respecting the distances, we will do it!” Now this is #romagnastrong

Maybe one day I’ll get to visit Ancarani and hopefully I will find more of your wines, but for now will just have to visit you online. Here’s a little more on Stada della Romagna https://www.stradadellaromagna.it/en/

#wine #DOCwinebar @docwineshop #@ancaranivini #italy #romagna #fire #lockdownwine