Mazzei, one of Italy many family-run wineries, has been making wine for 25 generations, in Tuscany at Castello di Fonterutoli and Maremma, and at Noto in Sicily. The Mazzei family began planting Merlot in their Chianti Classico Siepi vineyard in the 1980s. Neil Duarte recently had a chance to review four of these Siepi wines. Read article.
Who’s had their ancestry tested? If you’ve sent off a DNA sample for analysis, I’ll bet your results weren’t any more surprising than Zinfandel, the grape whose whole ancestral story has been turned upside down. Zin, Primitivo, Kratosija, Crljenak Kastelanski, or Tribidrag? You decide!
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“Indigenous” Salento Primitivo is a dark, ruby-red wine with a thin clear edge. Its fruity, slightly perfumed aroma offers a blend of dried cherries and fresh, tart blackberries with a spicy back note. You can pick up a hint of the Zinfandel connection in that ripe berry fruit, but it’s much more earthy and rustic than its California sibling.
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Wine-Searcher.com is not currently showing listings for Indigenous Selections Salento Primitivo. Use this Wine-Searcher link to find other Indigenous Selections wines, and this link on Wine-Searcher to find listings for dozens of other Primitivo wines.
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Halloween evening turned brisk and blustery, abruptly turning our long, extended summer toward winter, the wind whining eerily as temperatures started a quick dive to our first frosty morning since last March.
What a great evening for a glass of Sherry!
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Made from 100 percent Palomino grapes, the Los Arcos Amontillado shows a pretty, bright bronze color in the glass. Delicious walnut aromas with a hint of brown sugar fill the nose; walnuts and soft lemon flavors fill the mouth. It’s dry with no apparent sweetness, but its luscious medium-bodied nutty character and mouth-watering acidity offers a good example of Amontillado.
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Find vendors and compare prices for Lustau Los Arcos Amontillado on Wine-Searcher.com.
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No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, I don’t think you’re going to be overjoyed about the Trump Administration’s tariffs that go into force today. The tariffs will add an immediate 25 percent tax on French, German and Spanish wines, as well as Parmesan cheese, mussels, coffee, single-malt whiskeys and other agricultural goods from Europe.
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A distinct high-toned edge of volatile acidity has to rate as a flaw amid the characteristic Chianti black cherries, plums, and dried cherries in this Ruffino “Aziano” Chianti Classico. On the palate it’s mouth-filling with juicy black fruit firmly contained by food-friendly acidity and considerable tannic astringency. This is a real food wine, perhaps better at the table than sipped alone.
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Find vendors and compare prices for Ruffino “Aziano” Chianti Classico on Wine-Searcher.com. Read article.
A pretty, clear garnet color in the glass, this nicely balanced Santa Cristina Toscana blend of 90 percent Sangiovese with a splash of Merlot offers clean and fresh aromas of black cherries and a hint of raspberries. Juicy black fruit surrounded by clean, food-friendly acidity makes for a nicely balanced wine that serves well at the dinner table.
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Check prices and locate vendors for Santa Cristina Toscana on Wine-Searcher.com.
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The family-owned Sicilian winery Planeta has been a favorite of Neil Duarte’s. In this article he reviews wines from Paneta’s new winery near Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano. Read article.
Now that consumer DNA testing has become a popular thing, a lot of us have tracked down more details than we had known about our ancestry and heritage. As it was for our families, so it was for wine. But most of us rarely recall the Russian connection with American wine.
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