The words San Marzano – to me – conjure up those delicate-skinned, super sweet, lower acidity plum tomatoes that are the darlings of so many scrumptious pasta sauces. So, I felt sheepish when I learned that the San Marzano cooperative is not based in Campania, like the (arguably) world’s most famous tomatoes, but rather on the Salento Peninsula – the heel of the Italian “boot”. Mea culpa.
Read MoreI adore Kerner, but I’ve never had one from outside of Italy’s Alto Adige until now. That echoed winemaker David Ramey’s experience, too.
Read MoreI’d say that the Savatiano grape has been saved from the glare of a certain limelight of in Greek wine. I label it a glare rather than a shine because it is the base grape of a highly polarizing wine style: Retsina. Savatiano is Greece’s most widely planted vine, too, so it isn’t too surprising that it is a productive one.
Read MoreLaurel Glen 2016 Rosella Rosé Sonoma Mountain: The story goes that a single stip of old vines dating back to the 1880s gives the flavor backbone of this wine. Can it really be "just" a row or two or three? "Just" a patch of vineyard? Whatever it is precisely, I love this wine.
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