Last Friday, with a family birthday to celebrate, our old kitchen removed and the new one not yet installed, we reserved a table at a local restaurant. To be honest, I would usually rather eat at home: the wine list is better! And, in the summer and fall, nothing is more delicious than garden vegetables, …
Whether for reasons of upbringing, experience or temperament, I am always striving—to think up and take on projects, formulate plans, aim for change; grow and achieve. As a little girl, I convinced my parents to redecorate my room, having it painted pale blue to match the canopy bed I cajoled them into ordering—the first transformation …
Wine lovers, the press and winemakers themselves like to talk about “terroir-driven” wines, a vague expression that I transcribe as “wines with a sense of place”–only slightly less vague–but at least it gives us a starting point. Many of us are used to “varietal wines,” or wines that are made predominantly from one kind of …
Whereas for the past year or two, we have been delighted to find a glass of almost any wine in our hand come evening, these days, with vaccines, a somewhat milder Covid variant and a bit more freedom in our lives, expectations are on the rise. And now that wine lovers are back in wine …
How We Can Become Better Wine Tasters without Tasting 10,000 Bottles Read More »
Early in 2021, after a protracted search for a piece of land with old Sangiovese vines and the right kind of sub-soils, I bought a two-acre vineyard. Except I didn’t: according to ARTEA, the regional agricultural database, the land where the vineyard stands is a wheat field. Before buying, I explained this to the owner …
One of the best aspects of our move to Villa Pera, which will become home to the Fanciulle Vini winery as well as to me and my family—is that the caretakers who have lived there for the past ten years have agreed to stay on. Lush and Hana, who came to Tuscany from Kosovo (a …
Tuscany has some glorious terrains, with the potential to make wines on par with great Burgundies. We’re also blessed with an indigenous varietal—Sangiovese—that can make wines that are headily aromatic, lusciously tangy and ethereally delicate. All of that starts in the vineyard—actually under it, with a deep understanding of the nature of the land. Yet …
Wine is enigmatic: the translucent bottle glints appealingly to the eye, while its smooth, hard glass caches the perfumes and tastes within. Even music seems more concrete: you can write it down and reproduce it, whereas each bottle has a life of its own and provides a truly unique drinking experience. Despite 20 years of …
After the harvest, when the grapes have been picked, brought into the cellar and fermented, and the wines have been racked off the skins and moved into barrels, the weather stops mattering, the cellar work ebbs to a day or so per week and a sense of plenty and of ease sets in. I no …
Last night, for one of the first times since the beginning of the pandemic, we had a friend over for dinner, and lingered, talking after the meal. Dessert was homemade cantucci–the dry, Sienese almond cookies that practically beg for a glass of sweet wine. I had found a forgotten bottle of vin santo among the …
