The eve before I left Italy this fall, I stopped into Estro Vino e Cucina in Venice to say goodbye to my friends Dario and Alberto Spezzamonte, the owners of this contemporary Venetian bistrot, wine bar and wine shop. Over a glass of sparkling garganega, I asked Dario, the sommelier brother, to select December’s wine-of-the-month; he accepted, we said ciao, gave our do’ bazi (“two kisses” in Venetian dialect; a typical greeting in Italy), and I left. Four days later, on November 12th, Venice suffered from an acqua alta just two inches shy of the record-setting flood in 1966, which reached six feet and four inches.
Read moreWine of the Month | A Mushroom Risotto's Best Friend
After island hopping the past couple of months, November’s wine-of-the-month hails from Piemonte in Northern Italy. It is not only a stellar pairing for a mushroom risotto, but it’s also a delicious Thanksgiving wine and goes well with autumnal fare in general, making this the ideal month to showcase (drum roll, please):
Read moreWine of the Month | Summer Vacation in a Bottle
Last month’s wine was from one of Italy’s two regions that are islands, Sicily; this month’s wine hails from the other, Sardinia!
Read moreWine of the Month | Coastal Flavor
A couple of weeks ago, I was hanging out in coastal Maine, visiting a a good friend who I met the first week of our freshman year at Sarah Lawrence College and has been a pen pal—with REAL letters!—ever since. (Heart eyes emoji.) On my last night, we stopped in at Maine & Loire, a curated natural wine shop in Portland which celebrates, as the owners put it, “alive and soulful” wines. This month, I really wanted to feature a red wine that would be delicious chilled, so Peter Hale, one half of the husband-and-wife team, directed me to this juicy, adult-fruit-punch kind of Sicilian wine that would be perfect on its own (as my friend and I tried it), or paired with chicken on the grill and vegetable salads. Your call!
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