Back in November I did a post highlighting the ten different wineries we had visited so far here in Italy. I said at the time that it was 10 wineries in four months but looking more closely at my list it was actually five months. So...setting the record straight. Click
here if you'd like to revisit that post.
It's been another five months so I thought it was a good time to do another wine-focused blog post. Ten must be my lucky number because it's another ten wineries.
The past five months have been a veritable alphabet soup of wines. The wine regions we've visited include Colli Berici, Colli Euganei, Franciacorta, Prosecco, Valpolicella,
Emilia-Romagna, and right here in our own backyard. The wines I've tasted include takes on Pinot Grigio, Moscato, Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay, Prosecco, Valpolicella, Amarone, Recioto, Yellow Muscat, Brut, Pinot Nero, Lambrusco, and Spumante.
Closing out 2017 were two great wineries recommended by my friend Nancy. Nancy and I worked together in Germany and hadn't seen each other in five years. She had been living here in Vicenza and we had been back in Arizona. It was really great moving here and getting to reconnect with her and her husband Dan.
I was a very grateful beneficiary of all of Nancy's knowledge gleaned over the past five years. She also bequeathed me her 'bible' of business cards and brochures of all of her favorite places. I've been tagging her recommendations on Instagram.
First up was
Villa Sceriman. This is a very popular winery with the Americans living here. Villa Sceriman has a great outdoor area and lots of good wine at an excellent price. I tried more than ten different wines here...good thing Nancy was driving. One of my favorites here was the Chardonnay Brut.
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| The beautiful outdoor seating area. Nancy says it's beautiful during the spring. |
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| Just a few of the wines I got to try. |
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| Nancy sure knows her wines! |
The last winery of 2017 was
Villa Sandi in Prosecco. Nancy and Dan invited us to this winery when they were having an Open Cellar event, which was very cool. We got a very nice overview of the winery, a tour through their extensive underground cellars and then a tasting.
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| The Villa |
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| The Cellars |
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| The Wine! |
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| Artistic photo courtesy of Nancy. |
First winery of the new year was, as we call them...a gas pump winery...
Cantina Colli Vicentini. I stopped here on a day I was furloughed during one of the brief government shutdowns earlier this year.
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| A government shut down's not so bad when you have wine on tap nearby. |
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| Those sure look like gas pumps to me! |
Next up was the January wine trip with the Vicenza Community Wine Club. I really enjoy going on these when the timing works out and the wineries aren't too far away. January took us to the region of Franciacorta to visit
Castello Bonomi. This is wine made in the tradition of French Champagne but it can't be called Champagne because it's not grown in the specific region of France. We visited the Champagne Region in 2011. I wrote a blog about it. Click
here if you'd like to check it out.
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| Chin Chin |
Our next winery is one of my favorite finds so far. We were driving home after a day trip to Bologna to visit
Eataly, when Tom asked if I wanted to stop at a winery on our way home. This was on President's Day holiday, so it was a Monday. I got on my phone to look for a winery that was on the way home, not too far out of the way, and open on Monday. We found
Maeli, which makes delicious Yellow Muscat wine grown from volcanic rock soil. We just adored the owner and producer, Elisa Dilavanzo, and look forward to future visits.
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| Elisa and her wine |
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| A small producer, boutique winery. |
We ended up visiting
La Dolce Vigna twice in about three weeks, going with two different groups of friends. A great family operates this winery/restaurant and offers a unique tasting experience with wine and pizza. We had such a great time here and I highly recommend. I'm sure we'll bring many friends and family to visit. It's about a 2.5-3 hour experience.
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| The pizza |
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| The Wine |
In early March we had another great trip to the Valpolicella region just northwest of Verona. We visited one of Nancy's recommended wineries,
Recchia, and we also visited one of my co-worker's favorites,
Villa Crine.
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| Really fantastic family at Villa Crine |
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| Great wine and beautiful labels. |
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| Recchia's line up -- another favorite with the Americans |
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In mid March a group of us did a day trip to Parma for a food tour. There are some pictures on my
Instagram page from the trip and I'll probably blog about it too. The trip included visiting a factory where they make parmigiano-reggiano, learning about the process of making parma ham/prosciutto, and a balsamic tasting. We did have lunch at a winery and, while I'm not counting this as a visited winery, we did have a good wine there.
Medici Ermete, where we did the balsamic tasting, is also a winery and we were able to taste one of their signature wines. They did have to the change the name of the wine before selling it in the United States. You'll see the label and probably be able to guess why.
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| Lunch wine. |
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| View from our lunch spot |
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| Sneaking in a wine tasting at our balsamic place. |
Our final winery of March was
Opificio del Pinot Nero, which is literally a couple miles from our house. Tom found this winery, produced by the wonderful Marco Buvoli. Tom visited in early March and then we went with some friends at the end of the month. We had a great time with Marco and loved all of his wines. His is also a small producer and has such a great setup at his home. A true passion project. Can't wait to visit again!
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| Happy Hubby! |
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| Very strong wine! Marco was very generous with the pours. |
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| Tom and Marco |
So that wraps it up. My second wine tasting overview. I hope you enjoyed. We look forward to even more wine adventures here in beautiful northern Italy. Ciao for now.
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