This week’s Wine, Shine & Dine event in Cortona on Thursday, July 25, 2013 featured Friuli/Veneto Winery La Tunella. Cortona was absolutely packed with people, the Cortona Mix Festival is currently going on and there was a group of egyptian dressed people singing on the steps of the town hall. Everyone was desperately trying to beat the 90+ degree weather and the cool wines being poured were a welcome refreshing relief. I even spotted one...

I was invited by my good friends Leuta to see them bottle their wine using a mobile bottling line. Basically a big semi-truck comes to the winery, unloads the entire back container to the ground which then opens up and the bottling line is contained inside. Owner and winemaker Denis Zeni took me on tour of the line while they were bottling their...

Sunday evening Il Falconiere hosted a “Sparkling Cocktail Party & Live Dj Set” at their gorgeous Relais & Chateaux property nestled in the hills just below Cortona.  I had been invited by my good friend Sebastian of Del Brenna Jewellery who was also there with his beautiful artisan jewelry helping sponsor the event. It was a perfect evening for an outdoor event and the Falconiere property is an amazing place to watch the sun...

It’s rough being a wine blogger.  I mean all these dinners and tastings to write about.  I’m currently behind in posting all the goings on as I speak! BUT, I wanted to give the inside scoop on one of Cortona’s newest hidden gems and the amazing pairings they are designing. Benvenuto Zaffiro Rosso, a small intimate little wine bar located within Del Brenna Jewellery’s new beautiful showroom underneath Cortona! Being good...

I had the pleasure of joining my favorite Cortona winery Leuta for a barrel tasting with award winning sommelier Luca Gardini (voted World’s Best Sommelier in 2010), enologist Maurizio and of course owners Denis and Enzo. This tasting was very important, they were here to taste 4 different varieties from 54 different barrels in order to select the very best barrel of each variety to blend for their top wine, Nautilus. Each barrel was...

I recently visited Puglia for the first time.  Located down at the heel of Italy it is a magical land of rusty red earth, giant olive trees, Trulli and Primitivo wine. Primitivo is said to be the older cousin of Zinfandel but interestingly enough, after actual DNA testing, they were found to both be clones of a Croatian grape called Crljenak. It actually was a struggle to try to research wineries and schedule tastings in Puglia.  There seems to...