Take A Look At Various Types Of Italian Wines

Italy is home to some of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world. There are over 2000 indigenous native grape varietals in the country, which are used to make wines of different tastes and colors. Italian wine falls into two categories- red and white. Take a look at some of the most popular wines in these two categories:

Red Wines
Barolo- This wine is known for its elegance and bouquet of wild mushroom, truffle, roses and tar. It is produced from the grape varietal Nebbiolo. The name of the grape (which means "little fog") refers to the autumn fog that blankets most of Piedmont region of Italy where it is grown.

Barbera- The wine has bright cherry fruit color and a food-friendly acidity. It is produced from a grape varietal of the same name, which is grown in the Piedmont and Southern Lombardy regions of Italy.

Valpolicella- This wine has dark cherry fruit color and a spicy taste. It is made from the grape varietals corvina, rondinella and molinara, which are grown in the Veneto region of Italy.

Salice Salentino- This wine is spicy, toasty, and full of dark red fruits. It is made from the grape varietal Negroamaro, literally meaning black and bitter, which is produced in the Puglia region of Italy.

Sagrantino- This wine is Inky purple in color and contains rustic brooding fruit and heavy tannins. It can easily age for many years. Sagrantino is produced from a grape varietal of the same name, which is a native to the Umbria region of Italy and is planted in an area of only 250 hectares.

White Wines
Trebbiano- This wine is produced from a grape varietal of the same name, which is grown throughout Italy. It has been known to last for more than 15 years.

Moscato d'Asti.: This is a slightly-sparkling, semi-sweet wine. It is produced from the grape varietal Moscato, which is mainly grown in Piedmont region of Italy.

Tocai Friulan- This wine is produced from the grape varietal of the same name, which is grown in the Friuli region of Italy. It is full of peachiness and minerality.

Ribolla Gialla- This is an old-world wine with aroma of pineapple and mustiness. It is produced from a grape varietal of the same name in the Friuli region of Italy.

Fiano- This wine is dewy and herbal in taste, with notes of pinenut and pesto. It is produced from the grape varietal of the same name that is grown on the southwest coast of Italy.

Soave- This wine is produced from the grape varietal Garganega, which is grown in the Veneto wine region of Italy. It is dry and crisp in taste.

It is quite fair to state that numerous Italian wines stand with the international elite brands. The country has become increasingly dedicated to meeting the growing demands for quality wines at reasonable prices.

from: http://www.wineartinfrance.com/

Το κρασί στη Κύπρο

Η Κύπρος είναι μία από τις παλαιότερες χώρες παραγωγής κρασιού. Η καλλιέργεια του αμπελιού και η παραγωγή κρασιού χρονολογούνται από το 4.000 έως το 2.000 π.Χ., σύμφωνα με τις πηγές και τις αρχαιολογικές μαρτυρίες. Η λατρεία του Διόνυσου ήταν πολύ διαδεδομένη και αυτό μαρτυρείται και από τα ψηφιδωτά στην «οικία του Διόνυσου» στην κάτω Πάφο.
Η φήμη των κρασιών της Κύπρου ήταν και είναι πολύ μεγάλη. Κατά την αρχαιότητα είναι γνωστή η λατρεία της Αφροδίτης στην Πάφο καθώς και οι γιορτές που διοργανώνονταν με τη συμμετοχή πολλών επισκεπτών οι οποίοι έπιναν το «Κύπριον νάμα» - το γλυκό Κυπριακό κρασί (τον πρόδρομο της σημερινής Κουμανταρίας).
Μετά την εγκατάσταση των Ναϊτών ιπποτών στο νησί στα τέλη του 12ου αι., ένα συγκεκριμένο είδος κόκκινου γλυκού κρασιού που το χρησιμοποιούσαν και για τη Θεία Κοινωνία («Νάμα»), άρχισε να γίνεται γνωστό ως «Κουμανταρία», επειδή παραγόταν στην περιοχή όπου βρισκόταν το αρχηγείο των Ναϊτών και μετέπειτα των Ιωαννιτών ή Οσπιτάλιων (Hospitalliers) ιπποτών. Η ονομασία προήλθε από αναφορά στη μεγάλη Κομανταρία (Grand Commandarie/διοικητήριο) του κάστρου του Κολοσσίου, στο χωριό Κολόσσι (1210), 11 χιλιόμετρα δυτικά της Λεμεσού, όπου ήταν η έδρα της ανώτερης στρατιωτικής διοίκησης της Κύπρου την εποχή των ιπποτών.
Οι Ιωαννίτες έκαναν την Κουμανταρία (Commandaria) γνωστή και εκτός Κύπρου, σε χώρες της Δυτικής Ευρώπης. Χαρακτηριστικά αναφέρεται ότι το 1352 ο πρόεδρος των οινεμπόρων του Λονδίνου σε συμπόσιο που παράθεσε προς τιμήν πέντε δυτικοευρωπαίων βασιλιάδων (Αγγλίας, Σκωτίας, Γαλλίας, Δανίας και Κύπρου), πρόσφερε στο συμπόσιο αποκλειστικά Κουμανταρία.
Ο Άγιος Γρηγόριος αναφέρει ότι ο βασιλιάς της Πορτογαλίας Ιωάννης, επέλεξε το 1490 να πάρει κλήματα - αμπέλια από την Κύπρο, λόγω της ποιότητας των σταφυλιών που παρήγαγαν και του κρασιού έβγαινε από αυτά, τα οποία μεταφύτευσε στη Μαδέρα (νησί - αποικία της Πορτογαλίας στο βόρειο Ατλαντικό ωκεανό).
Διάφοροι περιηγητές που επισκέφτηκαν την Κύπρο, ανέφεραν ότι το κρασί της είναι γλυκό και πηχτό, τόσο ώστε να τρώγεται πάνω στο ψωμί σαν μέλι. Το 1735 ο Ρώσος μοναχός και περιηγητής Βασίλειος Μπάρσκυ ανέφερε ότι η Κύπρος παράγει κρασί σε ατελείωτες ποσότητες, κυρίως ένα γλυκό και αρωματικό κρασί, την Κουμανταρία, την οποία αγοράζουν τα πλοία που καταφθάνουν στην Κύπρο για την Ενετία και άλλες δυτικές χώρες.
Μέχρι και σήμερα η γεωγραφική περιοχή της Κουμανταρίας έχει ταυτιστεί με το συγκεκριμένο κρασί, ενώ η παραγωγή της επιτρέπεται μόνο σε ορισμένα χωριά της περιοχής της Λεμεσού (Προεδρικό Διάταγμα, ΚΔΠ 214/2005). Για την παραγωγή της Κουμανταρίας χρησιμοποιούνται οι δύο κύριες ποικιλίες της Κύπρου, το «ξυνιστέρι» και το «μαύρο».
Τη σύγχρονη εποχή όλα σχεδόν τα ζητήματα που αφορούν το τρίπτυχο αμπέλι - σταφύλι - οινικά προϊόντα, ρυθμίζονται από το Συμβούλιο Αμπελοοινικών Προϊόντων (Σ.Α.Π.), το οποίο αποτελεί Νομικό Πρόσωπο Δημοσίου Δικαίου (αρμόδια αρχή της Κυπριακής Δημοκρατίας).

from: http://ct-srv2.aegean.gr/krasia/pgs.php?lng=Z3JlZWs=&sbj=6&isle=Y3lwcnVz

Natural wine: how to pick a winner

The best way to approach the new trend in wine is to think about cheese. Which kind do you prefer? A slab of plasticky, pasteurised, supermarket cheddar, a cheese that you know will taste the same every time you buy it? Or something produced by a farmer on first-name terms with his cows, someone who uses unpasteurised milk and traditional methods to make characterful cheese that tastes slightly different from batch to batch? Or, to put it another way, do you prefer your cheese processed or au naturel?

The natural wine movement would like us to view wine in the same terms. This loosely affiliated, slightly anarchic but growing group of small-scale producers, believes that much of modern wine is too processed for its own good. Too many producers, they argue, are too reliant on a battery of tools and additives to take some of the risk out of winemaking. If nature hasn't given you enough acidity, tannin or sugar in the vineyard, then you can add tartaric acid, powdered tannins or concentrated grape juice to taste. Can't afford an oak barrel? Then chuck oak chips in the vat.
Natural winemakers are committed to the minimum of intervention in winemaking, leading, they hope, to wines with a sense of place. They farm their vineyards organically or biodynamically (although they may not be certified as such), but it's what they don't do that marks them out as "natural". They prefer wild, naturally present yeasts rather than bought-in, cultivated strains. They use very little or no sulphur dioxide. What you taste, in other words, is what you get.
The movement dates back to the 1970s in the Loire and Beaujolais, and it's in these French regions, as well as the Languedoc-Roussillon and parts of Italy, where it is most active. But it is catching on all over the world and I've tasted examples from Spain, Chile, the US, Australia and New Zealand. It is also developing a following among wine lovers, at least in part because of the perceived health benefits (asthmatics react badly to sulphur dioxide), with natural wine bars proliferating in Paris, New York, Tokyo and now London.
Doug Wregg is a director of the wine merchant Les Caves de Pyrene, importing and retailing around 400 "natural" and organic/biodynamic wines, and a major investor in the Terroirs natural wine bar just off Trafalgar Square and its spin-off, Brawn, in Columbia Road, east London. This has made him the UK's de facto natural wine spokesman. "People need to realise that it's about good wine," he says. "Wine that's food-friendly, local and drinkable."
Though I would welcome some formal codification of practice both to protect the genuine practitioners and to ensure punters know what they're letting themselves in for, for the most part I share Wregg's views. After a while, you really do know a natural wine when you taste one, and generally speaking that's a very good thing. Yes, there may be an element of risk: I've had natural wines that have tasted of scrumpy, others have called to mind a gastric incident in a farmyard. It's also true that many of my favourite wines have been made in ways that do not necessarily conform to the loosely defined practices of natural wine. All the same, the best (of which there are many) natural wines really do have a purity, vibrancy and drinkability that is as far from processed as it's possible to get.

from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/23/natural-wine-david-williams