Andrea's latest Blog Entry at italyabroad.com

Gallo's Red Bicyclette wine scandal

Andrea D'Ercole — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:44:18 GMT

Another scandal in the wine industry, another fraud discovered. Recently the French authorities have discovered that French wine sold to Ernest & Julio Gallo for its Red Bicyclette brand as Pinot Noir was in reality, cut with much less costly Syrah and Merlot. This is not the first case and I am confident will not be the last, however, only rarely they are discovered and this is a big issue.

New wines just arrived...

Andrea D'Ercole — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:35:03 GMT

This is an exciting time for us, we have recently added plenty of new wines, including the Franciacorta, the Italian alternative to the Champagne, made using the classic method with the second fermentation in the bottle. I think, and I am not the only one, that Franciacorta offers better value for money than a Champagne not only because of the additional control and extra requirements prescribed by the DOCG appellation.

Wine critics, once again..

Andrea D'Ercole — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:54:17 GMT

If you follow me, you know that I have already written about wine critics, however, a couple of days ago, in the Guardian, I read the article “Is wine criticism just bunk?“ and I thought to add something on the subject... The article is based on the comments made by wine expert Tim Hanni that consumers should ignore wines critics and just drink what they like.

Each wine has its own price

Andrea D'Ercole — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:03:16 GMT

Both wines, Barbaresco and Ripasso should be a lot more costly than their “young brothers”, simply because they should be made using better grapes, following a more complex wine making process and for the Barbaresco, aged in barrels as well.

Supermarkets and wine, once again

Andrea D'Ercole — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:31:47 GMT

A couple of days ago, I was doing some shopping at M&S and noticed, in a prominent position, a bottle of wine labelled as “Chardonnay Rose’”. Because Chardonnay is a white grape and a rose’ wine cannot be made with just Chardonnay, curious, I read the back label and found out that it is a Chardonnay with added Merlot.