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The Italian Abroad Wine Blog is a wine blog and diary where I share my thoughts, primarily about Italian wine and food, but also on wine, food, and travel in general. I founded Italyabroad.com in 2003 and have been living abroad for over 20 years. Coming from an Italian winemaking family, I was introduced to wine at a very early age. While my roots are in Italian wine, I appreciate and enjoy good wine from all over the world, alongside great food and the joys of travel. My posts often weave these passions together.
To help you better understand Italian wines, we've created a series of Italian wine regions maps that show DOC and DOCG wines, their origins and the grapes they are made of, including your favorite Italian wines. I’ve also written a post on the Italian wine appellation system explaining and demystifying the Italian wine classification system and what it really means for wine lovers and enthusiasts.
Additionally, I host a YouTube channel , where you can watch me taste some of our wines and answer your questions about Italian wines and grapes. From the meaning of DOC to what makes an orange wine, we cover it all.
I hope you enjoy reading this wine blog! Feel free to reach out with any questions.
Salute
Andrea
The 2023 harvesting will be remembered, yet again, from winemakers all over the Italy for its many challenges, due to the unpredictable weather patterns. From the devastating floods in Emilia-Romagna to the scorching temperatures in Sicily, to the lack of dry days during the spring that has caused the Peronospora to attack the vines. The 2023 grape growing season is one that has been marked by extremes across the country, from north to south, with no exception. Climate change is now widely acknowledged as the cause of these extremes and unpredictable weather events. Italian winemakers have not had a “normal” harvesting for several years now and each harvesting brings more and new challenges
Starting from August, unless of a last minute scrap or extension which we are all hoping for, climate change will affect the price of our favourite wine. The duty on wine will be determined by the alcohol content affecting wine produced all over the world especially warmer climates. Any wine with an alcohol content of 11.5% and above will see an increase in duty, increase that will force importers to put prices up
For nearly two decades, the Association of Moscato di Canelli producers, have battled with the Italian bureaucracy and wine establishment to get the Canelli DOCG recognised. Canelli is considered the home of Italian sparkling wine production and to produce the best Moscato d’Asti but until recently, it was only recognised as a sub zone of the Moscato d’Asti with some producers indicating Canelli on the label. Finally, the Ministry of Agriculture has granted the application and Canelli has been granted DOCG status.
Creating the “superiore” denomination not only will not make any difference on the wines’ reputation, wines because the article mentions all regional DOC wines, but will create even more confusion for the consumers, the wine drinkers, the people that will eventually buy it. To protect the appellations and the consumers, much more needs to be done
Unfortunately, when price becomes the determining factor driving our food choices, we are not saving money, we are slowing shutting down our bodies. And having a gluten intolerant in the family, I noticed that the “free from” range in supermarkets is getting bigger and bigger and even includes gluten free ice lollies, I wonder where the gluten comes from since they should only be made of water and fruit or at least, flavouring. I believe this tells us the direction we are heading to. Paying a premium to eat better quality food
We have been approached and asked to contribute as an expert on an article about storing wine and since we believe that storing wine deserves more attention, even more in an era where each kitchen comes with some sort of wine rack and as you will read below, the kitchen is the least suitable place to store wine, we thought of publishing the answer on our blog as well
The challenge, the modernization of the wine industry has nothing to do with the packaging but it is about cultivation methods; how to reduce wineries’ environmental impact and to adapt to a climate change that is already affecting them with more frequent extreme atmospheric phenomena that are making producing wine more and more challenging and are forcing them to rethink their wine making approach and traditions
I have launched a fundraising campaign through Kickstarter to save my grandparent’s olive grove in Abruzzo, Italy, with century old olive trees. I only rediscovered the olive grove last summer when going through old photographs and after days examining documents to remember where it was located, photographs and asking neighbours, i eventually found the olive grove. I have so many memories of me helping my grandparents collecting olives. The olive grove, now overgrown, and the olive trees have not been pruned for decades.
Imagine buying a bottle of wine and reading “It seriously harms health” written on the label. What would your reaction be? I would be seriously p****d off.
On the other side, we should not be too angry because according to a new study, within 5 years we will be able to drink something that look like wine and would make us feel like we are drinking alcohol, without any of the side effects. What we seem to forget is that wine has been drunk since 7000 BC; the problem is not the wine, alcohol is not evil, the problem is the people abusing it.
Unfortunately, too often we associate good food and quality ingredients with expensive, but it doesn’t have to this way. The cost difference between a good tomato tin and one that needs sugar to correct the acidity because the tomatoes were not fully ripen when picked is only a few pennies; a good bottle of extra virgin olive oil, even if you use as much as I do (I use it for everything), lasts a few weeks, which makes the daily cost way cheaper than an espresso or cappuccino and a good olive oil not only makes or breaks a dish but provide us with plenty of the healthy stuff that help us living better and longer
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