What we're drinking (South. Italian reds, chiaro)

Nero d'avola and Neprica (which is a blend of grapes mainly grown in Southern Italy, including Negroamaro and Primitivo).

Cin-cin!

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What I'm Drinking (for Thanksgiving & beyond)

I pretty much drink this wine every night. Colosi 2012 Rosso (Terre Siciliane).

It's a Nero d'Avola blend and it's amazing. I don't know why everyone isn't drinking Sicilian reds and nothing but Sicilian reds every night.

And I think it will go great with the Thanksgiving turkey!

Along with a wonderful Aglianico from Puglia.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Book of Moods

I feel sometimes as though I could write an entire book about my moods. Is everyone this way?

Join me as I indulge this fantasy.

I could write it along the lines of Bridget Jones' Diary, but oriented, in my case, for the (ahem, older) mother of a toddler:

Sleep: 7 hrs, 45 min sleep
Caffeine intake: 1.5 caffelattes
Time to write: 1.5 hours solid work
Mood as of 8 a.m.: "It's A Wonderful Life" (last scene, obviously)

Then you could do a night-time edition:

Sleep: 7 hrs, 45 min sleep
Caffeine intake: 1.5 caffelattes
Total time writing: 4 hours
Exercise: Ran three miles
Book I'm Reading: Henry James' "The Portrait of A Lady"
Alcohol in-take: Two glasses of red wine
Wine quality: We were drinking aglianico so fan-fuckin'tastic
Funny things Leo said: "Whatta happened?" and "Look at that Mommy face!"
Mood as of 8 p.m.: This feeling should be illegal

Alternative version: when I sleep a little less than I should, sometimes I find the gates of perception are nonetheless wide open, and I'm stumbling from one thought to another, and one prospect to another, with boundless hope and good will.

Sleep: 6 hrs, 15 min sleep
Caffeine intake: 2.0 caffelattes
Time to write: 1.5 hours solid work
Songs listened to: "No Government" by Nicolette on the way back from daycare, then Springsteen, then Gianna Nannini's "America"
Read some Italian? Yes; finished third book in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan series
Mood as of 10 a.m.: Hallucinating about taking over the world (and hence needing and wanting to write down every thought)

Just me?

Vino per le mamme

Ho comprato questa bottiglia di primitivo ad un alimentari nel mio quartiere. Bere un bicchiere di vino puo' essere una piccola pausa ["time-out"] per la mamma!

Un'altra etichetta da considerare, per quanto riguarda i vini primitimo, (ed infatti e' migliore) e' Layer Cake. Ne ho bevuto un bicchiere ieri sera con la cena ed era buona anche se ha un nome insolito per i vini italiani.

Non è il solito vino

Ma dove l'abbiamo preso e quando? (Cioè noi due non siamo mai stati nella provincia di Grosseto).

Ed è anche possibile che fu un regalo.

Comunque sia, questo vino era buono, e fra poco vi dirò perché.

Eataly @ NYC (c/o Slow Food)

(Photo credit: Lana Adinne via Flickr)

I was in New York last month and the early part of this month, and while there, I was able to visit Eataly, the new branch in the Flatiron District of an expanding Italian food emporium.

Slow Food, which is dedicated to honoring the origins of and protecting the source of traditional dishes, is a consultant to the Eataly folks.

Just about everything you might want to eat or drink in Italy is sold at Eataly. Prosciutto. Mozzarella. Coffee. Wine. Even craft beer.

I was a little disappointed that I could only find Lavazza coffee at Eataly; while planning my visit, I managed to convince myself that I would be able to find Quarta or Guglielmo coffee.

Alas no.

But it's a gorgeous, secular temple to Italian food. The wine there is fantastic, the plates of affettati and cheese are wonderful, and the buzz at Eataly was infectious.

And I can happily report, the food and wine hall is full of sayings and signs in Italian.

Pretty soon, the average New Yorker is going to know words like il pesce, la birra, crudo and lo sconto!

And..... Mario Batali, who is one of the partners behind the new supermarket, was at Eataly while I was there!

To learn more about Eataly, see this article in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/dining/reviews/20Eataly.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Eataly&st=cse

Eataly
200 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

Prosecco, ormai diffuso in USA

Ultimamente, quando voglio passare il pomeriggio perfetto, faccio cosi:

*Faccio un giro in bicicletta per Atlanta da casa nostra fino al parco principale (Piedmont Park)

*Poi ci fermiamo ad un locale che si accosta al parco e ci mettiamo a sedere fuori

*Per ultimo, prendo un po' di prosecco e godo il bel tempo!

Ormai nelle città grandi in USA, non è difficile trovare il prosecco sia al supermercato che ai locali.

Prosecco dopo un bel giro in bici ci vuole. Ecco le prove qui sotto che prima di rilassarmi, faccio un po' di attività fisica! (Nel caso che non vi fidate!)


Cin cin!

Summer dinner, Italian-style

Da cominciare, prosciutto e melone.


Poi, come primo...le tagliatelle ai pomodori.

I think we also had a secondo but I guess I didn't take a photo!

Da bere: a bottle of Torre Quarto Uva di Troia Bottaccia IGT Puglia 2006

Buon appetito!

Tanto per cambiare (vino)

I don't drink many Italian merlots and I don't drink very many wines from Northeast Italy.

But hey, tanto per cambiare.

The wine in the picture is: a Ca Donini Merlot Delle Venezie IGT

It was good! A great everyday bottle of red.

For Atlanta wine lovers, I bought it at Toscano & Sons on the city's Westside. I think you can probably find it cheaper elsewhere, but I needed to stock up on coffee and biscotti so I threw it into the basket.

Diner's Journal: Linguine ai frutti di mare

It's been a particularly rich time to eat with Il Nostro Inviato, who is a whiz in the kitchen.

In the past month or so, he's prepared homemade pasta, baccalà and pizza (he's also pickled beets, and baked an apple pie but I don't think that's Italian).

The latest entry: the dish you see above, linguine with littleneck clams and mussels. A later iteration of the dish included wild Georgia shrimp, which were truly a revelation.

He's thoroughly mastered the basics, by which I mean the foundations upon which to build countless dishes. The base sauce for this pasta dish, for example, is a rich combination of olive oil, garlic and peperoncino, sauteed to perfection.

I love the way you can see the steam rising up from the pot!

Add a solid Italian wine -- in our case, almost always red, even with seafood -- and a salad or more substantial second dish, and you have a great meal.

I will have more photos to share, and I hope they inspire you to cook Italian.

Buon appetito!

When vin santo is not on hand...

Vin santo, one of the liquid joys of Italy, can often be expensive here in the U.S., if you're able to find it at all.

And when we travel to Italy, we tend to load up on regular wine, not after-dinner drinks so we typically only have one bottle on hand.

What to do? Buy a bottle of what Il Nostro Inviato calls Spanish vin santo.

That would be sherry; we like the kind you see in the photo, Lustau Solera Riserva Deluxe Cream.

To be sure, it's not the same as vin santo.

And publications like the Times will often sniff at sweet sherry as something unsophisticated, but for the purposes of dipping the cantuccini cookies, which are a key part of the vin santo ritual, and enjoying an after-dinner drink (see photo below), it does the trick.

Cin-cin!

Italian wine tasting @ High Museum

Italian Wine Tasting
October 22, 2009, 5-9 p.m.
High Museum of Art
Tickets: $20; Member tickets: $10
Ciao bella!

Celebrate the Leonardo da Vinci: Hand of the Genius exhibit and all things Italian! Join us for this special wine tasting and enjoy various wines from Italy.

Your ticket includes admission to the exhibition, and three wine tastings or one full glass. Additional tastings/glasses, Italian nibbles, and other drinks are available for purchase.

Note: the High will be hosting additional Italian wine tastings on Nov. 12 and Jan. 21. I definitely plan to check it out!

For more information, go here: http://www.high.org

Vino italiano al supermercato americano (Atlanta)

Chi scatta foto al supermercato?

Chiaramente io!

Quando vedo talmente tante belle bottiglie di vino italiano, devo fare qualcosa.


Poi fai conto, non si tratta di un supermercato tutto snob con prezzi da far paura.

E' un supermercato qualsiasi americano che poco a poco comincia a capire cosa vuol dire mangiare e bere bene (informazione che da voi sembra che ci sia dalla nascita).

Forse un giorno ci andro' li' a trovare il caffe Quarta in vendita! MAGARI!


Guardate un po' la scelta. Primitivo, nero d'avola, prosecco, Chianti.

Vi posso dire che ho provato alcuni vini che si vedono nelle foto, compresi il prosecco (Rustico), il nero d'avola (che ultimamente sta diventando molto populare qui in USA) e la Costera Isola dei Nuraghi.

Tutti buoni!

Viognier

Sometimes a backlog builds up at Ciambellina. This is one of those instances.

We drank the bottle you see above quite a while ago, after Il Nostro Inviato was in Milan and visited a wine shop that sold vino sfuso.

Vino sfuso is bulk wine that has not been pasteurized so it does not participate in Italy's wine certification system (DOC and DOCG, for example).

This is not quite what you'd find in your everyday wine shop! And I highly recommend it!

We quite like after dinner drinks, as you may have surmised from my tales of drinking carafes of vin santo in Siena.

But generally what I want is something that's like wine, not a shot of Jagermeister! This bottle of Viognier really hit the spot.

The wine shop in Milan where he bought the vino sfuso -- La Vineria -- is on Via Casale in the Navigli section of Milan, which is a cool, gentrifying area of the city that's centered around an old canal.

The wine shop, which vigorously defends bulk wine and calls pasteurization and other standard wine processes unsafe, has received attention from lots of magazines in Italy. You can visit the shop's Web site here http://www.la-vineria.it

You won't need to buy bulk wine to try Viognier. For example, the Viognier grape shows up in traditional bottled wines in the Northern Rhone region of France.

So get out there and try it!

Amarcord -- the beer (Menabrea, too)

Found this lovely little Italian craft beer at Hops City in Atlanta.

Until a year or so ago, I didn't even know the Italians made craft beer! But indeed they do. And Hops City, a beer emporium that's opened on Atlanta's Westside, stocks quite a few types.

I picked Amarcord Speciale Bionda because it was not high in alcohol. I know high gravity beers are all the rage but I just find them too alcoholic. And of course, I've seen Fellini's film "Amarcord," and I love it!

Buying this beer, I get to read the word "artigianale," which has a lovely sound and a lovely meaning. It means more or less 'craft' or 'craftsman-like,' and is used to describe anything made by hand or made the old way or in small batches. Someone who makes something artigianale is an artigiano.

Here's another beer that's turning up in Atlanta restaurants and supermarkets (Kroger....non ci posso credere!):


This beer reminds me of all the times I've ordered "una birra chiara alla spina" at bars in Italy.

I've had Menabrea at Top Flr in Midtown (Atlanta) and Baraonda on Peachtree St. (though they had sold out of it Saturday when I was there).

It's a good beer!

But how was the Amarcord? I don't know! I'm waiting for Il Nostro Inviato to open it (since he's the real beer-drinker in our house).

In fact I held off on posting the photo because I had not tried it yet. But I just didn't want to wait any longer -- not while you could be buying it yourself and enjoying it.

Cin cin!

Botromagno Primitivo 2005

The 2005 Botromagno Primitivo is a great every-day wine.

Don't believe me? Well Gary V. of The Wine Library (yes, my favorite place to buy wine) says it's "the best house wine ever."

Gary V. is promoting it today for $12.99 a bottle.
"
The wine lover and rabid New York Jets fan says, "I really believe this is one of the best everyday wines I have come across in a long, long time. Primitivo is such an exciting grape for the money and all you Zinfandel fans need to pay attention and make sure you grab a case to have around the house!

Yes: he said Zinfandel. That's because the Primitivo and Zinfandel grapes are clones of the same variety. Hard to believe if you've ever suffered through some of the insipid white Zins favored by the ladies who lunch.

I've written quite a bit about Primitivo since my trip to Puglia last year. That's because in addition to being a great wine, and one I enjoyed in its original, beautiful home, it's much more affordable than a lot of the other Italian wines we can get our hands on here in the States.

And it always reminds me of what my friend Richard said about Chianti when I rented his apartment in Florence for a semester.

"That's the great hoax."

I don't mean to say I don't like Chianti, and I understand some will interpret his remark as blasphemy. But there are many other Italian wines that are really much better.

I've also pushed The Wine Library. Why? Lots of reasons -- including great prices, and a knowledgeable sales staff who don't push you into spending more than you want.

And the store and mini online empire is fronted by a person whom I would like to think is the new face of wine-drinking in America. Gary Vaynerchuk.

Just imagine: your classic American story -- son of a Russian immigrant makes good --combined with your classic New York guy. Not only is he a Jets fan, he's pronouncing the 'r' in coffee like you should.

And he makes these wacky videos about wine for the store's Wine Library TV. So you've got your classic New York wise guy extolling the virtues of a cab franc but sounding more like 'My Cousin Vinny' than some snobby, off-putting wine expert.

This is the way wine is in the rest of the world! Some people cite Robert Parker. I think I'll just cite Gary V.

One of the greatest things I ever witnessed occurred at my birthday party the year I lived in Richard's apartment, which was at the top of a medieval tower in the center of Florence.

At the party was a Florentine nobleman, who was a friend of my roommate, and an Italian friend who was a commercial truck driver. And they lost themselves in deep conversation about wine. They may have come from different walks of life but they shared a love of wine.

And afterwards, the nobleman, whose family's real estate holdings included vineyards that had been in the family for centuries, said he had never met anyone who knew as much about wine as the truck driver.

So check Gary out here: http://winelibrary.com
and here: http://garyvaynerchuk.com

Oh and have some Primitivo! Cin-Cin!

Grazie

Oggi è la festa di ringraziamento in USA.

E' la festa che ricorda e celebra i primi giorni del nostro paese, quando, seconda la leggenda, i puritani fecero un cenone con gli indiani per ringraziare Dio che avevano infatti sopravvissuto un'inverno bruttissimo.

Come potete immaginare, è anche un giorno quando noi ringraziamo Dio (o chiunque) per la nostra salute, per le nostre famiglie, per tutte le cose che a volte rendono la vita bella.

Allora che c'entra la torta nella foto quassù?

Vabbè, tocca a noi portare i dolci (ed il vino!) per la cena, che si avrà luogo per noi quest'anno alla casa dei genitori del fidanzato della mia amica Beth, e Il Nostro Inviato ha preparato la torta di mele tipicamente americana.

Per quanto riguarda il vino, portiamo una bottiglia di Santa Cristina! Un po' di Toscana ce la portiamo dietro ovunque andiamo!

(Quella torta nella foto è la torta che lui aveva preparato domenica scorsa per practica. Era buonissima!).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wine Library offers free shipping for Aglianico Sannio

The Wine Library, that crazy wine supermarket in New Jersey that's run by the zany Gary V. (who's been getting a lot of attention lately), is offering free shipping tomorrow on an Aglianico that Ciambellina actually bought a case of earlier this year.


Villa Carafa Aglianico Sannio 04

I can wholeheartedly recommend this wine! Particularly at $14.98. I don't know why I did not write about this wine previously, but I would suspect it's because of the low quality of the photo I've posted here!

I am so pleased that Aglianico is getting the attention it deserves. More importantly, it's available in many places now in the U.S. -- or just order it from The Wine Library. This particular wine I did not drink when I was in Campania last year, but we tried many other Aglianicos, and they did not disappoint.

I do not lend Ciambellina's endorsement lightly. I have shopped at the Wine Library, ordered wines from this store and built wonderful Christmas baskets of goodies at this store.

The folks who work there are the type of people who find a great wine in YOUR budget. One of those stores where they greet you right away and ask you if you want help. If you don't, no problem. If you do, you will be treated right.

As Gary V. notes, this particular wine was not tested by the New York Times for its article on Aglianico in September (which I wrote about). But I would guess that's because the NYT typically skews more expensive. They are only going to include one wine in the $15 range, and they chose a different one.

For more information, visit http://winelibrary.com or call 888-980-9463.

Wine Library
586 Morris Avenue
Springfield, NJ 07081

Il Nostro Inviato è bravo!

Il Nostro Inviato recently returned from a trip to Milan and he did not disappoint little Ciambellina.

Like Babbo Natale, he brought back all of her favorite things!

Looking at the photo, you can see I've hit the jackpot of Italian culinary, periodical and grooming treasures.

Left to right, among the items you see are tarallini (a dry, olive-oil based snack that comes from Puglia); La Settimana Enigmistica, the most awesome puzzles magazine I have ever seen (and so widely available in Italy -- on the newsstand, bought by everyone); lots of wine; two types of coffee (Segafredo, which is a large national brand and Chicco D'Oro, which I have never had); foot cream from L'Erbolario Lodi; and Vie Del Gusto magazine.

Seriously folks, these are my favorite things.

I want to draw your attention to something that may strike Americans as unusual.



It's vino sfuso. It's bulk wine that has not been bottled ... and it comes in a little box! Apparently Il Nostro Inviato sampled so much of it while he was "shopping" that he felt compelled to bring some home.

Vino sfuso has not undergone many of the standardizing processes such as bottling and pasteurization that ensure quality and are hence part of Italy's wine certification system (DOC and DOCG, for example). That means it's an adventure (and a cheap one at that).

The wine shop in Milan where he bought the vino sfuso -- La Vineria -- is on Via Casale in the Navigli section of Milan, which is a cool, gentrifying area of the city that's centered around an old canal.

The wine shop, which vigorously defends bulk wine and calls pasteurization and other standard wine processes unsafe, has received attention from lots of magazines in Italy. You can visit the shop's Web site here http://www.la-vineria.it

And here's something else he bought there:



A bottle of 2007 Oltrepò Pavese Bonarda. We first drank Oltrepò Pavese when we visited Milan back in 2004. It's just a wee bit fizzy and a whole lotta wonderful.

I will wrap up this post here. Time to enjoy all of my wonderful regali!

Cantina Venosa Vignali Aglianico Del Vulture '03

The Wine Library, in Springfield, N.J., sent an email this morning saying the New York Times' article on aglianico helped the retailer move 85 cases of the Cantina Venosa Vignali Aglianico Del Vulture '03 before 11 a.m. on Wednesday (the day the story appeared).

That wine was the New York Times' top pick for taste and value. (I linked to the online story on Tuesday and casually mentioned that Ciambellina had been writing about aglianico a year ago!)

At $10, the Cantina Venose Vignali was the only wine tested that a "normal person" (i.e. someone like me) could reasonably afford on a regular basis.

Indeed, Gary V., a rabid football fan and the wine guru at the Wine Library says: "Out of the 10 wines that made the NYT list, the Cantina Venosa was the ONLY one that was under $20. In fact, we have it on sale for $9.99....The next best of the Top 10 list was $22 and they only went up from there!"

I think most people are looking for every-day wines. The special bottle of champagne or the $100 bottle of Solaia -- who drinks those wines every day? No one I am writing about. And I would guess most people have quite a few of the good bottles on hand.

I know at Casa Ciambellina, there are two bottles of champagne from France that have been chillin' like villains in the fridge for months.

But I digress!

If you want to order some aglianico from the Wine Library, call 888-980-9463 or go here http://winelibrary.com/