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Jennifer Gentile Martin

Being of Italian ancestry, Jennifer has a strong passion for her culture and wine, especially that produced from Italy. She writes a wine blog, Vino Travels, that promotes and educates folks around the world of the wide variety of grapes and regions throughout Italy. www.vinotravels.blogspot.com

The terms organic, sustainable and biodynamic seem to be all the hype whether we’re talking about food or wine.  Every brand that is certified under these labels boast proudly their practices for all to know.    So what is the difference between organic and biodynamic wines?  The laws vary from country to country, but in Italy organic wines relate...

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Time to visit a wine region I have had much personal experience with thanks to the Consorzio Tutela Vini Valpolicella.  I have taken a couple trips over to the Valpolicella wine region over the last few years tasting through the wonderful wines including Valpolicella, Soave and the prized Amarone wines that hail from this region.  Plus, as an added...

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Campania is a region I’ve always enjoyed wines from and unfortunately a region I don’t drink enough of.  These are wines that should be relatively easy to access on the market.  Some of the most popular wines featured from this region include Taurasi made from the aglianico grape as well as Fiano di Avellino and Greco di Tufo.  You’ll probably also...

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In 1995 Vito Catania inherited the land from his father and this were the early beginnings of the Gulfi winery.  His father, Raffaele, had saved the money to purchase the land from his 15 years of living in Paris where he moved after WWII in search of work.  His aim was to purchase the land that is in the family today so that his family had a place...

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The region of Calabria is located in southern Italy at the tip of the boot. It's not a highly regarded region for winemaking and doesn't get much attention for the wines that it does produce. It's most popular wine hails from the Cirò DOC, which is required to be made of at least 95% of the gaglioppo grape with up to 5% of greco bianco and trebbian...

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Lugana is a wine region located on the southern tip of Lake Garda. It’s in northern Italy and borders both the Veneto and Lombardy regions. It’s comprised of the following towns: Sirmione, Pozzolengo, Desenzano, Londato del Garda and Peschiara del Garda, with the latter being the only to reside in the Veneto. It’s a short trip from the major cit...

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Today I’m sharing with you a white blend called Limine from the Terre di Ger winery. This is Terre di Ger’s select wine made from primarily pinot grigio with some sauvignon blanc.

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It's an important year for the Sieni family from Montefioralle winery as they are celebrating 50 harvests this October. The winery was founded by Fernando's father back in 1964. He rented the property and land from the church which he then planted the vineyards on. Fernando finally purchased it from the winery in the mid 90's. Both Fernando's pa...

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This month I am featuring wines from the area of Lake Garda that borders both the Veneto and Lombardy northern regions in Italy. In particular we're talking about the wines known as chiaretto, pronounced "key-ah-ret-oh". Lake Garda is actually the largest lake in Italy. If you've never been to Lake Garda it's a must see. It's such a beautiful p...

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The wines I'm sharing with you today are made from the malvasia grape from Tasca d'Almerita on the island of Sicily. This was my first stop of the day and I was greeted by co-owner of the winery and VP, Giuseppe Tasca. Giuseppe, along with his brother Alberto and father Count Lucia Tasca, manage the operations of the winery today. Giuseppe greeted...

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Vermentino is a grape that can be found in a number of regions within Italy and as if it's not hard enough to learn about all the indigenous grapes of Italy, but in certain regions it is known under a different name. This grape can be found in Tuscany, Piedmont where it's known as Favorita, Sardinia and Liguria where it's known as Pigato.

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This month our Italian Food, Wine & Travel group is exploring verdicchio from all over Italy. One of the areas I am most familiar with when it comes to verdicchio is the region of Le Marche, which is located in central Italy. Le Marche has a long coastline along the Adriatic and touches 5 other regions to its west including Emilia Romagna to the...

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