Hopefully some of you that read this wine blog had a chance to attend one of the four Italian Wine Tour events held last week in Vero Beach, Palm Coast, St. Petersburg and Sunrise. What an opportunity the wine lovers of Florida presented to question and converse with some very talented and passionate winemakers. We don’t do these events often enough, but with the expense and logistics of traveling back and forth from Europe it is no surprise. With that in mind, if one these wine tours show up on our tasting calendar again please do everything you can to make the show.

  We had winemakers representing four wine regions of Italy; Tuscany, Piedmont, Puglia, Veneto and a wine from Lombardi. A few of the artists attending were Alberto Passeri of La Gerla who was pouring his Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino. Alberto’s Brunello was my favorite wine of the night. It is an exceptional bottle of Brunello and his Rosso which is declassified Brunello is so much more structured than an ordinary Rosso. Gregory Perrucci and his superb Primitivo wines from Racemi, Alessandro Boido of Asti charming the guests with his delicious Asti Spumante and Moscato di Asti’s from Ca d’Gal, Giovanna Tantini from the Veneto showing her Tantini wines and Lara Pradal with two superb Prosecco’s and a Pinot Grigio from Collalto. This wine tour was largely due to the hard work and high energy of the importer, Nadia Galati. She has put together a great mix of wines and personalities that express the great talent and passion these people possess.

  Our guests were thrilled to speak to the people who we describe as ‘’the people with grape stains on their fingers” the individuals who can answer any question on their wines and the regions from where they are made. It is not very often you can talk and listen to so many Italian wine professional’s without having to use your passport. We will continue to present these wine tours, from Italy again maybe France next time or anyone of the other great wine producing countries from around the world. As I said earlier, if you do get a chance to make it to one of these fantastic wine events, please be our guest. See you then…

Ken Amendola

Wine Supervisor, North Florida