Brew Hops & Wine Stops

The Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate and Wine Enthusiast are all familiar names to American wine lovers. We rely on these publications to help us sort through the seemingly endless choices when trying to select a bottle of wine. An outstanding score from one of these wine reviewers is a near guarantee that the wine will sell out quickly.

If I inform one of our guests that a wine was awarded Tre Bicchieri from Gambero Rosso I usually get that look like I'm speaking a foreign language to them...and I guess I am.

Gambero Rosso is the Italian publishing and training leader in the field of wine and food. Each year Gambero Rosso publishes a wine guide know as Vini d'Italia. For the 2015 edition their experts have managed to taste 45,000 wines from over 2,400 wineries. Rigorous blind tasting and evaluations are made, not by individuals, but by a panel of wine experts. Wines are not given points but instead are awarded one, two or three glasses. This year out of the 45,000 wines tasted there were 423 given the award of Tre Bicchieri (Three Glasses, the top award).

Gambero Rosso as I mentioned is not just a publisher of wine information. For more than 28 years they have supported Italian wineries in their effort to expand internationally. This year the Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri World Tour 2015 makes a stop in Miami. The tour has already visited Zurich, Warsaw, Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm, as well as New York, Chicago and San Francisco. After Miami, the tour will move on to China in May and then end up in Helsinki this June.

On February 3, the Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri World Tour will stop at the Coral Gables Country Club in Miami. I will be attending and proudly pouring one of the elite 423 wines awarded Tre Bicchieri, Giravolta Primitivo di Manduria.

If you are not familiar with Giravolta, it is 100% Primativo from the Puglia region of Italy. It has intense aromas of red berries with cocoa and Asian spices. It has been one of my favorite wines for years and now I can with pride say this wine has Tre Bicchieri. 

Paul Quaglini, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits wine supervisor 

Follow me on Twitter @abcwinepaulq

In the wine industry we are always trying to figure out the next hot trend. The French Paradox story that aired on 60 Minutes in 1991 catapulted sales of red wine and Merlot in particular. The 2004 movie Sideways is credited with creating huge sales increases  of California Pinot Noir.

The current craze for Moscato is a little more difficult to pinp on one specific event. Certainly pop culture stars have done their share to create"moscato madness." Sales in the U.S. are up a staggering 73% over last year. This has left big wine companies scrambling to make as much as possible with some large producers buying bulk moscato from wherever they can to quench demand.

Long before the current infatuation, moscato was produced in Italy. Moscato is Italian for muscat and I think it is important to know that there are over 50 different types of moscato just in Italy. I won't bore you with the details, but the finest example is Moscato Bianco, sometimes called Moscato di Canelli.

Moscato Bianco is an ancient variety that is planted over virtually the entire Italian peninsula. The best known and most popular is the Moscato Bianco grown in the Asti region of Piedmont. It comes in two forms: the fully sparkling Asti version and the lightly fizzy, less alcoholic Moscato D'Asti.

My favorite producer of these wines is a Azienda Ca' D'Gal. Winemaker Alessandro Boido crafts wines from his vineyards in the heart of the Asti region. His low yielding vines [some are more than 50 years old] produce wines that have the perfect balance of sugars and acidity.

If you are one of those wine buffs who snubs moscato, I'll bet you haven't tried Ca' D'Gal. If you routinely but moscato in a 1.5 liter bottle from the grocery store, treat yourself to the real thing.

Paul Quaglini, SE Florida Wine Supervisor

Follow me on Twitter @abcwinepaulq