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ProWein 2015

posted on 20 March 2015
Here I am back from Prowein, and this year simply confirms my opinion from the first year I participated, that it’s a thoroughly professional event, and very useful to wine professionals. Yes, there’s a lot of activity in the halls, but it’s quite calm and serious, and one doesn’t get over-tired. Here are some pix of Merum’s stand, with Andreas, who is not only a great connoisseur of native-grape wine and fine olive oils, but a good friend especially! Merum’s space was host to some 20 producers from various Italian regions, each with its own distinctive grape variety. This year, I was the “Queen of Groppello,” as Andreas humorously calls me. Right near to us was Simone Maiolini with his great Franciacorta, which points up another terrific advantage of these wine fairs: they make possible not only new business contacts, but new relationships as well with other producers, better knowledge of other aspects of wine, and other growing areas, and much good humour and exchanges of bon mots–even more than I can handle! See you next at Vinitaly, quite a different event altogether, very different…

In Nuremburg with K&U Hausmesse 2014 – Wein radikal anders

posted on 27 November 2014
Gorgeous, wonderful tasting organised by K&U, by Martin Kossler, Dunja Ulbricht and their team. They’re a modest-sized importer in Nuremburg, very special persons, all of them, and they simply exude that spirit, in their remarkably-warm hospitality and generosity, and in every perfect organizational detail of this event that runs for two days every year.

Cows, horses, and nothing but green. Account of a tasting in a de-consacrated church.

posted on 11 November 2014
And here I am back from Belgium. The only Italian producer among a group of French, I participated for the second time in three days of tastings organised by my small importer, Michel Wijnen in Dilbeek. Just a few tables, with 8 selected producers, all taking part personally. Next to the bottles were the wine-bar prices, as well as promotional prices in case an order was placed right then. The tasters each received a glass and list of the wines, and they had the opportunity of placing an order immediately as they exited–very efficient! Everyone was very interested and tasted every wine by every producer.

2014 harvest… totally difficult, but not impossible

posted on 15 October 2014
We have finally finished this year’s troubled harvest, and after our series of tastings we feel that we can now give a very preliminary judgment on this year’s wines. The factors that characterised this growing season were huge amounts of rain, low average temperatures, little sun, and a summer that we saw only for brief moments. These conditions created a host of problems, with the grapes struggling to achieve ripeness and various fungal attacks – despite our constant efforts in the vineyards – affecting both clusters and leaves.
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