Tag: wine

Wine Enthusiast awards an Italian winery for the first time – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

For the first time an Italian wine company is crowned as “Innovator of the Year”: it happened the other evening at Easter Wines for the twenty-fourths Wine Enthusiast’s Annual Wine Star Awards: Congratulations! Riccardo and Alessandro Pasqua received the prestigious recognition during the ceremony held at the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami, together with other leaders of the global wine industry.

Pasqua Vini for “Innovator of the Year”

Pasqua Vini, the Veronese winery, standard bearer of Amarone della Valpolicella and Venetian wines in the world, wins as “Innovator of the year” with the following motivation: «Despite having been founded in 1925, Pasqua Vini continues to look to the future as ‘House of the Unconventional’. Under the leadership of the third generation of the family, represented by the CEO Riccardo Pasqua and President Easter USA Alessandro Pasquathe winery has launched a series of new wines, including the line Never say neverwhich includes a Cabernet Sauvignon and an Oseleta blend.”

For the company, this is the second nomination among the magazine’s awards, after last year it was included in the five finalists in the “European Winery of the Year” category. On that occasion Wine Enthusiast defined it as “an international research laboratory”.

In the motivation supporting the nomination, Wine Enthusiast he continued as follows: «the company can count on a team of people of nine different nationalities, coming from five continents, who compare and dialogue to produce the best possible wine. The company continues to push itself further in research into winemaking style and techniques and this has helped it to control strategic markets such as the United States and Asia.”

Innovation and research are a distinctive and recurring trait of Pasqua’s culture, vision and style which permeates daily action from the vineyard to the cellar.

The awards ceremony in Miami

Last February 5th the 24th Annual Wine Star Awards at the Eden Roc Hotel in
Miami, where to collect the prestigious award “Innovator of the Year“there were Riccardo and Alessandro Pasquarespectively CEO of Pasqua Vini and President of Pasqua USA, accompanied by a group of guests from Italy and the United States.

Riccardo and Alessandro Pasqua at the awards ceremony on February 5th.

Brunello di Montalcino: the wine that made Italy unique – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

It’s the turn of the Brunello di Montalcino. There is no country in the world with so much richness and variety of productsnatural as the territory gives them or worked by expert hands in simple ways, which are ancient and at the same time the most contemporary. Continues voyage to discover our goodness, from the best known to the lesser known ones far from the production area. With Brunello di Montalcino, holder of prestigious records, our culture of food and wine remains unbeaten on the world podium of taste.

Brunello di Montalcino

From the 1865, the year in which Brunello di Montalcino debuted with the first vintage produced by Clemente Santithis Tuscan red continues to collect successes: it was the first Italian fine wine exported to the United States in 1930the first served at a reception between heads of state (the President of the Republic Giuseppe Saragat and Queen Elizabeth II) and the only one included among the twelve labels of the century according to the magazine Wine Spectator. Since 1966 it has been protected with the DOC and since 1980 with the DOCG (the first in Italy, together with the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and the Barolo). The territory also played its part: in 1941 the first public wine shop for the sale of local wines was inaugurated in Montalcino, in 1948 a cellar opened its doors to visitors for the first time, giving rise to the development of wine tourism. Today, the Protection consortium brings together 219 producers and the hectares intended for the production of Brunello are 2100 (with a value of almost one million euros per hectare), spread across an area rich in biodiversity, with 50% of the land occupied by woods and 10% allocated to olive groves, without counting the pasture and arable areas; with almost 50% of the vineyards grown organically, Montalcino boasts a percentage three times higher than the national average. Who are the main admirers of Brunello? Stands out Italy, followed by the United States, Canada, Germany and Switzerland.

Brunello di Montalcino Identity Card

VINES – Sangiovese, in Montalcino called brunello.

CHARACTERISTICS – Has a lively garnet red colour and an elegant and complex aroma which recalls, in young wines, the small berries and the plum, the spices and the balsamic aroma. The taste is harmonious, persistent, structured, appropriately acidic and tannic. It is a wine that ages very well, even for decades.

SERVICE – Uncork it at 18°C and choose large glasses to favor oxygenation; in the case of very old bottles, let it decant in the carafe for a couple of hours before serving it.

COMBINATIONS – With dishes based on red meat and game (it is excellent with wild boar), also seasoned with tomato, mushrooms or truffles. It goes well with mature cheeses, such as tome and Tuscan pecorino.

Dry January: what it is and why Macron doesn’t agree – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Emmanuel Macron does not agree with the Dry January: the French president said no (once again) to proposal of doctors and scientists to institutionalize theI invite you to eliminate alcohol for an entire month. For him, known lover of good wine (he once declared that a dinner without a glass is a “sad dinner”), there is no need for the government to support a campaign to encourage people to abstain: it is better to focus on prevention policies that make the French even more aware .

Many accuse his executive of supporting the wine industry in this way too – which in France is worth 15.6 billion dollars according to the research company Ibis World – but Macron should still be given some credit: thanks to the controversy he has aroused his position, those who had never heard of it before are now starting to familiarize themselves with the idea of Dry January.

What is Dry January

An entire month without drinking, in fact, not so much to recover from the revelry of the holidays (as some do by participating in the vegan month, veganuary), but to experiment the positive effects on physical and mental health. The idea of Dry January was born thanks to the English activist Emily Robinson who, to prepare for a half marathon, decided in 2011 not to drink alcohol for the whole of January. Two years later – in 2013 – with the association Alcohol Change UK, British body that raises awareness of the effects of alcohol, its initiative has begun to be noticed, even beyond the United Kingdom.

What are the risks of alcohol

The New York Times writes that in recent years the Dry January involved between 15 and 19% of Americans. That is almost two out of ten people, habitual drinkers. Awareness of the risks certainly contributed to this renunciation. The IARC, it is always worth remembering, classifies alcohol as a type 1 carcinogenic agentthat is, among those substances certainly capable of causing tumors. The risk is always there: it is reduced but not eliminated even if limited to moderate consumption which, for the record, equates to two units of alcohol per day for men and one for women. According to the WHO, over 3 million people die every year due to alcohol abuse: in addition to cancer, 200 incidental pathologies and other consequences linked to abuse, including mental alterations which immediately a exposes you to risks such as road accidents.

What happens to our body when we stop drinking alcohol

Several scientific studies (among many, one of the most complete is in the National Library of Medicine) have proven that the benefits of abstinence are felt even in the short term for those who drink moderately. A separate discussion, in fact, must be made for those who suffer from alcohol addiction, who need much longer periods and also have to follow very tortuous paths.

For simple enthusiasts of good wine and excellent drinks, therefore, stop drinking alcohol even for just a month helps reduce intestinal inflammation, regulate the heartbeat, lower bad cholesterol levels (which rise due to free radicals stimulated by alcohol). It also helps to sleep better and – last but not least – with just thirty days of abstinence for those who drink moderately but regularly lose weight and also find benefits for your mood.

Experts also agree that a month can be enough lower the tolerance level of alcohol and therefore reduce consumption overall in the long term. As he pointed out to New York Times Sara Jo Nixon, neuroscientist and director of the Center for Addiction Research and Education at the University of Florida, this dry month can make people reflect and push people to ask themselves questions like: «Why am I drinking so much? How does what I drink affect the way I feel? Do I really need it?”.

How to participate in Dry January

It is told by those who have tried and try it, many on social media, confirming the fact that ten years after the launch of the initiative, the Dry January is a consolidated trend. On Instagram while we write posts just for the hashtag #dryjanuary is close to 600 thousand, and videos on TikTok garner millions of views. Content posted by influencers and ordinary people who talk about their month sober, who give advice on resisting the temptation of alcohol and offer alternative recipes. A good race, also stimulated by Alcohol Change UK which, to bring those who want to try it online, has also created a free application and a newsletter (you can sign up on the alcoholchange.org.uk website) which gives useful information every day, one more reason to say no to alcohol alcohol even just for a little while.

Why participate in Dry January

It’s a good thing that Dry January is talked about so much online, because alcohol consumption is growing especially among the first users of social media: young people. The 2023 report from the National Alcohol Observatory of the Higher Institute of Health says that there are approximately 1 million and 370 thousand children aged between 11 and 25 who drink alcohol uncontrollably in Italy. Often minors, not always aware of the risks they face, they need to be educated, sensitized and intrigued by showing them that they can and should drink well, that there are alternatives, and that they are very valid.

Gordon Ramsay Recipes