Ready for wine partying?!

For those who haven't been on holiday yet or are just packing now, Winehippie has great news!!
August is a perfect time of the year for traveling around Europe.

Ok, right, it is high (very high, actually the highest) season which means that beaches and tourist destinations are crowded and it is impossible to find a cheap flight or place to stay, but hey.....it is also festival time!!

Especially if you are staying in the Mediterranean area you will find plenty of little local feasts celebrating patrons, local products or just summer. And if you are lucky enough (or if you chose your destination based on wine interest as well) you can possibly find a wine festival going on....

I have made a bit research for you and found out some interesting things.
Let's start with France....

On August 14th in Rasteau, Southern France, from 5pm onwards there will a Nuit de Vin, where all wine producers will be showing their wines in the town streets, together with other local products and some musical bands. The night will end up with a ball in the main place. For more info you can email the tourist board at rasteau@vaison-ventoux-tourisme.com

On August 31st, in Avignon, the winemakers will celebrate the Harvest Proclamation with a traditional feast that dates back to the Middle Ages. You will find plenty of food and wine stands, tastings and music  all around this beautiful historic city of the Rhone Valley. And all for free!

Let's move to Italy...

The main summer event for wine tourists will be, for sure, Calici di Stelle which goes on between the 5th and 11th of August. A  lot of wineries all around the Bel Paese will be open to visitors during these dates but the event will culminate on the night of the shooting stars with an exceptional late opening of the wineries that will organize tastings or dinners. Here you will find all the wineries that are participating.

In the Tuscia Viterbese, north of Rome, the Feste del Vino della Tuscia will continue until the 18th of August with different events in different towns including Tarquinia and Montefiascone.

And if you are in Southern Tuscany today or tomorrow, you can't miss the little festival of theater and wine in Scansano called Teatro nel bicchiere. A mix of free tastings and live performances among the streets of this medieval little countryside town with young Italian artists and a lot of good Morellino!

Hope you will enjoy and....salute!

A night in Italy or on your "Italian" sofa

If you are dreaming of a trip to Italy to discover the beauty and flavours of what it's called the Bel Paese (the beautiful country), well I can help you to do that staying on your sofa. I know it is not going to be exactly the same, but trust me: following my suggestions you will taste a bit of Italy. And those sensations, perfumes and flavours will bring your mind directly there!

You will have to buy some "magic" ingredients that are quite rare, but not totally impossible to be found.

First ingredient is a cheese. But it is not a normal,common cheese.It's called Pecorino di Fossa, it is  mainly from sheep milk but the recipe allows as well some cow's or goat's and it is originally from Sogliano al Rubicone a little city in Emilia Romagna, not that far from the Adriatic coast.  It has ancient origins and goes for a particular and long (around 10 months) ageing process that gives it intense and singular aromas. When ready, the cheeses are kept in cellar conditions till the beginning of August when they are going to be wrapped with leaves, put in large cotton bags and  stored in tufaceous hollows (fossa), closed with wooden lids. The cheeses will then stay there for 90 days and will be taken out on November the 25th, Saint Catherine day, with a large traditional feast in the city. This process is responsible for the unusual and poignant flavours of the Pecorino. It is rich, pungent, vegetal, spicy ad has complex aromas of musk, truffles and wood.

Second ingredient is arbutus (corbezzolo) honey. Of course this is not an ordinary honey. It is actually quite rare and produced mainly in Sardinia and Tuscany. It is very healthy, it has antiseptic properties and it is supposed to be a very effective natural remedy for asthma. But these are not the reasons for my choice. This honey has a nutty colour and herbaceous aromas, but also a particular perfume of untoasted coffee beans. It is sweet only at the beginning, then slightly astringent and has a final, persistent and surprising bitter twist. Its intensity will make a perfect match with our Pecorino and it will sharpen its fragrances, balancing the spiciness. 
If this in still not enough to bring your senses miles away and make you feel like sitting in an traditional trattoria...maybe you need a  good bottle of red! In this case there would be plenty to suggest but my personal choice tonight is going to be Aglianico. This deep and masculine red from Basilicata (or Campania) with its strong, powerful tannins will finally clear your mouth and will leave you with a persistent desire of turning this dream into reality.

The land of poppies, turtles and kebabs...well that's not all, folks!

One of the reason I have been less present on the blog is that I've been on holidays in a magic, amazingly beautiful and contradictory country: Turkey.

Turkey is full of stunning ancient sites such as Ephesus, Priene and Bergama where Romans and Greeks have battled and mixed. Culture and traditions are the result of a mix of extreme Europe and Minor Asia and a rural structure. Beaches are long and used by sea turtles to nestle at night. The sea is turquoise. On the other side I have to say that the country is full of crazy drivers and disgusting massive buildings destroying the natural beauty of part of the coast. Talking about food I have to say against the common thoughts that Turkish food is not only Kebap (this is actually the right spelling...I guess the final B is the result of a translation).
Honestly Turkey is not really a grand gourmet country. Most of the restaurants offer simple food and a friendly and relaxed service and you will find a lot of places where the waiters have the very annoying custom of calling passing customers from the street to invite them in. But the ingredients are normally so tasty and genuine that even the simplest dish will warm you heart.
A couple of places more than others really impressed me, not only for the food that was great but for location and staff. The first was a small fish restaurant in the Dilek Peninsula, close to Doganbey (unfortunately I am not sure about the name, but it could be Karina) with tables straight on the beach. Just few meter from the police station where the park becomes a military zone, this cosy place offers the freshest fish for the best price I ever had. The grilled sea bream I had was the best of my life.It was succulent and perfectly cooked, and the meze we had as starters were perfectly matching the stunning landscape.
Another restaurant that we really enjoyed was inland, at our first stop on the mountains beyond Bursa. It is just on the way to the Uludag Milli Park (and once again I am not sure about the name, but should be something like Villa...). We had lot of fun there! No one was speaking in English, but we managed to order and also to spot and explain a little mistake on our bill. They brought us fresh meat and a little BBQ and asked (gesticulating) if we would have preferred to cook the meat by ourselves.

And this is what we did....and everything was extraordinarily tasty an fresh. The lamb was just melting in the mouth and the tomatoes were incredibly juicy. The location was also great on a terrace overlooking Bursa at night.Romantic and beautiful but in a very simple way.

The last restaurant I'll be telling you about was my favourite of the entire trip. Sarnic is located in Kayakoy the Ottoman ghost town few kilometers far from Oludeniz, a very atmospheric and fascinating place. The restaurant is  a little gem unfortunately not that easy to find being on a secondary road.We went there twice and both times had a wonderful time. The restaurant was actually empty, but it didn't feel bad at all (at least not for us!). It was actually extremely romantic to have a place for ourselves in that beautiful courtyard of a restored 400 years old Ottoman house decorated with flowers and candles. And not only the location and ambience were great. The service was sharp but extremely friendly (we really enjoyed a lovely conversation with the brothers owning the premises) and the food was delicious without being pretentious. They even grow their vegs in their own garden that is certainly a plus! Also I had the chance to taste a good Turkish red wine from Kappadokia (Kalecik Karasi) extremely interesting and wonderfully pairing our lamb slow cooked with herbs.
If you are travelling  around the Aegean Coast of Turkey make sure you are not going to miss it!!!

Meraba!

A walk through the English vineyards

South of England is more and more attracting interest and attentions of sparkling wines lovers.
The everyday-warmer climate, the good soil and the hard work of some people, strongly believing in the idea of producing high quality English wines, made this dream reality, and now these wines are often awarded more than Champagnes in international competitions.
I have to say that I am not writing this post following the beginning of the English Wines Week, or the gossips about  Barak Obama drinking them at Buckingham palace and Camilla's declarations on the subject. Last Saturday I actually had the unexpected chance to visit a couple of wineries in Mid Sussex, and a walk through their vineyards.

One of them the Court Garden Farm is a very small one with the vineyards planted only 6 years ago. It is owned by Howard a funny retired architect who took us around and explained about the grapes and the hard work in the fields. One week ago he had to get up during the night to light the candles in the vineyards as the temperature had gone down!
He organises tours every Saturday and will take you around and finish with a couple of glasses. The sparkling wine we tasted there was a 2008 vintage, his first vintage, and even if not the best sparkling I had in my life it was certainly enjoyable, fresh, not that much yeasty (which I personally appreciated), with strong citrusy flavours but also balanced and elegant. Howard has also some German red varieties that he mainly use for his rose' , but unfortunately the one we tasted (more an experiment than a proper wine to be sold) was not great: a lot of peach at the nose and not enough flavours in the mouth.

The second winery we visited is one of the best known of England. Ridgeview estate is a family ran business. They have around 30 acres of 16 years old vineyards. Their production is growing as fast as their popularity and they decided to buy more grapes from other producers unlike Nyetimber that prefers to buy land and grow their own fruit. Our guide was James who owns his vineyards management business and takes care of the Ridgeview vineyards. We had a chat about the issues of applying organic viticulture in England, the difficulties of this latest dry year and all the processes of vinification A sparkling wine requires a long, careful and scrupulous work; this is one of the reasons of their high prices. And it's something most people doesn't know!
We finally tasted a couple of their productions and the elegance of these wines would definitely surprise any skeptical people ( as I was few years ago).

Before closing this brief (well, I know not that brief!) post on English wines I'd like to leave you with a picture...this is where the grapes are at this moment of the year....

...still a long way to taste this vintage!