Italy Cooking Courses » Wines & wineries

Aglianico wine and Matera bread to celebrate the 2012!

Stile Mediterraneo — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:00:49 +0000

I and Marika send all of you our warmest wishes for a wonderful and happiest 2012!! We hope to see again all our friends that came to attend our cooking courses from everywhere in the world in the past years ….and we hope to keep sharing the beauty, culture and food of Italy with new friends.

Given the success of our Christmas cooking classes and tour in Matera last week, we are pleased to announce another SPECIAL tour in Matera on April 17-21, 2012.

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Matera is located in Basilicata, a region at the border with Puglia, just 2 hour drive from Lecce. Matera became very famous after the Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ movie. The old town is called Sassi which means stones, because the houses are carved out of the rock. Originally only the facade of these dwellings was built up to set up a door or a window which let light and air the house.

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Matera is also a culinary paradise. It is very famous for its bread (an IGP product), but also for the pasta, the excellent cheese (caciocavallo, ricotta) and the Aglianico del Vulture Superiore wine, which is the first DOCG wine from Basilicata. Introduced in Basilicata by the Greeks, Aglianico is planted on the Mount Vulture, an extinct volcano, on high altitudes in the region in between 200-700 metres. Vulture has volcanic soil and is rich in mineral water, which is totally reflected in the flavors and taste. Aglianico is an acidic variety, very tannic and requires a few years of aging before you can enjoy it.

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During our tour in April, you will learn how to make traditional dishes of the Matera and Puglia cuisines: from local fresh pasta, to focaccia, sauces etc. All in the beautiful setting of the Matera’s Stones-Caves. You will taste the excellent local olive oils, bread and cheese and you will have fun exploring the beautiful old town of Matera with your news friends.

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Happy 2012 and hope to have you on our cooking tours in Matera and Puglia with us!

Enter our contest to win a cooking and wine holiday in a castle in Puglia

Stile Mediterraneo — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 11:04:49 +0000

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Enter our contest to win a free 8-day cooking holiday with us in a 17th century villa castle in Puglia Italy!
This contest expires on March 8th, 2011. So hurry up!

To learn how to enter the contest read here

About the wines of Puglia

Stile Mediterraneo — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 06:51:39 +0000

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One of the best things to do when traveling on holiday to Italy is attending a wine tasting tour in Puglia and visiting the many excellent wineries the region is famous for.

For thousands of years Puglia has been a very famous region for its wines and viticulture. 2000 years B.C. the Phoenicians started producing wines in Puglia. Then the Greeks, more than 2000 years ago, brought the Negroamaro and the Aglianico. Also, the Romans really liked the wines produced in the fertile region of Puglia. In the 19th century Puglia was known as the “cellar of Italy”, providing big quantities of wines to Northern Italy and to other European regions.

When visiting Puglia wineries, you will be really impressed with the variety of indigenous and very ancient grapes.

Starting from the North of Puglia, you will find very interesting grape varieties such as: Nero di Troia, Aglianico, Fiano, Moscato di Trani, Bombino Nero and Bombino Bianco.

Going South, Salento is one of the most interesting wine areas for its grape varities and excellent wineries. Salento is the wine area around Lecce, including little towns such as: Cellino, San Pietro Vernotico, Squinzano, Guagnano, San Donaci, Salice Salentino, Alezio, Galatina, Leverano, Copertino, Nardò.

Negroamaro grape is among the most important varieties produced in the Salento area. Negroamaro was brought by the Greeks and is recognizable for its flavous and elegance.

Primitivo from Salento (so called for its early harvest) is another important variety produced for thousands of years in the Salento area. Primitivo has the same DNA of the Californian Zinfandel. In Puglia there are three different primitivo: Primitivo di Manduria, Primitivo di Gioia del Colle and Primitivo del Salento.

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Three features make Puglia wines really unique and distinctive.

First, some of the best wines are produced using the “alberello” (literally “little tree”), which is a very old vine, which can date up to 100 years. This alberello vine produces very little quantity but excellent quality. Wines produced with the alberello vine are naturally smooth and elegant.

Moreover, Pugliese wines are refined for very few months in barrels, which most of the times are made of French oak. This is because Pugliese wines have such excellent flavours that barrels are only used to enhance the natural elegance.

Finally, in addition to the ideal Mediterranean climate, most vineyards are planted along the coast taking advantage of the sea breeze.

It’s November: time for Novello wine

Stile Mediterraneo — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:22:00 +0000

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Starting from November 6th, we can buy and drink the Novello wine in Italy.

As usual, lots of people are going to be disappointed and many others will love it! I think it is important to consider that Novello wine is totally different from the …..other wines. When we taste the Novello wine, we should not expect the same body, texture and taste we have when we drink all the other wines.

Many people call it the New Wine, but it is made with a completely different method. The new wine is the result of the latest grape harvest. It is made with the traditional method of separating the raisins from the vines, crushing the raisins and fermenting the must. The new wine still has a little fermentation on going. It is a young wine that still needs to improves due the action of the the yeasts.

Its color and taste depend on: the area where the grapes were produced; the time when the grapes were harvested; the time lag between when the vinification process ended and when the wine is tasted.

The Novello wine is totally different from the new wine. It is made with a completely different method, known as the carbonic maceration: the whole grapes (which have NOT been pressed) are kept in tanks, hermetically sealed, with gas, at about 30 °C for up to 3 weeks. At the end of this process, all the resulting grapes are crushed and let to ferment for about 2 days.

Novello wine is tannin-free and so its life is very short. Its color is usually bright red and its taste is very fruity, tasting strawberry, rasperry, banana, apricot and freshly squeezed grape. It has less alchool and body than wines made with the traditional method.

Novello is in Italy what the Beaujolais is in France. In Italy, Novello wine was traditionally made in Veneto, Trentino and Tuscany. Nowadays, Italy counts 350 Novello producers, in almost all regions, with a production of about 15.000 bottles per year.

Grapes which are usually used to make Novello are: Merlot, Sangiovese, Barbera, Montepulciano D’Abruzzo, Nero d’Avola, Aglianico and in Puglia, Primitivo and Malvasia Nera di Lecce.

Novello is perfect for an aperitif, but also with young cheese, poultry, not too fat salami. and of course all the food which is in the same season, such as chestnuts!

Primitivo wine

Stile Mediterraneo — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:36:00 +0000

If you come to Puglia you should definetely try the many different wines produced from the distinctive local varities, which are impossible to find in any other part of Italy.
Puglia is a region with one of the most ancient enological traditions of Italy. The region counts 25 DOC wines and many local grapes, including the now famous Primitivo. A few years ago Primitivo variety was cultivated with the only purpose of making bulk wines destined to other Italian and European regions, where wines were less robust and with less alcohol content.
Nowadays, thanks to the hard work of many oenologists and wine producers this grape has been revaluated and is now fully appreciated around the world.
Primitivo became famous when it was found out that Primitivo and Zinfandel have the same DNA.
Some researchers say that both Primitivo and Zinfandel have Balkan origins, from the Zagarese grape. They say that Primitivo grape was introduced in Puglia in the 17th century.
Other people say that the primitivo grape was introduced in Puglia much earlier by the Greeks.

The name primitivo comes from the fact that this grape ripens earlier than other varieties.
The current success is due to the innovation introduced in the vineyards, such as the early harvest and the very low yield per hectare so that the resulting wines are softer, more fruity and less aggressive in terms of alcohol.
Lots of wine makers still practise the manual harvest which results in higher quality of the grapes and so of the wines!

Primitivo is produced everywhere in Puglia, but the DOC areas for Primitivo are Gioia del Colle (where the different temperature between night and day lets the fruit ripen slowly and perfectly) and Manduria (where the wind coming from the sea contributes to keeping the fruit in good health and to its flavors). The wine obtained from primitivo is well structured, with flavors of ripen red fruit and minimum alcohol degree of 14%.

This grape has a strong and very distinctive character and Pugliese wine makers wisely prefer a short time aging in French barrels (instead of complying with the international wines with a stronger wood taste). This is a wine to be aged.
Today wines made of Primitivo show undeniable class in a style that stands comparison with its American counterparts.
Every last Sunday of May is a special day for those who love wines from Puglia. All wineries are open to visitors for free visits and tastings, while usually, it is not possible to visit wineries without an appointment.