Curious Appetite

Italian wine

Where to drink Italian wine in San Francisco and back to Italy

you’d be a monster to not want to be here

In a few posts back, I detailed navigating into a new chapter in San Francisco. It’s been a decision steadfast in the making. I spent last year a couple months at a time in this complicated California dreamy city on the Bay to see if I really wanted to make the leap.

The last 7 years in Florence have been extremely transformational, and in certain ways it is where I’ve become an adult and put down professional roots- you remember this is where my Florence food and drink tour baby was born then with Bologna tours to follow (and is still growing and still running- possible to an awesome team on the ground who leads and manages the tours so not to fret!) Hence, leaving Florence was not the easiest decision to make.

It’s now been since March I’ve happily landed in San Francisco and I’ve rarely missed Florence if I can be honest, for a litany of reasons. I genuinely love it here and am so glad I followed by gut instead of staying behind in Florence out of fear or resignation.

that me, showing off my tour company’s shout-out in the August edition of Lonely Planet Mag! In front of Seattle’s famous gum wall during a weekend trip now I’m so close to my hometown

Continue Reading

Barolo Chinato and Amarascato: Pairing chocolate with wine

chocolate hazelnut chocolates and gianduja from Piedmont paired with Barolo Chinato. what grows together, goes together.

There are a few things that stuck in my head during my food & wine pairing classes. Old adages like “what grows together, goes together”, you might say. One was related to pairing chocolates and wine. My ever so flamboyant instructor, who probably drank more in class than we did, asked “who in here likes red wine and chocolate?” You can imagine that mostly of us rose our hands and to our reply he said “You probably like it, but it’s actually one of the worst pairings. It’s kind of like sex on the beach- it sounds like a good idea in theory- beach, sex…but then the reality kicks in and you got sand and all that ruining the mood.” Continue Reading

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo vs Vino Nobile/Rosso di Montepulciano

Sangiovese grapes IN Montepulciano, Tuscany. NOT Montepulciano grapes in Abruzzo. Photo from Georgette Jupe when we went on a Montepulciano field trip

I have noticed that a lot of people who travel to Tuscany note that they really like Montepulciano and want to do Montepulciano Wine Tours. Which surprises me because that is a pretty specific wine area and yet when I mention Brunello, they don’t seem to know what that is. Which makes me have a sneaking suspicion that people are thinking of the red wine that is one of the most common table red wines served in Italian restaurants across America: Montepulciano D’Abruzzo. While I hope they are talking about Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, this post is a general explanation of the 2 wines since even when I have been with clients in the Montepulciano wine country, I get this question: Is this wine made with Montepulciano grapes?

Continue Reading

Food and wine pairing- Tagliata steak and Chianti

Before I moved to Italy, I dabbled in food and wine pairing classes in Seattle and in certain ways I feel like it was easier to play and experiment around with food/wine pairing at home than it is here…WAITAMINUTELETMEESPLAIN!

Because in Seattle we have amazing shops that shelf a huge variety of wines including little boutiques that specialize in hand picked small selections and big mega stores that could be the mall of wine for all I know. Which means, international wines. In Florence, you can find everything under the Tuscan sun (sorry, I couldn’t help it) and maybe a few labels from other parts of Italy but a Spanish wine? A Washington wine? Forgettaboutit! I’ve been lucky to find a few international labels in wine shops here, but mostly French. So. Typical. Continue Reading

%d bloggers like this: