Two new pieces about wine, which coincidentally have Italian wine in them. In the Dallas Morning News.
Dallas entrepreneur launches Crazy Beautiful Wines brand in big 1-liter bottles
The University of Dallas makes wine? Try this new red from vineyards on the school's Italian campus
In case anyone is interested, this link HERE shows my writing activity apart from this ‘ol dinosaur blog. Since officially retiring I’ve done a piece a month – so, that would be like a monthly column. I’m getting closer to my goal of wanting to be Gerald Asher when I grow up, although his writing is still head-and-shoulders above most of us. But a goal is a goal.
And my great accomplishment of retirement this month – finally, after 20+ years, organizing the walk-in wine closet and freestanding wine cave. I now know what is in there, and most of the wines are still in tip-top shape. Some notes about what I’ve collected:
• Red wine is about 86% of what’s in there – no surprise, because we go through the white ( and rose') a little faster and it is usually kept in a back fridge for prompt utilization.
• Dessert wines follow red wine in quantity, by a wide margin. OK, gotta get cracking some of those old ports soon, but not when it is 100⁰F outside.
• Italian wine accounts for the majority of the wine in there, followed by California, France and (surprise!) Texas (which is one short of the France total – gotta stay loyal to the local).
• There are some dead soldiers in there, and I have made an area, a “Paradiso” (or a bardo) to display them. Some great old memories there, many of which have been noted on this blog in the last 14 years.
• The oldest wine? 1936, and it is an Est!Est!!Est!!! from Lampani G. B. & Figli, bottled in 1939. It came to me in the early 1980’s from an auction in Ft. Worth, Texas. It is amabile. So, part of the “sticky” brigade.
More on this later. But for now, there are other activities planned for this day. Thanks to all who reached out with well wishes. While it ain’t exactly a moon landing, I’m glad to be alive and celebrating another rotation around the sun.
written and photographed by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy
wine blog + Italian wine blog + Italy W