20/10/04: Almost all the harvesting is over by now and the vines have produced the most beautiful grapes since 1997.

Wine makers are busy with the first fermentations and filtrations...

2/10/04: The harvest feasts are starting in many small villages around the country. Here's today's picture from Mensano's annual "Festa dell'uva".

03/09/04: The summer holidays are almost over for everyone, which means back to work, shorter days, gradually cooler weather, and finally the harvest begins.
The first grapes to be harvested are the white varieties. In fact, the harvesting in the white wine area of San Gimignano has already started.
In Montalcino news is that the maturation of the grapes this year is behind schedule, so most probably the harvesting will not start until October, which might fluster some producers since the risk of damages (such as hail or too much rain) to the grapes increases during autumn.
A little curiosity: Wild boars are one of the other big worries of vine growers. These wild animals are very common especially in the forest area of the Chianti Classico and they are capable of eating hundreds of kilos of grapes in this period of the year!

05/07/04: With this little writing we would like to remember one of our finest wine producers and good friend, Michelangelo of the Poggio Capponi estate, who sadly passed away this morning due to a cancer discovered only recently.

Michelangelo was young and enthusiastic, with a great sense of humor and a generous personality.

Michelangelo Rousseau Colzi
† 05-07-2004

11/06/04: Our wine tasting in Piazza del Campo in Siena went very well. Despite the warm weather a lot of our clients came and enjoyed the wines and a talk to the producers.

We were very pleased that the producers that came from outside of Tuscany got a lot of attention from our local clients. Nadia Curto and Sara Vezza had a big success with their Barolo.

Also Luretta, Bortolin and Leone de Castris can be satisfied by the many compliments that they got for their wines. The Sangiovese wines produced in Tuscany are without any doubt the best in the world but apparently our clients liked to taste something different for a change like Malvasia arromatica, Verdeca, Aleatico, Nebbiolo, etc.

For our Tuscan wine producers a wine tasting like this is also an important social event. Luckily there is very little rivalry between producers and most of them know each other very well.

As mentioned above, during a wine tasting, the more "exotic" wines get more attention than usual. The curiosity of the public was amply satisfied by our Tuscan producers San Vettore (Traminer, Voigner, Pinot Nero etc) and Petreto (Pourriture Noble & Merlot).

Almost all of our producers managed to come personally. Unfortunately for Piernicola Leone de Castris it was impossible to come because of the preparations for MiWine in Milan. His absence was however compensated by our beautiful assistant Virginie (above) who managed to draw a lot of attention from our clients for the famous “Five Roses” rosé.

10/06/04: Many Wine Bars that offer several wines by the glass use a vacuum pump to conserve the wine better once the bottle is opened. We found a useful gift for them; a new vacuum system that integrates both the pump and the usually rather ugly rubber cap. Don't be surprised to find the Vinalità name on top of the bottles in Tuscany's finest Wine Bars.

01/06/04: Smaller producers don't have their own bottling machines, so a truck arrives at the cellar to do the trick.

Here is a picture of today's bottling at San Vettore.

15/05/04: After a very rainy spring, the sun has finally decided to prevail on the clouds. The grape clusters are still small and green, but are now taking shape.

06/05/2004: The excellent everyday table wine "Rosso" (In collaboration between Vinalità & the Vagnoni Wine Estate) is now available.

30/04/2004: Today we visited the Poggio Brigante Wine estate in Magliano in Tosacana. Leonardo produces excellent Morellino di Scansano wines which we are proud to offer on our list. Click on the photo to see the Poggio Brigante page.

28/04/2004: Click on the picture below to view our new Bitters and Ratafiàs from Mount Amiata.

More Wine News is available on our News Page

25/04/2004: We have spent two great days with Paul & Karl from IL SODO in Belgium, visiting several wine producers and enjoying nice wine, with fine food and good wine conversation.

17/04/2004: We have added the very best producer of the Southern Italian region, Puglia, "Leone de Castris". Piernicola Leone de Castris produces more than 15 typical wines from Puglia, one of which has reached the recognition of the "Three Glasses" more than once.
 

11/04/2004: We wish you all a pleasant Easter. To the delight of who is spending the short holidays in Tuscany, the sun has luckily decided to shine, giving us a taste of summer.

In the meanwhile, we can announce that we have decided to add two small producers of Piedmont; Curto Marco representing the traditional wines and style, and the other Josetta Saffirio a Barolo of an extraordinary international taste.

01/04/2004: Vinitaly is the biggest wine fair of Italy, where you can taste wines and talk to the producers from all over Italy.

26/03/2004: We modified our entire Webpage and added a new password protected area for our International Clients. In this area each of our foreign Importers will find all their invoices, pro-forma's and other export documents regarding every past and future transaction with Vinalità.

19/03/2004: Spring is finally in the air, and there are buds on the vines...

02/03/2004: For our International Importers and Italian Clients we now offer our Pricelist Online. A username and password is needed to access this list on our protected area.

29/02/2004: Considering that today is kind of an "extra" day of the month and also a Sunday, we spent some time working on our website and added a page about Tuscan wines and winemaking in general. On this page you will also find our little guide to the Italian wine guides.

28/02/2004: We're proud to announce the new wine estate, Sante Marie, that we have added to our list. Sante Maria is a producer in the Orcia doc area and makes 3 fine and interesting wines.

19/02/2004: Two new wine producers, Poggio Capponi and Lazzeretti, have joined Vinalità. We can now offer an even larger range of good wines with an excellent quality/price relationship.

15/02/2004: We joined the wine festivities in Montalcino, "Benvenuto Brunello", an annually held inauguration of the new years of Rosso and Brunello di Montalcino, and also the Sant'Antimo Rosso.

There were 131 producers presenting their wines (including Lambardi, top), and we can confirm that there are still new and emerging wine producers in the Montalcino area that are worth a try. For example an interesting fairly new small wine estate with the name Az. Agr. Lazzeretti, and their particularly good Rosso di Montalcino.

A fair like the Benvenuto Brunello also gives opportunities for new friendships, such as Louise's new buddy, the owner of the Sesti Estate (below)!

12/02/2004: Yesterday we joined the presentation of the "Anteprima del Chianti Classico" in Florence. 70 wine producers from the Chianti Classico region presented a total of 230 different wines, including a taste of the Chianti Classico 2002 & 2003 that, of course, will not come on the market till 2005 & 2006. The products seem very promising. We also met an old friend, the renowned chef Francesco Berardinelli. Click to see his personal web site if you're interested in cooking classes in Italy or would like to visit his restaurant in Florence.

28/01/2004: Last night the headline of one of the leading television news in Italy, il TG5, announced that the prices of wines in restaurants have increased way over proportion of the post Euro inflation rate. The statistics announced that the prices of wines sold in Italian restaurants have generally increased by 18,1% (2003 compared to 2001). Another confrontation with pre and post Euro prices shows increases up to 68% for the region of Basilicata to 5% in Sicily. Consequently, it was announced in the TG5, Italian wine export has decreased by 16%. Generally, price increases in Tuscany appear to be less than 5% for the past 3 years.

23/01/2004: Sassicaia sold at the supermarket? Yes, indeed. Supermercato PAM is now selling Sassicaia 1999 at the price of €173,- Unbelievable? We are astonished (as you might intuit) by this fascinating new market strategy!

We are rather sorry that last year we drank our own collection of Sassicaia '92,' 93, '94, '95, '96 & '97 (and consequently thought that this wine is slightly overrated). At the price of our Sassicaia collection we could have bought a good second hand car!

The price of a Sassicaia can make even the best wine-enthusiast ashamed of his income. Maybe we should initiate a chain letter to Tenuta San Guido and suggest that they put down the price. If not we must wait until Supermercato PAM puts the Sassicaia on discount: "take two, pay one"!