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Twenty-Five years ago, I moved to a small town in northern Italy. I knew no one and spoke no Italian. But, when you are blond and pale, you stand out and soon in this town of 46,000, I had made friends. Throughout the six months that I lived in Italy, one of my fondest memories was dinner. It was not the food, although always good, but rather the ambiance, the idea of friendship around a table, enjoying good food, wine and conversation. I went back to Vercelli this past week and my friends all came together for a large dinner. And that is why, dinner with friends Italian style is the Please The Palate pick of the week. I have had many good dinners in the US and with my foodie friends, a meal is the entertainment for the evening. Yet most times, dinner in the U.S. is a precursor to something else, such as heading to a bar, a movie or a concert. And, most dinners take between one to two hours. But in Italy, dinner is the event of evening. Dinner is scheduled for 8pm or 9pm and will last three or four hours.
21 September, 2019
There are many different stories about how one finds themselves in the wine industry. I have been a fan of the Two Shepherds wines ever since I first tasted them a few years ago. And recently, I sat down with owner and winemaker William Allen to learn more about how he went from a shepherd of the palate to a shepherd of the grape. You can read about it in the story I wrote in the Napa Valley Register and you can find here. Everyone in the wine industry has a story about how they got into wine, and there are many different trajectories. There are those who go to school and study enology and then work harvests at various wineries before taking a job at one winery. There are those who are born into a family business that includes vineyards and a winery. There are those who make a lot of money in a different industry and then decide to purchase a winery as a “retirement” project. And there are those who start making wine as a hobby and then grow from there. William Allen of Two Shepherds in Sonoma started as a wine blogger, became garagiste winemaker-turned-commercial-winemaker-and-grape-grower, all in the span of a decade.
19 September, 2019
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