Please The Palate Pick of the Week: Farmhouse Wines

Written by Allison Levine on June 16, 2018

Wine

What do you look for when buying wine? That it tastes good? That the price is affordable? With Farmhouse wines, the wines taste good, are a great value AND they are produced organically and that is why they are the Please The Palate pick of the week.

Typically, when I think about an under $15 wine from California, right or wrong, I assume the wine will be a big fruit bomb, high in alcohol and possibly have residual sugar. I think of the “people-pleasing” wines for the masses. But, Farmhouse Wines are a great lesson in not judging a wine by its price, as these are wines that can happily be everyone’s everyday wine. These are “people-pleasing” wines that are balanced and do not sacrifice quality.

Farmhouse Wines is produced by the Cline Family, who also produce Cline Family Cellars and Jacuzzi Wines. Farmhouse Wines produces one white wine and one red wine. Read More +

DoctorWine’s tips on food and wine pairing

Written by Allison Levine on June 12, 2018

Lifestyle Food Wine

The story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.

I spent the past week traveling around California with Daniele Cernilli, aka DoctorWine.

Daniele is one of the most renowned wine critics and journalists in Italy and he came to California for a series of wine seminars and tastings for both the trade and consumer in conjunction with his book The Ultimate Guide to Italian Wine 2018.

While I was organizing these events, I worked with him to design menus for four meals to pair with the wines. From planning the menus to sitting down for the meals, I absorbed much of the insight he had to share about the importance of food and wine pairing.

Daniele made a point of the fact that Italians eat and drink together. They believe that wine is meant for food and explained that pairing wine and food “is a religion for us.” There are many considerations when it comes to food and wine pairing, and Daniele offered a few key tips.

Vigna della Regina – A Vineyard in the City of Torino, Italy

Written by Allison Levine on June 7, 2018

Lifestyle Wine

This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.

When I think of vineyards, I think of rolling hills covered with vines as far as the eye can see. But, recently, as we were driving through the city of Torino, in Piemonte, Italy, we crossed the Po River and drove up a hill and entered a park. There in the park was a large chateau and just to the side of it was a vineyard. This vineyard, Vigna della Regina, is located in the city of Torino and is one of only a few vineyards located in urban settings in Europe.

As I did a little research, I was able to find only a few other urban vineyards in Europe. Historically, there is Montmartre in Paris, the world’s most famous urban vineyard. And there are 1,700 acres of vineyards in the city of Vienna, Austria. More recently, urban vineyards were planted in Thessaloniki in Greece, London in England and the island of Mazzorbo in Venice in Italy.

Vigna della Regina, the vineyard in Torino, has a history of 400 years, dating to the 1600s. Located in the center of Torino, the vineyard is next to the Villa della Regina, a former residence of pleasure for the royal family. Bombing during World War II resulted in the vineyard being abandoned for 50 years. Then, in 1994, the Ministry of Culture began rebuilding the home. It took them 10 years and then they called on the Balbiano family, a famous wine producer in the Torino Hills.