MARISA FINETTI | Category: Home

January 22, 2023January 23, 2023

The next chapter: Wines of Sicily

Are we still in Sicily? Indeed, we weren’t in Palermo anymore. The beautiful and distinctively gritty capital city from two days ago boasted the impressive and massive neoclassical Teatro Massimo opera house, the largest collection of mummified remains in Europe, and a cathedral designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Palermo was also a bit slippery underfoot and yet olfactorily stimulating – at the fish markets – where we sat at L’Acerba for shrimp crudo, chunks of fried cod, and…

September 14, 2022September 15, 2022

Life with Mateja Gravner & friends

Mateja Gravner met us for dinner at the cozy Ristorante Laite in the postage-stamp-sized mountain village of Sappada, Italy. I have written about Gravner in the past and was always intrigued by the mystery surrounding this biodynamic wine producer located on the far edge of Oslavia, just a stone’s throw from Slovenia. But today was the first time I would meet Mateja in person. Her disposition is kind and casual but gracefully confident. Her wholesome beauty is carried by her…

January 19, 2022January 20, 2022

FERNET-BRANCA, THE KALEIDOSCOPE OF DRINKS

It’s the kaleidoscope of drinks. Made from bits of roots, herbs, flowers, and spices, it offers an endless variety of multi-sensorial personalities, emotionally-colorful synesthesia, ever-changing, and reflective. An amaro can be citrusy, herbaceous, floral, vegetal, medicinal, earthy, savory – a continuous showing of some or all. These flavors are imparted through the process of maceration of botanicals in a grain spirit, often followed by blending and resting to harmonize all the flavors. One of my early illuminating moments into amaro…

June 27, 2021June 27, 2021

Sunday Sip Trip: High Altitude Cabernet Franc

A dream would be to have acreage high above picturesque Tuscan villages overlooking the vast blue Tyrrhenian Sea while enjoying morning coffee. Surrounded by a dense forest of hardwood trees, the land is wild, the terrain pristine, isolated, and private, where wild boar hunting and riding bareback are the only activities before dinner. Nearby is the famous Bolgheri appellation – the area known mainly for deeply colored age-worthy wines usually based on the Bordeaux grape varieties. Up until the 1970s,…

May 11, 2021May 11, 2021

Local Las Vegas wine scene diversifies through pandemic

Most recently, I’ve been returning to a ritual that I’d practiced very sparingly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic: going out to restaurants. Las Vegas locals like myself are starting to feel a bit safer and eager to get out, now that vaccines are readily available. Along with this feeling of emergence – a metamorphosis, if you will – is taking place, with locals taking flight into restaurants and wine bars and showing interest and exploration into new wines.…

April 7, 2021April 7, 2021

Sip Trip through Italy: Vermentino, Fiano, Chianti Classico

Situated in the Mediterranean Sea about 115 miles off mainland Italy, Sardinia is rich with charming beauty and eccentricities. It’s the place of sugar-fine sandy beaches, near-Alpine forests, scenic roads, and breathtaking hikes that bring you deeper into the lush and silent interior. Sardinia is also like a pebble polished by waves of history and tradition. Scattered with thousands of nuraghi, Bronze Age settlements, these prehistory remnants are waiting to be solved like the most intricate game of Clue. VERMENTINOA…

March 10, 2021March 11, 2021

My Good Fellas

It’s passionate. It’s emotional. It takes attitude and persistence and a few drinks, and that includes beers. There is so much to be said about the life-long journey of wine. When I entered the wine world, I was extremely fortunate. Everyone from sommeliers to educators to wine producers opened the door, inspired me, educated me, held me accountable, rooted for me. My Good Fellas are mia famiglia. Comprised of wine professionals with some serious chops, creds, and clout. In the…

December 14, 2020January 14, 2021

Ridge releases the “original” Croatian Zinfandel: Tribidrag

Zinfandel was long-touted as California’s wine. And, for many years, Zinfandel was thought to even be of American origin. But as it turns out, Zinfandel’s story was suggestive of a non-fiction mystery novel, where the beloved grape’s mystique had fascinated wine lovers and winemakers of the golden state for nearly a century. And to their surprise, its roots were determined to be of the old world and from as far as 6,000 miles away in Croatia. We can thank the…

December 9, 2020December 9, 2020

Tom Gamble’s land, family, and wine

On that warm August afternoon, Tom Gamble greeted us with a glass of rosé, helped us onto his flatbed trailer as we took an open-top tour through his land. This was the first thing we would do upon arriving at Gamble Family Vineyards to appreciate where his love for this place comes from. Only then would we discover why the third generation rancher would make wine at all. Along the way, the vintage GMC crawls to a stop for a…

November 29, 2020December 1, 2020

Head to the Rive: Aim high with Prosecco

When we think of Prosecco, what comes to mind is the easy-drinking, cheerful, bubbly, white wine that is made throughout the Veneto and Friuli regions of Northern Italy. Lovers of Prosecco can’t seem to get enough. And thankfully, there’s plenty to go around. In fact, an estimated one billion bottles are produced annually to meet the continuing demand. This also means there are differences in quality from one to the next. In a sea of bubbles, where do we begin? One…