#ItalianFWT Explores the Food, Wine & Travel to Sardinia (Sardegna)

This month our Italian Food, Wine & Travel (#ItalianFWT) bloggers group is virtually traveling to our 10^th region of Italy, Sardegna. Following Sicily, Sardegna is the 2^nd largest island in Italy. Sardegna, also known as Sardinia, is located off the west coast of Italy on the Tyrhennian Sea. For those needing a little bit of sunshine in their life you may want to consider travel to Sardegna with it's 300 days of sunshine.

Cala Goloritze in Sardegna by Sara Pizzagalli

Sardegna may not be one of the regions that immediately comes to mind when one considers travel to Italy, but with it's rocky coastlines and pristine beaches there isn't a reason we should all get there one day. One interesting aspect of the region are the nuraghi, or round fortresses, that are spread throughout the island that allowed them to protect and defend themselves from invasion. Over 7,000 nuraghi still exist in Sardinia today.

Nuraghe in Sardegna by HrodebertRobertus

The wines of Sardegna
When it comes to wine Sardinia has made many technological improvements in their vineyards, yields and winemaking techniques and are building a stronger platform than their days of shipping wines off the island to be blended with other wines. There is only 1 DOCG of the island, Vermentino di Gallura and 20 DOC. Whites dominate over reds in this wine region with white grapes consisting of vermentino, malvasia, moscato, vernaccia and red grapes consisting of cannonau, carignano, monica and giro.

When it comes to food of the region we have plenty of recipes that will be shared throughout the group to give you a sense of the cuisine on the island.

Join us this Saturday August 1^st as our group of Italian Food Wine & Travel bloggers will share with you their perspective of the region. Here is a preview of what's to come:

 
Vino Travels - The Native Grapes of Sardinia with Argiolas Cannonau
Italophia - How I was "Swept Away" in Sardinia
Enofylz - Sardinia Style Seafood Paella and Cantina di Gallura Canayli Vermentino #ItalianFWT
Vino in Love - Exploring Sardinian Wine
Rockin Red Blog - Mountainous Food & Wine of Sardegna 
Confessions of a Culinary Diva - The Food & Wine of Sardegna
Cooking Chat - Summer Spaghetti with Garlicky Shrimp and a Vermentino
Food Wine Click - What Wines Goes with Octopus?  A Sardinian Investigation
Culinary Adventures with Camilla - Grano Saraceno Risotto con Funghi e Miele

We'd love to hear from you on our live Twitter chat this Saturday at 11am EST time at #ItalianFWT. There is still time to join us as well. If you are interested please leave a comment or message me at vinotravels at hotmail dot com. Ciao ciao for now!

Source: NASA, Cantine Argiolas

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The autochthonous Grape, Pecorino, and It's Revival

In a recent tasting I sampled an indigenous and native white grape, pecorino, of central Italy, specifically of the Abruzzo and Marche regions.  Pecorino is an early ripening grape that is produced in low yields. If you remember the Italian Wine Word Wednesday I shared with you last week, fresco = crisp, this wine is another one to consider that is typically a light to medium bodied style wine that is crisp and clean with hints of nuts.

About the pecorino grape
The name derives from the Italian word pecora, meaning sheep, and is believed to derive from the sheep that were raised in the area where the grape grows. Another grape of Italy that almost faced extinction according to the Pecorino Vitigno E Vino site, pecorino was reborn by Guido Cocci Grifoni. 

The pecorino grape grows the best in the Piceno area of the Marche region. It's stated that from their site that the research that Guido did “revealed that north of the river Tronto, near Arquata del Tronto, there was a tiny, virtually abandoned vineyard, owned at the time by an eighty year old gentleman; the ancient grape vine known as pecorino grew in this vineyard.” They were replanted in the northern part of the land and to this day the pecorino has flourished from its days of extinction.

I've spoken about this producer before, I Lauri. They are located in the hilltop town of Loreto Aprutino in the Abruzzo region at the foothills of the Gran Sasso Mountain. The 2014 I Lauri Avalos Pecorino Colline Pescaresi IGP is a medium bodied dry wine with an aromatic, floral nose and notes of apricots and tropical fruit backed by good acidity.

It's amazing to me how many grapes in Italy have almost gone extinct and what a shame it would be to not be able to experience grapes like pecorino in this world. 

Have you tried pecorino yourself?

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Crisp! Fresco! Fabrizio Dionisio Rosa del Castagno Syrah Rose

This past month I started featuring Italian wine words for those of you to start learning some of the Italian language in the wine industry. I started doing Italian Wine Word Wednesday that I'll feature on my social media and occasionally a blog post if it falls on a Wednesday. Since it's summer time and it's the perfect time of year to drink rose' (but not the only time of year don't forget) I figured this week we'll feature the word crisp as you'll find rose' to be potentially be crisp, clean and refreshing. It's perfect as well for all your Italian white grapes and wines too!

Crisp = fresco

View from Cortona, Tuscany ~ By MojoBaron

This week I attended a wine tasting and rose' seemed to be the hit of the night for all the vendors. The rose' I'm sharing I thought was unique in the fact that you don't often see syrah from Italy nevermind a syrah rose'. I've featured this producer before, Fabrizio Dionisio, but I sampled the 2013 Fabrizio Dionisio Rosa del Castago syrah I.G.T. from Cortona, Tuscany. This wine is 100% syrah that is gently crushed and the free run juice ferments in stainless steel for about 15 days at low temps. Light salmon in color and dry, it has a good medium body with notes of strawberry and citrus that has a refreshing mouthwatering acidity that finished clean and fresco!

I find rose to be such a versatile wine and can pair especially with many of your summer dishes, but maybe not as much your hearty winter fare. It still holds a place on the table year round to serve as an accompaniment to many appetizers as well as dishes to include pasta, pizza, chicken and pork dishes.

I'll end in a perfect quote from Fabrizio Dionisio's site quoted by Fabrizio Dionisio himself:

“I like to create, every year, real bottles of terroir which can accurately and sincerely express that particular vintage. I like to create a wine that can tell the autumn rain, the winter frost, the summer hot days and cool nights, the colours, the sounds and the smells of that very vintage with its unique and unrepeatable characteristics. That’s the way in which our Syrah of Cortona is created in our vineyards, following the rhythms of nature.”

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