Recent content by Oliver McCrum

The US government mandates that the numbers used to show alcohol be within a small range, wineries don't have the choice of large font. Weird but true.

Sicilian food is amazing, and the wines have improved beyond recognition in the last 20 years or so. You'll have a great time.

I have had some very good meals at Osteria Antica Marina, which is right next to the main seafood market in Catania. I can't speak for the wine list, although by now there should at least be some good white wines from Etna.

I use the Slow Food app called Osterie d'Italia, which is now also in English. They only review places they like, geographically organized and easy to use.

Maureen, it works by location. Or you can use the search bar at the bottom to look at eg a particular town's recommendations. I was just in the absolute boonies in Piedmont and found a place I had never heard of through the app, and had a lovely meal.

Even better. I'm still on the previous version. I hate eating badly in Italy, and I've had good luck with the Slow recommendations.

Mark, I find the app from Slow Food very useful, it's called Osterie d'Italia. It doesn't include the upper end, but I don't like the most polished places anyway. Particularly useful in heavily visited cities like Florence and Venice. The app is in Italian, but they only mention the places...

A lot of European wines that sell for less than say $25 are aged in neutral vessels, although you'd have to check the web sites to be sure. In the new world wines in that price point might have been aged with oak chips for flavor, this is much less likely in Europe.

Absolutely. The published threshold for TCA is somewhere between 2 and 5 ppt; in my office the threshold is about 0.5, depending on wine type. In my experience showing the same wine to different customers there are very different perceptions of eg acidity and tannin.

Nearby, La Balena in Carmel is good. Good list. Actual Italian cook whose American wife is very interested in wine.

If you shake the usual polystyrene package it makes a very characteristic noise. I think they're onto it.

I think everyone knows where we stand, Levi. I have nothing to add.

Now Levi, that is just silly. I thoroughly appreciated the wine of another importer, Chionetti, in my previous post. And I already answered your question, in the same post; 'San Fereolo' means the cru, not the producer. And my original point was 'I don't think most Dolcetto producers think of...

Levi, you needn't be perplexed, I've said the same thing repeatedly, and I think my point is clear, even if you disagree with it. You shouldn't assume that the only reason I might possibly disagree with you is ignorance, though. I have had a number of 8 or 10 year old Dolcettos from great...

Levi, I never said I hadn't tried them. I've tried them, I just don't like them as much as you do. You are enormously knowledgable about Italian wine, but that doesn't mean anyone who disagrees with you is a know-nothing idiot. You do yourself no credit by acting like that's the case.