15-09-2013
The nine wines tasted on the occasion of the Giornata mondiale delle cucine regionali italiane nel Segno dell'Expo (the international day of Italian regional cuisine within the World Fair). Italian viticulture, in fact, began from Calabria even though the production of Calabrian wines included in the Doc’s, today represents only 1% of the total Italian production
Calabria is over there, at the bottom. We hear little of this region, perhaps because it very often moves on tiptoe. Within the Giornata mondiale delle cucine regionali italiane nel Segno dell'Expo (the international day of Italian cuisine within the World Fair) it took two people such as Raffaele D'Angelo, president of the Calabresi di Parma association, with the aid of Teresa Balzano, Calabrian blogger adopted by Milan, to organise an interesting tasting of the wines from this land (whose name signifies “I make the good rise”, from the Greek Kalon-Brion).
Italian viticulture in fact began in Calabria, imported, as it was, from Greek settlers who landed on what is today Punta Alice. Even though numbers are not on its side – the region represents only 1% of the total Italian production of Doc wines – we did find some interesting numbers. The tasting was guided by Gaetano Palombella, sommelier Ais from Reggio Emilia - 100% Calabrian. Of the 9 wines tasted, our interest was captured entirely by the area in which the history of wine began, in the province of Crotone - on 4 wines produced by 4 different farms.
Salvatore Caparra
Gaetano Palombella, Ais sommelier
Stories of men, women and bottles that enrich the galaxy of wine, in Italy and in the world
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Born in Milan, he works as a copywriter and lives in Romagna. He wishes he could age in a oak barrel. Twitter @martinolapini