Umbria Wine Festival is one of the most important wine festivals here in Italy which will take place in Perugia from 4 to 25 April. Born from a collaboration with the University of Perugia (Faculty of Agriculture), this event will take place in the beautiful cloister of Saint Peter which houses the Faculty of Agriculture. Visitors will not only have the opportunity to taste the best wines from the region but also judge their quality. Local winemakers will share their expertise and lore with the public, taking them on a fascinating journey through the history of winemaking in the Umbria region. This year the spotlight will be cast on Passito (a variety of wine produced from raisins and semi-dried grapes) and other meditation wines which, among other things, are also the interesting subject of a course you can take at the faculty of agriculture!

Continue reading: Italian wine: Perugia to host " Umbria Wine Festival "

Italy’s famous wine fair, Vinitaly, will take place in Verona from April 8-12 this year, and will continue the constant growth in the event. More than 4,000 exhibitors will be on display as part of a program with Italian wine tastings, meetings and seminars on Italian wine. Tickets can be purchased online, taking advantage of a discount, and cost 35 euros for a day or 70 euros for the whole four days.

It’s often difficult to get accommodation for the fair, so book early and take a look at the Veronafiere site for accommodation in Verona (at the time of Vinitaly it can cost between 125 and 160 euros for a double room). The Pro Loco site also has some good information on hotels, restaurants and Verona city events, if you’re still lucid after all that wine tasting!

Continue reading: 2010 Vinitaly program and bookings

If you’re looking for Christmas deals for Italy, try the Langhe region of Piedmont. While not strictly speaking Barolo country, there’s still plenty of good nebbiolo to be had for Italian wine buffs. Spending Christmas in Italy is a special occasion, and the Langhe offers Christmas markets in Monticello d’Alba, and nativity scenes and more markets in Montaldo Roero.

The town of Alba, famous for its truffle festival, also offers plenty of Christmas cheer, and the historic Dogliani nativity scene, with its 350 figurines, is on display on the 23rd and 24th of December. See the Langhe Roero website for more details.

Continue reading: Christmas and Barolo: wine tasting and touring Italy at Christmas

There are many culinary tours of Italy that you can do, to enjoy the traditional Italian products in different regions, and today we give you a few names of companies that might help in planning your Italy by taste itinerary. Especially in terms of wine, Italy and Europe in general is behind in the open cellar door movement and tastings, although Italian wine benefits from various village tasting festivals.

Check out the Turismo del Vino site for news on where to go, where to stay and the various wine tasting in Italy events that are on. Other organisations organising wine tasting tours are Nunc Est Bibendum, and if you’re interested in wine tasting in Rome and surrounds, see the Tasting Rome website.

While Italy is part of the old world wine culture, there is plenty of romance to be had in wine tasting in the country’s old cellars and tavernas. You just have to have some front, a few connections and make yourself a calendar of Italy’s wine and food festivals - it’s well worth it.

Photo | Nebtour

Continue reading: Culinary tours, food festivals and wine tasting in Italy

The classic zabaione dessert is made with marsala, but today we give you a lighter Christmas recipe that can go with traditional Italian desserts like panettone. Ingredients required are: 300 grams of Moscato d’Asti sweet dessert wine, 150 grams of sugar, 50 grams of white rum and six egg yolks.

Beat the egg yolks together with the sugar until you get a light, bubbly texture. Add the moscato and the rum and cook in a bain marie or under steam for 20 minutes, stirring constantly. Serve it warm, either with savoiardi biscuits, or as a topping for your dessert. Obviously the perfect food-wine match is a lovely glass of Moscati d’Asti sweet Italian wine.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Aphrodisiac recipes: homemade zabaione with Moscato for an Italian Christmas

The Viniadi 2009 wine tasting in Italy for non-professionals event will occur on November 26. It’s held at Montegrotto Terme in Padua, and is Italy’s largest wine tasting event for amateur wine buffs.

This year, 18 finalists will compete to be champion, with the age range varying from 18 through to 52 years old. Prizes include vines from some of Italy’s great wine producers, limited edition bottles and holiday study programs.

Continue reading: Wine tasting in Italy: Viniadi competition for non-professionals starts

If you are a wine lover and planning to visit Sardinia, you will be glad to know that there’s an Italian wine to add to the list of its superb wines; called Carignano del Sulcis (also known as the barolo from the south), this wine is made from grapes growing in the South-west corner of the island which is very rich in sandy soils. The climate of the region plus the fact that these grapes are planted in sandy soils and don’t need grafting make these grapevines so much stronger that they can live and bear fruit for centuries. By the way if you are seriously planning to visit this part of Sardinia, don’t forget to explore the enchanting islands of Sant’Antioco and San Pietro; you will fall in love as soon as your eyes first gaze upon their magical presence!

Source | La Stampa
Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: On the wine trail in Sardinia

Northern Italy has its culinary delights just like the south, and in the cool climate of Trentino one such delight is Asiago cheese. This Italian cheese has been a DOP protected product since 1978 and its area of production takes in the provinces of Vicenza and Trento, as well as parts of Padua and Treviso.

Asiago is a hard-crust cheese that can be aged differently according to the discipline. Two types can generally be found: young and fresh, with a soft, delicate flavour, or aged asiago for at least four months (up to two years) which has a stronger flavour bordering on spicy.

Depending on which type you have, the food and wine match will have to complement the flavour strength and texture. The decisive flavour of the aged cheese will require a stronger red wine, perhaps a merlot from Trentino if you want a local Italian wine, or if you want to go further afield, a Piave Cabernet. For the fresher and more delicate version, we recommend a white wine or rose, such as the Biferno Rosato.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Italian food and wine matching: Asiago Italian cheese from Trentino

The world of Italian food and wine matching is vast and has many pleasures, if you have the time and the curiosity to explore. Today we look at Italian cheese “caciocavallo” and the possible Italian wine options to match.

Caciocavallo is a cheese from southern Italy, now a DOP protected production, made from cow’s milk. While it looks like a mini provolone, the cheese comes from the “podolica” cow breed, which is semi-wild breed that grazes on all sorts of natural and wild vegetation.

The areas in which caciocavallo is mostly produced are the high altitude regions of Molise, Sila, Campano and Puglia. This particular Italian cheese must age a minimum of three months, and anywhere up to two years. See after the jump for the wine-cheese match.

Continue reading: Food and wine matching: Italian cheese and the best southern Italian wine

Each year Autumn, the season which is like a door between summer and winter, brings its own delights to the table; from chestnuts and mushrooms to apples and grapes. So those of you who love the flavours of Autumn will be glad to know that in October the small village of Marradi (up in the hills around the city of Florence) will host a chestnut festival. Surrounded by thick woods, the village is famous for its delicious chestnuts throughout the north of Italy, but the big news is that for the next four weekends, the village can also be reached on board lovely steam trains leaving every Sunday from Rimini, Bologna and Florence. Once there visitors will have the chance to attend the Italian food festival and taste such delicious dishes as tortelli stuffed with chestnuts, chestnut cake, chestnut jam and, of course, tons of roast chestnuts. But don’t worry, if you should prefer something different, you can always have polenta with mushrooms and exquisite grilled meat and all of this accompanied by fabulous Tuscany wine. For more information you can call the following phone numbers: 0546.22715; 0546.22177; 055.440311

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Autumn in Italy: Chestnut Festival at Marradi, near Florence

The town of Bra in Piedmont, famous for its Italian cheese and the Slow Food movement, is currently hosting the Slow Food Cheese Italian food festival. Autum in Italy is THE season for food festivals, so you’d best get your calendar planned.

Bra is famous for Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food movement and the world’s first University of Gastromic Sciences. The cheese festival sees the town’s historic centre turned into a cheese market, in a space more than 3,000 metres square.

The Italian cheese festival hosts over 160 stalls with cheeses coming from around the world to represent their country. The cheese hall hosts some of the world’s most prized cheeses, with more than 130 varieties on display. If you’re going, make sure you taste your cheese with some great Italian wine - we recommend a nebbiolo from the Langhe.

Continue reading: Italian food festivals: Cheese festival in Piedmont celebrates Italian cheese

Cooking pasta is a very simple art form and if you follow these rules for the perfect pasta, you will have a very different experience of this classic from Italian cuisine. Many pasta dishes are successful because they’re simple and cooked to perfection.

We’ll also do a similar “rules for cooking risotto” to give you the basic dish that you can then elaborate yourself. Italian cooking was never meant to be complicated, but to get the pasta like you tasted it on your holiday in Italy, you have to apply some rules.

1. Choose the pasta on the basis of the sauce you want; spaghetti, fettuccine, tagliatelle and other types will sort of ‘grab’ hold of the sauce, while penne and other similar types are great for whole pieces of tomato or other vegetables.

2. Weigh the pasta to know how much to cook. Get rid of those silly spaghetti measures that are totally inaccurate. A basic rule of thumb is 100 grams of pasta for each person, though I normally do a bit less.

Continue reading: How to cook pasta and homemade tomato sauce: the golden rules for the perfect pasta