I had the pleasure of joining my favorite Cortona winery Leuta for a barrel tasting with award winning sommelier Luca Gardini (voted World’s Best Sommelier in 2010), enologist Maurizio and of course owners Denis and Enzo. This tasting was very important, they were here to taste 4 different varieties from 54 different barrels in order to select the very best barrel of each variety to blend for their top wine, Nautilus. Each barrel was...

The city of Copenhagen was host to a very special group, our very own Strada dei Vini Cortona on the the 1st and 2nd of March! The local newspaper Politiken spread the word and more than 1500 tickets were sold in advance for the two day event.  I think that probably at least a good 200o people attended.   The space was ultra modern with the theme being wine, Cortona products and tourism.  Of course most people were there for the wine. Not...

Recently a well known wine -o-phile in Italy, Alessandro Rossi, put together a group of winemakers, wine lovers, wine writers and wine experts to blind taste 9 of the best Cabernet Francs from Tuscany.  Only one of the wines was from the Cortona D.O.C. area. (important to note since I’m blatantly for home team Cortona D.O.C.!) The end result, Leuta rated 95/100 for the win. It’s no secret I’m a Leuta fan and I am always...

Held under the regal arches of the Teatro of Cortona, the Strada dei Vini Cortona, end of summer wine event was a small but very welcoming and a nice representation of some of the great local Cortona wines. With two sommeliers actively pouring wines and available to answer any general wine questions, it was a nice way to taste a decently sized pour of the available 25 or so wines. As opposed to the U.S. where you often meet winemakers or a...