The Aperol Fizz is similar to the popular Italian drink called the Aperol Spritz or Sprizz, except that it swaps the club soda for tonic water. I really liked the extra bittersweet tang from the tonic water, and think you will too.
June 6, 2023I’ve sipped a lot of sparkling wines in the past several years, but I was intrigued when I was invited to taste Ferrari sparkling wines. They’re from Italy, but they don’t make prosecco, Moscato or sports cars. Rather, Cantine Ferrari makes fine, metodo classico (classic method) sparkling wine. While I love discovering methode champenoise sparkling wines from around the world, I have a tendency — like others — to compare them to the sparkling wines of Champagne. The best champagne has this electricity to it, a combination of elegance and power. Few sparkling wines made elsewhere have this quality, but Ferrari Metodo Classico does. As I took my first sip of the Ferrari NV Brut, I might have thought the toasty nose and bright golden apple flavor sprang from the famed chalky soils of Champagne. But Matteo Lunelli was sitting next to me in a private dining room at Spruce…
November 28, 2012
Francesco Zonin is at a loss for words. Dressed in a dark bespoke suit crafted by a tailor in Naples, the president of Zonin USA is friendly but reserved, with the bemused air of someone who has been very fortunate in life. During a tasting with friends and writers (including BrokeAss Gourmet Gabi Moskowitz and Morgan First of Second Glass/Wine Riot) on the patio of the former Colosseo in North Beach, the model-handsome scion of one of the most important wine families in Italy seems like he’s used to being master of his universe. Yet, when I ask him why Prosecco has gotten so popular, Zonin gives that Italian “non lo so” shrug. “We’ve been trying to figure that out over the past few days,” he says, sipping a glass of their flagship wine. “The answer is we really don’t know.” “Prosecco is gaining market share from other sparkling wines in…
July 25, 2012I just did a fun Saturday morning radio interview with Mario Martnoli and Amy Strong of the “Food & Dining” show on KLAA AM 830 and are they ever Italo-philes! We talked about buying hand-blown champagne flutes in Venice, sipping cocktails made with Aperol and the Lemon Ice, a delicious digestif cocktail from The Bubbly Bar made with prosecco, vodka, lemon sorbet and fresh mint. Our conversation got me thinking about all the lovely sparkling wines and liqueurs that come from Italy. When I’m mixing a cocktail, probably the first wine I think of is prosecco, the sparkling wine from the Veneto. Wines made from the prosecco grape have such a delicate quality with soft bubbles and hints of green apple, minerals and white flowers. I recently received a sample of a new one called Passionne di Fiore.It’s a likable little wine, with lots of fresh green apple and hints…
November 14, 2009In March I spent a magical week at The Awaiting Table cooking school in Lecce, Puglia, where we cooked and ate all sorts of wonderful regional dishes from chicken with green olives, thyme and fruity olive oil to handmade orecchiette pasta to simple seafood soup with the sweetest shrimp I’ve ever tasted. But the Pugliese dish that may be my favorite is one of the simplest: a cracker. Actually, taralli aren’t just any crackers, they’re olive oil based snacks that have been made in Puglia for hundreds of years. They were on the table one night when the class went out to a wine bar that served all the regional wines like primitivo di Manduria, Nero di Troia and negroamaro along with the oddest assortment of country music and Beatles songs. A new friend Carolyn served them to me one evening as we sipped a brut sparkling wine from the…
May 6, 2009