Tenuta di Tavignano is located in a valley above the Musone River which flows between the Apiennes and the Adriatic on Italy’s hamstring.
Cingoli, known as the ‘balcony of the Marche’ since medieval times is just up the road, and the ancient town of Jesi is down wind.
I’ve arrived here on a quest for one of Italy’s best known white wines – Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi. Misco, the name of this wine, is Latin for Musone, and Tenuta di Tavignano produces one of the top 100% Verdicchios available today, although wine has been made in this region of Italy since the 14th century. 
Ondine de la Feld Aymerich (right) is the current custodian of Tavignano on behalf of her uncle Stefano Aymerich di Laconi and Beatrice Lucangeli. She is one very busy person – orchestrating the work required to produce 150,000 bottles per year of everything from bubbles to whites to reds on 17 hectares.
This estate tasting started with a conversation about the available wines – some of which can be purchased by Canadians in Ontario and Quebec, and of course – in many other international markets. They’re top-ranked with regularity by industry heavyweights like Decanter, and Galloni, But at Tavignano, the best deal is their ‘sfuso’ or from-the-barrel wines which are packaged simply for friends and neighbours at only 2€ a litre. 
As Ondine remarks, ‘In Italy, wine is our bread. We have the wine, bread and oil at church and this is part of our Italian heritage, our life. It’s our right and we want to make it available to everyone.’
I only wish the prohibitionists working within and across the restrictive Canadian wine laws felt the same. For now, I’ll have to keep travelling to Jesi, Italy to take advantage of the deals.
And this is one of them. The Misco Riserva 2017 is made from handpicked passes over the last, most mature grapes of the harvest. Deep lemon, the nose and palate is all elegance – almond biscotti, white flowers, acacia and anise. The year it spent on lees has built a real beauty with a deeply mineral backbone. Two more years of aging in stainless steel gives the impression of it having spent time in wood, although it hasn’t.
I left with a bottle of this delicious wine (it’s not available as a sfuso), thanks to our helpful tasting guide 
Erica (pictured right).
I liked colleagues Melanie and Giuseppe right away. I had booked a premier tasting at the Casa Chianti Classico in Radda to learn more about the structure of Chianti Classico. We connected quickly over a conversation about Canadian fish and chips, wine, and cars.
The Riserva example was Azienda Agricola Casa Emma’s Chianti Classico DOCG, 2018 from Vignalparco, east of Radda – a delicious garnet wine with basalmic prune, cocoa nib, and an elegantly rounded leather structure.
Castellinuzza e Piuca, Gran Selezione (only made in certain years approved by the Casa Chianti Classico DOCG). This 100% Sangiovese hails from a unique one hectare vineyard located adjacent to a cooling forest near Greve at 600m above sea level. Very few bottles of this single hectare wine were made – and this was the last one at the Casa Chianti Classico.
dusty roses and violets, white pepper, truffle, and smoked meat. Its dry palate has high acidity alongside plum, truffle, dried herb, salumi, and a drizzle of bittersweet castagno (chestnut) honey. 
A lengthy finish is complemented by velvety tannins and development remarkable for such a young sample. What might await a lucky drinker in 5, 8 or 10 years?
This special tasting was augmented by a delicious charcuterie featuring a Chianti Classico olive oil from corregiolo olives tasting of bitter green grass and ground black pepper.
Before we travelled to Italy, I had planned a casual visit to the Avignonesi Winery, imagining I’d simply enjoy some Vino Nobile di Montepulciano on the patio enroute from Perugia to Greve. I had enjoyed their wine before in Canada, and was curious to drop in and see the property. 
Their Il Marzocco Chardonnay IGT, 2020 was a complete surprise. I hadn’t flown all that way to drink Chardonnay – but then I did. What an unexpected delight. Pale lemon with verbena, pineapple, white flower, and a surprising backbone that could carry it through a meal, its delicate lees offered a creamy contrast to the excellent acidity.
The single vineyard Oceano, was an ethereal beauty. A 100% Sangiovese, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, 2017, the Oceano vineyard has blue clay soil which grows structured grapes. Translucent ruby with delicate tannins, its nose and palate are intense with rose water, sour cherry, dried rose, potpourri, thyme, and rosemary. It’s an emotional wine – with a very long and deep finish.
Fifty litre barrels are used for aging the wine for 10 years with the ‘madre’ or starter wine, plus room for air to ensure oxidation. The wine rests in bottle for at least a year after the decade in barrel. 
I brought some of this potion home with me. Thankfully it was available in 100ml bottles, so I didn’t need to risk any airline losing my wine and causing tears. My Eye of the Pheasant is safely ensconced now in the cellar. For how long, nobody knows.
The soils on which their Sangiovese is planted and farmed organically are marne and iron-rich red silt, and sit at 450m on the north-western corner of Montalcino. 
wines, and a beautiful Vermouth.
Translucent ruby red and medium-bodied, the Silio offers a fabulous nose and flavours of bright, sour cherry, violets and roses. Only lightly tannic, it lends itself to grilled chicken and mussles, or could be pressed into service to complement a skirt steak and roasted vegetables.
down, and people were despairing of the future, I read an article about Italy and how people were struggling there. 
That’s when I learned of Camilla Moccia and her family’s restaurant located in Ostia, on the lido to the west of Rome. This picture, taken by Camilla’s mother, Simona and shared in the 
We met Camilla, Simona and Bruno (father) last week in Ostia where we enjoyed a fabulous, handmade
dinner al fresco on our final night of a three week vacation. Bubbles preceded a beautiful,
fresh salad with burrata, tomatoes and crostini, and we feasted on her famous pasta – a lemon-ricotta ravioli, and classic cacio e pepe – followed by a piece of chocolate dolce heaven. As busy as she was that evening with all tables full, Camilla even took time to give us a pasta lesson. 
It was an enormous pleasure of ours to meet Camilla and her family, to experience their passion and cuisine firsthand, and to fulfil my promise to support them by visiting Il Bistrot della Pasticciona.
This bottle got a little lost in my wine cellar, and then you know, there was a pandemic, so we opened it at age 13 years. The cork broke and that made me worried we were going to be dealing with something less than lovely. But I was very wrong – it was absolutely stunning.
southwest of the Caribbean, well out of the path of any hurricanes, and just 17 km off the coast of Venezuela.
Usually when I venture to warm climates, wine is not an option, and because beer is not my ‘go to’ drink, I focus on the cocktail menus at the restaurants we visit.
published a recipe book of drinks called ‘How Can I Make You Happy’. And I was – very.
I drank the Lemon Drop before I remembered to take a picture, but the dirty Gin Martini with a whole dish of olives was a hit,
followed the next night by a Reverse Cosmo (aka Char-Tini). The Dark & Stormy was delicious, and again, I drank the Old Fashioned made with Diplomatico Rum instead of Bourbon before I realized I’d forgotten to document its deliciousness.
But the pièce de résistance was the Pornstar Martini, complete with its accompanying Prosecco shot.
This wine has a history going back 2,000 years in France’s Rhône Valley, but the first bottle I found and enjoyed was in Curaçao, off the coast of Venezuela. What a find it was at the Carrefour supermarket – it was incredibly fun to drink, and absolutely delicious. 
Rhône Valley, it’s made out of a maximum of 75% Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains and 25% Clairette. Naturally sparkling, it undergoes the first fermentation in a vat and the second in bottle. 
Flavours include more white flowers and nectarine, Clingstone peach, and fruit cocktail. 
