Chasing Wine

Wine and Life at the Crossroads

Bastianich finds a homecoming in Friuli It’s one of life’s happy coincidences that stunning countryside scenes often provide the backdrop for vineyard settings. In the case of Friuli, a geographic pivot point between the Alps and the Adriatic and a crossroads between Near Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, Mother Nature has bestowed bucolic hillsides with…

Making the Map

Livio Felluga and restoration of vineyards to Friuli’s hillsides In Italy’s far northeast crevice, sandwiched between the Alps to the north and plains leading to the Adriatic Sea to the south, is the tiny jigsaw puzzle of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Its soft rolling hills, colli in the local Friulian dialect, are home to the Colli Orientali…

Tasting Blind

How to top the tip of the nose phenomenon Tasting wine can be thrilling, intriguing, and, let’s admit it, at times, a bit perplexing. It’s exhilarating when a distinctive scent leaps out and lands as a bullseye on the aroma wheel and satisfying when flavors blend together softly to reveal themselves in layers from first…

From Imperial Post Coach Office to State-of-the-Art Winery

Innovation is in the DNA of J. Hofstätter In the center of Tramin stands the town’s calling card. The 86-meter bell tower for the Church of Saints Julitta and Quircus is the tallest steeple built out of stone in the South Tyrol. Across the square from the tower, in stark contrast to the medieval atmosphere,…

All in the Family

Foradori keeps generational, regional ties strong “I’ve never seen such skies here in winter, but the sky was so blue.” In mid-March, the crispness of the air held the last breaths of winter on an otherwise sunny, crystal–blue day as Maria led our tour of Foradori. The night before had sprinkled fresh snow on the…