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Penfolds King of Australian Shiraz wine

What you might not already know about Penfolds: the experimental BIN wines, the corking clinic and the fascinating story about this enormous charming and innovative kangaroo

Read for you by Carlo Gardini (Cinellicolombini partner)

In Italy as yet there is little habit in drinking “foreign” wines except for Champagne of which we seem to be one of the main world markets, and this regardless our excellent Spumante.
This is how I discovered the wines of some of the most important Australian wineries during my holidays inMalta and then I continued drinking them back in Italy as I was made curious by their very different tastes and aromas compared to our productions.

A while ago we received from our importers and friends Caroline and Alan a wine from Penfolds as a present, without doubt one of the better known Australian wineries. Founded in  1844 by Christopher Rawson Penfold who bought his first 500 acresof good land in Magill, in Southern Australia. This is where  Christopher Penfold begins planting a Vineyard using vines of French origin that he had taken with him, twenty years later his wife Mary take over, and runs it for a further 25 years practically until the end of the 1800… and in those days a winery run by a woman really was something extraordinary.
Penfolds has always been a winery open to new ideas and has played a fundamental role in the creations of a typical “style “ for its nation.

It produces in fact many types of quality wines  some of which can be considered milestones in the Australian winemaking as they demonstrate that wines made in the new world can last in time…Grange, a blend of Shirazand Cabernet Sauvignon, is, without doubt, the primogenitor of this generation of new wine making.

Italian’s wine tourism Super Tuscany

All lists put Tuscany as first wine destination in Italy but  Travellers’ Choice Award 2012  and  Wayn Award 2013 consider it 1^st in the world

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Huffington Post 2013 and USA Today 2014 put it respectively in 6th and 7^thposition in the world. HoweverTuscany seems to be among the “historic” wine destinations, the one that has best resisted the attacks of the new destinations such asOkanaganValley inBritish Columbia and Maipo inChile. One must notice at this point how areas such as Champagne andAlsace have practically disappeared from such list from the world over while in reality they receive enormous amounts of tourists. Such a circumstance seems to indicate that the search for something new and not for masses, a tendency that penalizes

destinations which are too crowded or commoditized.

Tuscany offers, at very high levels 4 things that a wine tourist most appreciates: landscapes, culture, good food and great wines. The network of hotels, country inns and restaurants of good or excellent level is capillary and widespread in many of the Tuscan large and small cities of art. The large number of concerts and cultural events, the famous people, the possibility of doing shopping in the Gucci, Prada, Cavalli outlets … make a difference and assure Tuscany a decidedly strong position.

Il Barone 2.0: Francesco Ricasoli Italian instagramer

Practically one thousand years of history for the Castello di Brolio family, always ahead of times. Francesco Ricasoli has been chosen as Instragramer of the week.

Read for you by Bonella Ciacci

Today, if we talk about noble titles such as “barons”, we think of something old, dusty, forced into costumes of long ago… Nothing could be more wrong, at least for what regards the 32nd Baron Ricasoli, direct descendant of the family owners of Castello di Brolio, in the middle of the Chianti area.
Francesco Ricasoli has been nominated by the Italian web site of Instagramers (the community of users of the photographic social networking service Instagram), as Instagramer of the week and has been interviewed by his fellow countryman Antonio Cinotti on July 25th. If you visit Francesco Ricasoli’s photo gallery you will remain speechless because of his great style, the fantastic images, and his great passions, which he is very capable of expressing in his photos. And there is not only his wine, Chianti Classico, of which his ancestor Bettino Ricasoli, the “ barone di ferro”, created the formula as it is known today. On his profile we find images of his trips around the world, the sea, one of his great passions, and delicious food… So it is not a company account, born only to publicise its products and the company name, but a persona profile which allows us to discover the great man who is behind the rebirth of a winery that had ended up in Australian hands (the Australian winery Hardy), and has returned to be the flagship for Tuscan wine making.

New stars in wine tourism: Alentajo Okanagan Maipo Croatia

The desire for novelty wins, but also a warm welcoming: restaurants, hotels, beaches …. Now more than ever an excellent wine is not enough

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini
The list of the wine destinations chosen by the readers of “USA Today”, the most widespread daily newspaper in the States, states the definitive surpassing of lists dedicated to the prestige of wine. The Giants such as Bordeaux and Champagne disappear, so do destinations too uniformed such as Alsace. The new destinations for wine lovers are places that are very well equipped for welcoming guests or better still not yet touched by tourism. Here are the top 10 region to visit: Alentejo -Portugal, Okanagan Valley-British Columbia, Maipo-Chile, Malborough-New Zealand, Croatia, Napa Valley, Tuscany, Oregon, Hunter Valley-Australia, Virginia.

After the earthquake that changed the hierarchy, only Tuscany resists in the list but only in 7th position. Many cities of art, wines of international fame, events, good restaurants, the

possibility of staying in historic locations, local dishes, the beauty of the landscape……. are a strong point, but will they be enough in the future?

If we go and see the data regarding tourism we will notice that in Italy is on the decrease: -4,3% compared to 2012 in the presences (nights) and -2% in tourism consumption. And this

economic sector should be the engine of our nation! Tuscany is a bit more successful than the other regions and is able to compensate the contraction in Italian tourists with the increase in foreign visitors so the presences are equal to the previous year (IRPET data).

What is virtual is not always true

A short film on YouTube to show how social media help you to be more popular, even through lies. Is this true also for hotels and country inns?

Seen for you by Bonella Ciacci

A few days ago I came across an article online by Internazionale  which talks about a short film which is greatly clicked on YouTube (7 million visualizations up to today). The director Shaun Higton tells the story of a man that lives a sad life, who gets even sadder looking at the photos of his friends on Facebook, who seem to live idyllic lives. So he begins to pretend, taking misleading photos and posting comments which tell the opposite of what is really happening. For example when with his car he gets to the top of a hill near the city, and then in his jogging gear he takes a photo of himself pretending to have just done a long but satisfying run.

From here the consideration: how much is the online reputation important for companies? And more importantly for hotels, and restaurants, who must respect, among the main requirements of the guests, their appearance and what the promise to give to the guests? For example at the end of May An article that appeared in many newspapers among which also La Stampa, regarding an inquiry by the Antitrust on the ratings in the famous website TripAdvisor.

Marqués de Riscal and their masterpiece wine city

Known news and unknown news regarding the Spanish estate that has revolutionized the Rioja wine and architecture in the wine world: here for you Marqués de Riscal 

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Marqués de Riscal, for those who like me adore great wines and contemporary architecture is a name that is a myth. The wine city –hotel, restaurant and museum- designed by Frank Gehry next to their winery is one of the absolute masterpieces of the 20th century. Bolder than the  Guggenheim museum in Bilbao and the  Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, bolder because it’s varicoloured  titanium volutes  disturb the old peace of Rioja, its vineyards, the old villages with cathedral and bell tower, the stone walls and the curvy roads. Like light in the darkness, like something new arriving in the old countryside, wonderful!

For this reason the article by Tim Atkin Master of Wine published in Wine Searcher has attracted my attention. It is entitled <<The 10 things that every wine lover should know about Marqués de Riscal>>