Ray Isle

1 month ago | yahoo.com | Ray Isle

Pinot Blanc (or in Italy, Pinot Bianco) tends to be medium-bodied, with moderate acidity and flavors that suggest orchard fruits—think nectarines, peaches, pears). It’s far less popular than its widely grown cousin, Pinot Gris (aka Pinot Grigio). But that’s a shame. At a baseline level, Pinot Blanc makes wines that are just as easy to drink and easy to pair with food, and at the upper levels, complex whites that can age in a cellar for years.

1 month ago | foodandwine.com | Ray Isle

Photo: Courtesy of Tenuta i Fauri Almost two million Americans arrive in Rome each year, and while the city itself is a stellar place to drink wine, there’s also a good argument for escaping the tourist bustle for a few days to visit one (or more) of the nearby wine regions. Surrounding the city is the Lazio region, long a sleepy place known mostly for inexpensive, simple Frascati, but now populated with a burgeoning number of ambitious young winemakers.

1 month ago | msn.com | Ray Isle

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1 month ago | foodandwine.com | Ray Isle

Pinot Gris (or Grigio, if Italian) is grown around the world these days, but the most significant sources are northern Italy, France’s Alsace region, and Oregon. Much of it, especially in Italy, goes into relatively anonymous, mass-produced bottles, but when grown well and made with care, Pinot Gris can be as impressively complex as it is refreshing. The variety itself is, as the name would suggest, a genetic variant of Pinot Noir, the skins of the grapes rosy-gray rather than red-purple.

1 month ago | foodandwine.com | Ray Isle

If you fly into Venice (or Verona, for that matter) you’ve hit a perfect base for visiting wineries in any number of classic northern Italian regions. To the north lie the Trentino and Alto Adige regions, their gorgeous valleys filled with vineyards and flanked by mountains; to the northeast are the hills of Friuli, close to the Slovenian border, where some of Italy’s greatest white wines are made.