raffaele Mastrovincenzo

Last weekend I spent a few days in london for the Raw fair an artisan wine fair. There were more than 150 stands with wines from all over the world. The location was the Old Truman Brewery in Brick lane; very central and an awesome spot. I did taste lots of wines and there are always great producers present there, the vibe at the fair was subliminal, friendly atmosphere with two very sunny days. The organization was very efficient, between the stand there was enough room to chat with the growers  or the person/sommelier in charge. However I'll tell in this post the wine I hadn't drunk before and thanks to the Raw I discover:  From one appellation  I really like lately, always I spoke about in this blog is the Mount Etna in Sicily. In the fair I find this amazing artisan called Etnella. They are located in the north west part of the Volcano between the town of Presa, Linguaglossa and Passopiciaro at the altitude  of 600 to 1000 meter above sea level. 13 hectare in total

Naturale is a wine fair in the middle of Abruzzi. Close to the famous town of Aquila which was hit by the earthquake not long ago and Mr Berlusconi make this awesome city quite famous but apparently he didn't fix it afterwards, a shame about that. Navelli is the name of the town where Naturale was done an old "borgo" surrounded by mountains. The organization behind this is called Dinamiche Bio a few guys with lots of passion make this event on the map of natural wine around the world. For me, it was the first time due to the fact I'm living overseas, I' m very glad to be present this year. At the fair there were more than 50 growers with more than 200 wines to try; also one floor was dedicated to food and veggies was really cool the food/garden section; Abruzzo product are always tasty and not replicable and of course other specialties from Italy were excellent too. The castle where the exhibition was done is called Palazzo Santucci and also Navel

Outside the famous Langhe Nebbiolo grape have got many brothers. The other night I was in Rome and I always know the Lessona D.O.C. was a great terroir for this amazing grape. I did order this wine from the winery Propietà Sperino my first time. We are in the provence of Biella in the north part of Piedimont. Lessona wines is also called "vino d'Italia" when in 1870 Quintino Sella financial minister of the country after Italy was unified and became political one country and one reign; he choose to drink the Lessona wines instead of champagne to celebrated this important event. The propietà Sperino is the realization of a dream by Paolo de Marchi a famous personality in the world of Italian wines, perhaps more know for his other creature Cepparello a benchmark wine from Tuscany. Continental climate at the foot of Biellese pre-alpine hills, soil contain ancient marine sand which give good acid structure to the wine and also allow the roots to easily discovery the nouri

Alajmo family owned a 3 michelin star restaurant in Padova a nice cool city in north Italy. Today I try to eat at their restaurant Le Calandre for the fact I was nearby, however the restaurant was closed; through the phone the guys told me there was the bistro or a small version of the fine dining Calandre called Calandrino. So I say why not, i got one table. As I walk in, the ambience was relaxed and vibrant waitress and waiter smiling and me and greetings my dumb attitude. Yes I'm a bit dumb, however i got straight a glass of Saten Franciacorta from a producer I wasn't aware, not too bad. Menu coming at the table and look at the price and I saw it was a bit price, i thought Padova must be a rich city? Suddenly on the corner of the menù I saw listed a good deal for a 3 course menu two savory and one dessert. It was a good one I was able to choose through the entire list and I did. First dishes was a delicious potatoes coated and cook in charcoal on the base there was