Italian Wines with Antonio Galloni
Understanding Italian wines always seems to represent a stumbling block for most Americans. Aside from the obvious language issues, there are a substantially wide variety of wine regions and grapes in the country. So, we felt it was time to call in an expert to break things down for us.
Antonio Galloni’s exposure to wine began early. In addition to reading voraciously as a teenager about the world’s great winemaking regions, he also wrote his first articles on the wines of France for a high-school French class. Antonio later spent several years in the restaurant business, affording him the opportunity to expand his knowledge, especially regarding American wines.
Almost prophetically, Antonio lived in Milan, Italy from 2000 to 2003. That experience allowed him to travel extensively and visit many of the leading estates in virtually all the major winemaking regions. Not surprisingly, Antonio discovered the true extent of Italian wine. Then, upon his return to the US, he found that the quality of available information available on Italian wines was lacking, and decided to write his own newsletter. In 2004 Antonio published the first issue of “Piedmont Report,” drawing on his in-depth knowledge of the region and its producers, as well as his extensive experience with older wines. In 2006 Antonio began expanding his coverage to other regions in Italy when Robert Parker invited him to join The Wine Advocate.
Join us as we speak with Antonio about the wine regions of Italy and his contribution to Robert Parkers new book “Parker’s Wine Bargains: The World’s Best Wine Values Under $25″
Buy the Book: Parker’s Wine Bargains: The World’s Best Wine Values Under $25
Sponsor: Millesima, Fine Wine Merchants: www.millesima-usa.com
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(56:06min 40MB)
Thanks for this great discussion with Antonio. I hope you do in fact bring him back to discuss some of the other Italian wine regions. I thought his snapshots of the Northern regions and Tuscany were great and would love to here him discuss the South and the islands too!
Good stuff!
Another exceptional program from a very articulate and well informed critic. I can see at least three more programs on the subject of Italian wines. Maybe a mention of some of the Italian whites would be in order. The southern Italian wine scene is one that doesn’t get much press and I have shunned the area because of a perceived lack of consistency. Looking forward to your next interview with Antonio.
You always come up with great stuff I just love your site you are very talented I’ll recommend your site to my friends and family members great job very appreciated..keep it up..
I keep want to start this comment with ‘good’ or ‘nice’ or ‘great’ but none of these seems strong enough, or appropriate enough for what you just posted.Just fantastic and mindblowing blog keep it up..!!!
Great show and looking forward to other areas of Italy being discussed. With local varieties not tasted elsewhere, the possibilities are infinite. The discussion of the second bottlings is a happy discovery indeed!
Keep up the great work. A Happy New Year to all of you, especially Brian. May 2010 treat you better than 2009 did.
I’ve been a fan of the pod for about a year now and this was easily one of the best ones yet. The bredth of knowledge Mr. Galloni shared in that hour was more enjoyable than any book you could read. Thank you for continuing to secure excellent guests and great topics.
Excellent episode! Thanks so much GrapeRadio folks and Antonio. I’m looking forward for the next discussion on southern Italy. A question for Antonio: is there a recommended book on Italian wine that can help me get started?
wow. This was great. can someone spell all those wines he recommended on this show? I’m trying, like I got Vietti, but El Baco? can’t find it. GREAT episode, i’m hooked.
@DaveA: I believe the Vietti that Antonio was talking about is called “Perbacco”, a Langhe Nebbiolo.
Great program, guys. I think it would be great to have Antonio back in the future. You could do entire programs on the Piedmont and on Tuscany, not to mention south Italy. Would be great to get more in depth.
Thanks for the kind words. Below are a few of my favorite wines from Northern Italy (including the wines I talked about in the interview), by region. Most of the wines can also be found our new book, Parker’s Wine Bargains: The World’s Best Wine Values Under $25. I have committed to doing a second podcast on the wines of Central and Southern Italy as soon as schedules allow.
For more information on the wines of Italy, listeners may want to look at Parker’s Wine Buyers Guide, 7th Edition, which I re-wrote entirely (for Italy) last year. I also recommend Vino Italiano and its companion Vino Italiano Buying Guide, both by Joseph Bastianich and David Lynch as excellent resources.
Val d’Aosta
Les Cretes Pinot Gris Vigne Brulant
Piedmont
Elio Altare Dolcetto d’Alba
Cavallotto Langhe Nebbiolo (also Dolcetto d’Alba Vigna Scot)
Matteo Correggia Barbera d’Alba
Elio Perrone Moscato d’Asti Sourgal (also Moscato d’Asti Clarte)
Saracco Moscato d’Asti
Sottimano Langhe Nebbiolo
G.D. Vajra Langhe Nebbiolo
Vietti Langhe Nebbiolo Perbacco (also Barbera d’Alba Tre Vigne, Barbera d’Asti Tre Vigne)
Lombardy
Bellavista Gran Cuvee
Nino Negri Valtellina Superiore Quadrio
Veneto
Allegrini Palazzo della Torre
Brigaldara Valpolicella Classico
Col Vetoraz Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Brut
Nino Franco Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Rustico
Frozza Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Col del’Orso
Gini Soave Classico
Maculan Dindarello
Pieropan Soave Classico
Pra Soave Classico
Tamellini Soave (also Soave Le Bine di Costiola)
Friuli
Bastianich Vespa Bianco
Borgo del Tiglio Collio
Damijan Ribolla Gialla
Kante Sauvignon
Schiopetto Pinot Bianco
Vie di Romans Flor di Uis
Alto-Adige
Abbazia di Novacella Sylvaner
Cantina di Terlano Terlaner (also Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio and Muller Thurgau)
Colterenzio Pinot Grigio (also Pinot Grigio Puiten)
Tiefenbrunner Pinot Bianco
Tramin Sauvignon (also Gewürztraminer)
Antonio, thanks again for the great show, references, and recommendations. Hope to hear you again in future episodes!
Thanks for a very informative episode Antonio. I miss reading your notes on WA.
This epsido – just like many others – was great! I love the episodes with Antonio Galloni (you already had him a few years ago).
Keep it up graperadio!
Great piece. It’s nice to see you doing some more coverage of Italian wines. As someone above mentioned, it might be nice if you did some shows focusing just on specific areas of Italy, as doing all of Italy is obviously too much for one episode. It would be nice to get some more as well on Spain. Anyway, thanks, and keep up the good work.
Thanks for this great discussion with Antonio. I hope you do in fact bring him back to discuss some of the other Italian wine regions. I thought his snapshots of the Northern regions and Tuscany were great and would love to here him discuss the South and the islands too!
Good stuff!
wow. This was great. can someone spell all those wines he recommended on this show? I’m trying, like I got Vietti, but El Baco? can’t find it. GREAT episode, i’m hooked.
Galloni knows his stuff. You can take the wine out of Italy, But you cant the Italy out of the wine!
Interesting show! Great that Antonio left that list of wine recommendations by region, noted. I just did a tasting here in Vancouver focused on the wines of Italy, so it was fun to hear some familiar grape varieties & fun facts! Viva Italia!
Interesting show! Great that Antonio left that list of wine recommendations by region. I just did a tasting here in Vancouver focused on the wines of Italy, so I recognized a few grape varieties & regional facts! Viva Italia!