Wining in Chianti...um...in Beverly Hills, that is...

The Goddess and JD were invited to a special tasting event. The Consorzio Vino Chianti was coming to town! We met at the luxurious Mr C Hotel in Beverly Hills for a special seminar with C. Scott Carney and the Consorzio staff where we tasted through 9 wines, were tested on knowledge and palate, and then fed in a most delicious fashion, after which most of us trooped upstairs for a trade tasting of delightful Chiantis and Vinsantos looking for distribution in the US.

From the Consorzio's website: The Chianti Wine Consortium was established in 1927 by a group of wine growers from the Provinces of Florence, Siena, Arezzo and Pistoia, and later expanded its operations to include the entire production region. It was legally recognized by the Production Regulation of 1967, and incorporated into the Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (Controlled and Guaranteed Denomination of Origin – DOCG).

Over 2,500 producers, cultivating more than 10,500 hectares of vineyards and producing 550,000 hectoliters of Chianti, are protected by the Consortium which, due to its tradition of representation and operations, has been appointed as the official monitor of Chianti by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies (MIPAAF) by the ministerial decree of 22 May 1978, which was later reconfirmed for the other denominations within its sphere of responsibility in 2003 and 2004, and whose members receive the same representation.

Wining with the Wineaux of the Goddess...Sangiovese...

After Googling the term 'Wine Goonies' and discovering that 'goonie' is a word with many undesirable connotations, the Goddess made an executive decision and renamed our little tasting team Wineaux of the Goddess, and is feeling much better about life. In order to be transparent about our methods, we use the tasting note format derived from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust or WSET, as several of us have achieved various certifications from that entity and find the method simple and straightforward. We judge the appearance, nose, palate, conclusion and food match, and determine if the wine is acceptable or not. We will never give points. We each pay for the wines we bring - nothing is donated or provided by a winery.

Sangiovese grapes

New name lilting on our lips, we (John, Shawn, Rico, Xochitl, Amelia, Marya, and I) met at Fab's on February 8th to taste and discuss the many faces of Sangiovese. Italy's most commonly planted red grape varietal, with over a dozen distinct clones, is a thin-skinned grape that takes its time to mature. Central Italy, specifically the region of Tuscany, is the agricultural heartland of the Sangiovese grape named for 'blood of Jupiter'.