Primo Franco’s changing world

Wine is more than just a beverage: it’s a focal point for conversation. It draws people together, sparks debate and promotes cultural exchange. This is why the wine world is full of exuberant, extraordinary people, not to mention a few who are utterly certifiable. Over a lifetime of wine travel, tasting and study, I have met many amazing characters. From winemakers to winery owners, including not a few who are or claim to be both.…

Balance and rigour for a great Prosecco

I first came across Prosecco in the late Sixties. Those were different times. I was lucky enough to witness the change the Italian oenological culture was starting to express. Today there are a thousand wineries. In those days there were one hundred, and those one hundred were paving the way that has brought us here. Pronouncing the word Prosecco was not as common as today. There were few denominations of origin and export was secondary…

L’Ora Stabile. The book on Marco Stabile | preface by Paolo Marchi

Marco Stabile is a chef and a restaurateur that I have always liked very much, from the first bite in his restaurant Ora d’Aria, which is not the one everyone now knows and applauds near the course of the Arno River. This atypical Tuscan – atypical because he speaks little and does not try to crack a one-liner every ten minutes – once stood in another location, next to the old Murate prison. This continuity…

Italy’s Hidden Treasures. Introduction

Introduction: Italy’s Hidden Treasures. 101 marvels worth the trip to discover Italy should be rediscovered, or rather, we have to learn to convey it better, knowingly, with wisdom and with patient dedication. Prerogatives that require time, knowledge and quality. Following these ideal guidelines, Italy’s Hidden Treasures was born. A fresh work, quick to look through but equally useful and earnestly interpreted by Beba Marsano, an esteemed journalist and art critic, who has travelled Italy for…

Tignanello. A Tuscan Story

The prologue of Piero Antinori in Tignanello I remember the lengthy discussions about it with my father, with our collaborators and friends, meeting after meeting, at Palazzo Antinori in the late 1960s. We had a wine that, in hopes and intentions, was going to change the rules and begin a new era for the company, my family, and Tuscany. And, it was all going to be labelled with this far from evocative name, completely unfa-…

The Oil according… Valeria Piccini and Maurizio Menichetti

The testimonies of Valeria Piccini and Maurizio Menichetti owners of restaurant Da Caino in Montemerano, published in The Land of Olive Oil 2014. Valeria “Since I was a child I have grown up surrounded by my grandfather’s and my dad’s olive groves. With Maurizio we took over their management to produce our own oil following the entire production chain to ensure a better quality. I have been working in the kitchen for 35 years. I…

The oil according… Gennarino Esposito

The testimony of Gennaro Esposito chef of the restaurant Torre del Saracino in Vico Equense in the book–guide The Land of Olive Oil 2014. “I am a child of agriculture and during the olive harvest I often searched for my mother to help her. All this took place in a climate of great celebration. At the end of the day, my uncle chose the best olives. He was a man who thought outside of the…

The oil according… Walter Ferretto

The testimony of Walter Ferretto chef Il Cascinalenuovo di Isola d’Asti in the book–guide The Land of Olive Oil 2014. “It has been many years since I directed my kitchen towards Extra-virgin olive oil, on the heels of a change that has now been in place since the early 1990s: even in the North the food philosophy is increasingly geared towards a lighter cuisine with less animal fats. Today the client appreciates, sometimes requests, a…

The Land of Olive Oil 2014. The value of oil as a sign of territorial civilization

The preface by Fausto Borella published in The Land of Olive Oil 2014. One thing is certain. For Extra-virgin olive oil producers, oil changes every year depending on variable factors related to climate, territory, or extraction method. Never before this year has it been as complicated and expensive to produce their precious food in terms of yield. Nevertheless, the veterans of good oil and emerging companies or those already present within this book continue to…

Pinchiorri, Two Voices that Become One. Giorgio Pinchiorri’s Wine Cellar

The preface of Piero Antinori published in Pinchiorri, Two Voices that Become One. I have known Giorgio Pinchiorri for more than forty years. From the time when he worked at Buca Lapi, the historic trattoria located in the cellars of Palazzo Antinori. At the time, we were both very young and I loved eating in that place that was so ‘familiar’. I didn’t even have to make a great effort to get there, all I…