Food That You Must Try When in Taormina

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By Gianni Merida

When traveling through Sicily, Italy it is important to experience the culture and food is a major part of Sicilian culture! There are several types of food that are distinctly Sicilian, and each region of Sicily is known for a specific type of food as well. In Taormina, Sicily you will have many opportunities to taste the different flavors.
If it is a warm day, and you need a quick refreshment, your first stop upon arrival at Taormina should be to pick up a Granita with Brioche. This is an amazing treat found in just about every pastry shop or gelateria in Taormina. The granita is a Sicilian invention - scooped ice shavings with a delicious flavor (I would suggest lemon). The "Brioche" is a pastry that looks similar to a croissant and creates a great balance with the ice cold treat. You must eat your Granita in true Sicilian style by tearing the top off of the brioche and using it as a spoon to scoop out the granita (ice) and then eating the entire thing. It is a bit messy at first but most foreigners get the hang of it pretty quickly!

Choosing The Right Wine: How A Sommelier Can Enhance Your Meal

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By: Marco Keurentjes

Many people around the world love a glass of wine with dinner. People who don't enjoy wine are simply not aware of the difference the right variety can make in a meal. Wine and food pairing is something that many diners never give much thought.
Experience teaches us the proper way to do many things in life. Choosing the right wine before heading to the wine cellar or ordering something random with dinner is one of those things. The right choice will likely be different with each meal.

The Process of Pairing
"Pairing" refers to the method of choosing the perfect blend of flavors that will truly enhance the flavor of your meal. Most consider pairing the exclusive forte of a sommelier; hands-down the pairing expert. No great restaurant can exist without an experienced sommelier.
The process of pairing is often fraught with mistakes made from inexperience. Even more daunting is the fact that meals often have more than one course. What goes well with appetizers may not be suitable for the main course, and vice versa.
A Few Basic Pairing Tips Everyone Should Know
Most types of fish go best with a white. Varieties of whites contain less tannin; therefore the taste doesn't clash with fish to produce a metallic taste. The same is true with most types of chicken and other white meats.
Varieties of reds on the other hand go best with red meats or heavier meals. Sparkling wines tend to go well with appetizers. Salads may be more easily enjoyed with a very light white or sparkling variety.
Understanding More Than the Label
A vast number of grape varieties are used in vinification. Many people mistakenly believe that the label on the bottle will provide enough information for successful wine and food pairing. A sommelier, however, knows that it takes much more than labeling when deciding on which type to serve.
Few would deny that wine selection is something that is not easily mastered. Thankfully, there are a few websites that make pairing easier for those who wish to learn the art. Aside from an impressive listing of many varieties, most websites offer helpful critiques on each.
You will also find important information on specific varieties such as the type, producer and country of origin on any website that is truly dedicated to the enjoyment of pairing. Some websites offer an easy to use pairing list so that the appropriate variety may be more easily chosen for any occasion.
Wine and food pairing should never be dismissed as an overly technical matter. It is an artistic task that provides a feast to the senses when properly performed. Any good host wants to create an unforgettable experience for their guests by choosing the right wine for the meal.
Hope is not lost if you do not have the luxury of a well stocked wine cellar. Simply visit a reputable website that outlines a variety of options to help you choose the right variety for any occasion or meal.
Pairing isn't quite rocket science but it does require a bit of time and understanding. Choosing the right wine is extremely important whether you're planning a small intimate gathering or a large dinner party. Making the right decision the first time ensures the success of any party.

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Author Resource:-> Marco Keurentjes is a software developer who loves a glass of wine. In helping other people on their Wine & Food pairing and other wine info. he helped develope the websiteWineWineWine.com. Check this website for your free Wine & Food pairing advices =>http://www.winewinewine.com.

Article From Article Storehouse

Buying a Business in Italy - Vineyard

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It is the wine lovers' dream. To own a vineyard in Italy and enjoy the fruits of your labours by sitting under a leafy pergola on a warm summer's evening drinking a bottle or two from your very own harvest.

Italian wine is famous all over the world. There are over a million vineyards from north to south and Italy's varied terrain produces a great variety of wine from the sweet sparkling Moscato from Piemonte to the spicy purple Salice Salentino from the bottom of Puglia in the south.

Its population drinks more wine per head than any other country (an average of 59 litres) and it is the world's biggest wine maker, producing 4.7 billion litres of wine in 2008.

Buying a Vineyard in Italy

It is perfectly possible to buy your own vineyard, so the most obvious thing to do is to centre your search either around an area of the country you would like to live in or around an area whose wine you like. The ideal is to combine the two and find a vineyard producing wine you enjoy in an area you and your family would be happy living in.

There a number of small vineyards for sale all over the country. Owning a small vineyard (from a hectare of vines upwards) usually means that it produces enough for your own consumption and may be the perfect starting point if you are inexperienced.

On the other hand, there are also going concerns for sale with their own winery attached and which produce enough wine to sell.

The 'dream' property for making a living has between 20 and 40 hectares of vineyards. Twenty hectares should produce about 130,000 bottles of wine.

The Vineyard Experience

If your vineyard in Italy is just a hobby, then it doesn't mater too much if you have little or no experience. There will be plenty of locals on hand to teach you and if it all goes wrong, there's always next year.

If you are intending to take on a going concern without experience then you have two options:

Buy a vineyard with its own production team in place or get as much experience as possible beforehand by working on vineyards, going on courses and getting qualifications. Although there are romantic stories on TV about people with no experience managing massive vineyards single handed by learning on the job, these really are the exceptions. It makes far more business sense to take on a vineyard with a manager if you don't know what you are doing.

It may sound romantic, but running is a vineyard is basically an agricultural enterprise and you are basically a farmer. As such you need to speak good Italian to deal with suppliers and distributors as well as the workers looking after the vines and also the taxman.

Organic and Biodynamic Vineyards

One idea should you decide to buy a vineyard is to specialize. You have probably heard of organic wine known as vino biologico made from uve da agricoltura biologica (organic grapes) and, although these are harder to find than normal vineyards, they do come up for sale. The advantage of buying an already established organic set-up is that the time has already been spent eliminating chemicals and pesticides. It takes longer starting from scratch.

But how about taking things a step further and aiming for a biodynamic vineyard? This method of production is based on the philosophy of Rudolph Steiner and involves applying special preparations to the vines as well as handling and processing the wine is a specific way. The guidelines are laid down by the Demeter association and the movement is growing in popularity in Italy. One such vineyard is La Gaia which makes multi award winning wine. Read about its biodynamic approach here.

A Vineyard and Agritourism

An alternative to running a vineyard in order to make a living from the wine is to buy a property with a small working vineyard which then may allow you to offer agritourism holidays. As we have written about in another article you can only offer farm holidays if you are actually a working farmer and a vineyard may allow you to do just that. You will need to get advice from your local chamber of commerce or commercialista (accountant).
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Kyle Phillips's Italian Wine Review

Kyle Phillips's Italian Wine Review (IWR): Wandering Puglia: After I Pastini.... All Sorts of Reds!

This was one of the first times a group of Apulian winemakers had come to another winery with their wines, and from our standpoint it was a wonderful thing, because it allowed us to taste many more wines than we might otherwise have been able to.