Food and Beverage Blog

Visiting California And Italy Through Wine Clubs

Celebrations Wine Club has been entertaining people for over 20 years with its California and Italian Wine Clubs. For wine enthusiasts, this flexible California and Italian Wine Club offers California selections, Italian selections, or a combination of both in its Wine of the Month Club. All three categories come in two-bottle packages that include a winemaker interview, information about the wines and the regions they come from, and a menu that pairs the wines with foods that will compliment wine club selections.

California Wine Of The Month Club

For the California series, the wine clubs visit small, family-owned wineries in the lush valleys of California where winemakers handcraft a wide range of wines that include classical Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Chardonnay as well as newer enthusiasms like Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Syrah. These fruity, spicy, aromatic wines are some of the finest in the world.

Italian Wine Clubs Provide A Taste Of Italy

From the sunny hillside towns of Italy, Celebrations Wine Club brings delicious wines from family-owned wineries that embody the history and culture of the fertile Italian peninsula. Wine enthusiasts will taste Barolo, Barbaresco, and Dolcetto from Piemonte, Sagrantino from Umbria, and Brunello, Chianti, and Vino Nobile from Toscana along with wines from all the other regions of Italy.

Packages from various wine clubs can contain either Californian or Italian wines, but for the intrepid connoisseur, the wines from both regions can be incorporated into one wine club package. Visit California one month and Italy the next, or visit both regions in the same month. The choice is yours.

Italy is the largest producer and exporter of wine, producing one-fifth of the world’s production and offering the greatest variety of grapes. It has some of the oldest wine regions in the world producing some top quality wines. There are more than 1 million vineyards under cultivation in Italy spanning through the country from the Alps in the north to almost within sight of Africa in the south. Grapes are grown in almost every region. The long shoreline of Italy contributes to coastal wine regions as does the mountains and foothills which provide many altitudes for grape growing.

It has been documented and authorized by Italy’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry that there are 350 grape varieties; however there are an additional 500 documented varieties in circulation although these have not been authorized.

The Italians are the biggest consumers of wine guzzling 59 litres per capita.

Italian wines are classified into four categories, two of these falls under the EU’ Quality Wine Produced in a Specific Region’ category and are identified as: Denominazione di Origine Controllatae (DOC) and Denominazione di Origine Controllate e Garantita (DOCG). DOC recognises a quality wine maintaining the international and national reputation of that product. The main difference between the two is that the latter has to pass a blind test.

The other two fall under the category of ‘Table Wine’. Vino da Tavola (VDT), this means the wine is simply produced in Italy, usually a basic wine for local consumption and Indicazione Geografica Tipi” (IGT) which represents wine from a specific region in Italy Italian Red Wines – Tuscany is the home of Sangiovese, a well known grape, and one the Italians are extremely proud of. Sangiovese is made traditionally, and is full of cherry fruit, earth and cedar. Another popular grape is Nebbiolo, made in the province of Cuneo, these wines are renowned for their grace and influence with a bouquet of wild mushroom, truffle, roses and tar. Other grapes include: Montepulciano, Abruzzo, Barbera, Corvina, Amarone, Nero d’Avola, Dolcetto, negroamaro, Aglianico, Sagrantino and Malvasia Nera.

Italian White Wines – The most widely planted grape in Italy is the Trebbiano which is grown throughout Italy. This wine is very easy to drink and mostly pale in colour. Another popular, widely produced grape is Pinot Grigio, which characters include crispness and cleanness. Other grapes include: Moscato, Nuragus, Tocai Friulano, Ribolla Gialla, Arneis, Malvasia Bianca, Pigato, Fiano, Garganega, Vermentino, Verdicchio and Vernaccia.