We had a special wine tasting with our friend Zoltan Szabo, the sommelier winner of the 2010 Four Seasons Wine Tastine Challenge in Toronto! Congratulations!

Our wines are now available at Le Cordon Bleu Bistro @ Signatures in the heart of Ottawa. Enjoy!

Our wines are now available at Vertical restaurant in the heart of the financial district. Enjoy!

Zoltan Szabo, one of the most famous Canadian sommelier, wrote an excellent review on our Sagrantino di Montefalco.
Click here!
From left to right: John Szabo, David Mollica, Zoltan Szabo

We're proud to announce that our Sagrantino di Montefalco Docg 2004 Scacciadiavoli is now available online (Vintages 142414).

Check it out at
https://www.vintagesshoponline.com/vintages/ProductSearchResult.aspx?lang=en&item=142414
This wine scored a 91 by Antonio Galloni on www.erobertparker.com.

Our wines are now available at Terroni restaurants in the GTA. Enjoy!

Vinum Novum's indie wines embrace the delicious Pingue Prosciutto of Mario Pingue Canada at Divino Wine Studio in Ottawa.

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Our wines are now available at Via Allegro Ristorante, one of the most prestigious restaurant in Toronto.

Our wines are now available at Massimo Capra's Mistura in Toronto - one of the city's most prestigious restaurants.

We were in Verona at the Vinitaly, the most important wine fair in the world. Figures indicate 45,000 international professional operators (even better than the record attendance of 43,000 set last year) from more than 110 countries. Our passion for wines has no limit!

Our wines are now available at Crush Wine Bar in Toronto - one of the city's best wine bar.

DiVino Wine Studio was once again host to a Southern Italian themed evening featuring the wines of Terre Borboniche Vini. Participants savoured traditional Calabrian dishes accompanied by a diverse selection of wines from Calabria - Italy's most southern region.

Our wines are now available at L'Unita' in Toronto - one of the city's latest hotspots.
From left to right: Nicola Trotta, David Mincucci, David Mollica, Sam Kalogiros

The 2004 Brunello di Montalcino Vintage is for many wine experts one of the very best vintages. The 2004 Vintage was unveiled February 21st in Montalcino in Tuscany to international representatives of both trade and press. After some unfortunate rumours involving the wine in spring 2008, the Montalcino district has reached over 6.000.000 bottles in sales and 60% of Brunello has been exported.

Fifteen Italian wines have made it onto this year’s top 100 list by Wine Spectator), the coveted classification of the world’s top wines according to the prestigious American wine magazine. This year, the number one position was given to Chilean Casa Lapostolle Clos Apalta Colchagua Valley 2005. The 2008 edition (which is also the twentieth anniversary of the classification) has ranked wines according to their quality (represented by a point system of at least 93), value (price), availability (production), and the “X factor”, which Wine Spectator journalists define as “excitement”. It is dominated by French wines, while Italy claims only one wine within the most prestigious top 10 (Barolo 2004 by Pio Cesare) and only 6 within the top 50. Tuscany was the most popular Italian region with 7 labels that made it onto the classification, out of the total 15 Italian wines. There was no recognition, however, for the top Tuscan wine, Brunello di Montalcino.
The Piedmont region followed with 3 different Barolos.
Source(winenews)

On September 22, VINUM NOVUM and Vendange Institute celebrated the vendemmia at Pub Italia, one of Ottawa's most popular hang outs and a Preston Street landmark. Guests enjoyed a rich and varied tasting menu accompanied by three Italian beers and five Italian wines. More Vinum Novum events to come. Stay tuned!

Duemilavini is the official magazine of the Italian Sommelier Society. It is one of the most important wine guides – a must for wine lovers, sommeliers, restauranteurs and ourmets. The book is divided into four sections: Section one focuses on wine tasting and wine and food pairing; Section two goes through Italian wine history with fulsome descriptions of Doc and Docg wines from all of Italy’s wine regions as well as Italy’s protected food products designated as Dop and Igp and includes a calendar of Italy’s most important wine events; Section three is dedicated to Italy’s best restaurants; Section four includes all of the different wineries with a detailed description of the company and the products it produces, each wine is described on the standard analysis used by the Italian Sommelier Society. Each wine is given a score based on grape “bunches” on a scale from 2-5. Following is a summary of the scale used in the book:

Two bunches = Medium-level wines
Three bunches = Good level, fine wines
Four bunches = High level, prestigious wines
Five bunches = Excellent wines

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On Friday, June 13, Vinum Novum's wines were featured at Aroma Meze, Ottawa's only Greek gourmet restaurant. Customers were spoiled with Michael's unique take on Mediterranean cuisine and free wines by Terre Borboniche Vini. Italian winemaker Nicola Trotta, chatted with Aroma regulars about his Southern Italian Wines, pouring them glasses of liquid delicacies derived from grapes native to the Calabria region - Gaglioppo, Greco Bianco, Magliocco and Nerello. Great food, great wines and great fun solidified an international friendship that will lead to more events to come...Stay tuned!
(From left to right - Nicola Trotta, Terre Borboniche Wines; Michael Tatsis, Aroma Meze and David Mollica, Vinum Novum)

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood, and Charlie Watts, the members of the classic rock band The Rolling Stones, have also given in to the fascination of the world of wine. Already known for touring with cartons of the best Chateaux di Bordeaux and Cristal Champagne for their after parties backstage, now the band members have actually become “winemakers”.
Thanks to the partnership with the Canadian wine producers Ex Nihilo Vineyard Inc. (located in Kelowna, British Columbia), the group will be signing a limited edition icewine (a Pinot Noir variety with a production of about 3,000 bottles) that has been named Sympathy for the Devil, also the name of one of the band’s greatest hits that appeared on the 1968 album, Beggars Banquet. Info: http://www.rollingstonesicewine.com

Vinum Novum's indie wines embrace the flavours of Canada at Ottawa's Local Wine Bar in the city's new Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre in Westboro.

Gambero Rosso is a culinary magazine founded in 1986. At first the magazine was a supplement of the Manifesto newspaper. Gambero Rosso contributed to the rise of the Slow Food movement, publishing the first Vini d'Italia guide. In a very short time Vini d'Italia begun one of the most important wine publications in the world, followed in 1990 by Ristoranti d'Italia, a guide of the best Italian restaurants. Every year Gambero Rosso, the Italian Wine bible, provides the most thorough evaluation of Italian wines: Tre Bicchieri. Tre Bicchieri has a long standing tradition of impartial, independent and reliable evaluations based on blind tastings by more than 100 experts. The guide is designed to provide readers with both an understanding of the history and development of producers and their wines. Wines are rated according to a scale of bicchieri (glasses) ranging from zero to three, with Tre Bicchieri the highest score. In 2002, in Rome, Gambero Rosso launched a fascinating project: la Citta' del Gusto, a city of 15.000 sq.ft. with Tv studios, a theatre of kitchen, schools, wine bar, pizzeria and inn.

If the recent projections come true, by 2020 Prosecco will be the bubbly most drunk in the world. In the meantime, the global market seems to be headed in that direction with around 50 million Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOC bottles sold in 2007. As usual, many of these bottles will be popped during the upcoming holiday season, but Prosecco is becoming more and more a year-round wine all around the world.

"In reality, the Prosecco DOC, along with other Italian sparkling wines, is establishing its place at the dinner table all year", said Gianluca Bisol, general director of the well known Bisol estate, in Santo Stefano di Valdobbiadene. "It's normal, however, that during the holidays and on New Year's Eve the use of these types of wine peaks."

Mentioning peaks, this seems to be a time of records for the Prosecco in general, notwithstanding certain abominations such as the Rich Prosecco from Paris Hilton. In fact, for the first time ever, one Prosecco DOC, the La Marca Extra Dry Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene NV, made the 75th position among the top 100 wines selected by Wine Spectator, and this recognition lines up with many others received by this excellent product in various parts of the world.

In London, for instance, a Jeroboam (3 liters, or the equivalent of four regular bottles) of Crede Bisol, was sold at an auction for the record amount of $11.000. A limited edition of Crede Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOC Brut 2006, of which only 4,500 bottles have been produced, was poured on December 16 and 17, 2007, during the celebration for the Alpine Sky World Cup 2007, in Alta Badia, Italy.

"(This goes) to show that we have a leading product here which pleases the taste of upscale world consumers," Continued Bisol. "However, we would like to highlight the positive, socializing spirit inspired by our products, which makes it a favorite of the public in general. Soon, at the Cruise Terminal Rotterdam, famous and evocative meeting place in the Dutch city, on New Year's Eve 15,000 people will toast to the new year with 2,500 bottles of our Jeio Colmei (Prosecco)".

This is a great step, considering that last year the traditional toast was made with Champagne. Another sign, yet, of how the Prosecco DOC is becoming part of the collective idea of celebration in many countries.

Luigi Veronelli (b. Milan, February 2, 1926, d. Bergamo, November 29, 2004), was an Italian gastronome and intellectual. He is remembered as one of the central figures in the appreciation and promotion of Italy's gastronomic heritage. Veronelli was the first to express views that would later achieve general currency and the protagonist in battles for the preservation of diversity in the fields of agriculture and food production. To this end he contributed to the development of Italian appellations of origin, fought alongside local administrations and offered his support to retail producers. Veronelli began his editorial career in 1956 with the publication of three periodicals: I problemi del socialismo (The Problems of Socialism), Il pensiero (Thought), and Il gastronomo (The Gastronome). Still working as an editor, in 1957 he translated Proudhon's The Social Question and de Sade's Histoiriettes, contes et fabliaux - he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for the publication of obscene material (De Sade’s works would later be burned at Varese). During the 1970s Veronelli was again imprisoned for six months for having incited Piedmontese farmers to revolt by occupying the station of Santo Stefano Belbo to protest new legislation that favored big industry to the detriment of small wine producers. 1959 marked the beginning of his twenty-year collaboration with Il Giorno. He would remain active as a journalist for the duration of his life, and his articles, full of neologisms and archaisms and marked by a provocative style, would become landmarks in gastronomic journalism. Among the periodicals to which Veronelli made notable contributions are the Corriere della Sera (Milan), Class, Il Sommelier, EV, Carta, Panorama, Epoca, Amica, Capital, Week End, L'Espresso, Sorrisi e Canzoni TV, A Rivista Anarchica, Travel and Wine Spectator, Decanter, Gran Riserva ed Enciclopedia del Vino, and The European. In 1990, Luigi Veronelli founded the Veronelli publishing house with "the specific objective of thoroughly classifying the immense national gastronomic inheritance and contributing to the heightening of awareness of the touristic appeal of the loveliest country in the world"[1]. I Vini di Veronelli is now one of the most prestigious wine guide in Italy with its 16,000 wines descriptions and more than 3,000 winemakers.
The evaluation system ranges within one to three red stars.

Luigi Veronelli

What is the true meaning of gastronomy? The founder of Slow Food, Carlo Petrini, explained it perfectly and in just a few concise words during the 5th world congress of the movement, held recently in Mexico. “Gastronomy can no longer be considered a simple recreation, but as a complex system that connects culture and the sociality of man to the natural processes of our planet”.Petrini went on to trace the coordinates of the “new” philosophy of the international association, which aimed to reveal the complexities that still have their roots in the movement’s Manifesto that was first published in 1989. “The strong criticism within the Manifesto of the modern means of production, that modify our life and threaten the environment and landscape, could not have foreseen the definitive stronghold of the crisis by the current model of development. The time has come to change philosophy; it is nature that is setting limits on the economy, contrary to what dominant western thought has always preached, from Cartesio to the present.“This change will come about solely through the rediscovery of popular cultures, on which the development of many local economies that are capable of respecting man and nature, of exploiting sensibly resources and of produce real wellbeing, will be based. The local economy, as opposed to that of the market, will help man recuperate his wisdom, to not lose that ancient, peasant knowledge that has taught us how to live in harmony and that has forged our identity. “Identity that is expressed and interacts within the great worldwide network that the movement is trying to construct, uniting its members with its farmers and producers of Terra Madre. In this way, it will be easy to guarantee an international exchange of stories, knowledge, projects”.It is an exchange, concluded Petrini, “that will have increasingly more young protagonists, allowing them to enter into contact with those who work the land, so that the sacred passion that animates the most humble producers of good, clean and correct food is transmitted: gratifying, sustaining and not full of social injustices”.And, the final conclusion made at Puebla: “It is necessary that the young return to the land, because if this does not happen we will have no future”.

Source: http://www.winenews.it

The Vulture is the home of the famous red vine Aglianico del Vulture, made from the grapes of Aglianico and certificated Doc (Denominazione di Orgine Controllata). It is called "vecchio" after at least three years of aging in barriques and riserva after at least five.

It is considered among the best vines produced in Italy and carries also the name Barolo of the South due to the similar way in production and taste.

Besides the DOC wines there are also others: the Aglianico dolce, a sweet desert wine with a full body and the Aglianico di Filiano, grown around the small village of Filiano at the southern border of the Vulture area.

The colour of Aglianico is garnet red with a savoury taste and 11.5-13 % in alcohol. The wine goes very well with meats, especially roasts and wild game.

History says that the grapes were brought to Italy by the Greeks and called "Hellenica". The Romans called it "Ellenico" and used it to improve the quality of the Falerno, favourite wine of the poets of this time. In the 15th century under the Argons it was finally named Aglianico. The DOC territory includes the communities of: Rionero in Vulture, Barile, Rampolla, Ripacandida, Ginestra, Maschito, Forenza, Acerenza, Melfi, Atella, Venosa, Lavello, Palazzo San Gervasio, Banzi, Genzano di Lucania.


The Vulture mountain, Basilicata.

Since 1997, La Vendemmia has been Ottawa 's Celebration of Italian Wine & Food held in the heart of Little Italy – Preston Street . Join guests Chef GIULIANO BUGIALLI, Chef PASQUALE VARI, Sommelier ZOLTAN SZABO and other wine and food experts for seminars, cooking demonstrations, wine tastings and dine out at one of Preston Street 's restaurants. This is a great opportunity to learn more about Italian wine and food.
Visit www.prestonstreet.com/lavendemmia for more information and to buy tickets.

Are the English preparing to take their leave of the dear old pint of beer? Perhaps not, but from a survey conducted by IWSR it appears that by 2010 the Queen’s subjects will be spending more than any other European citizen on wine. British wallets will be 5.5 billion pounds the lighter and Great Britain will be the top market for wine in the old World.
Between 2001 and 2005 retail wine sales grew by 25% reaching a total of 4.9 billion pounds. Two main factors have led to this result: an increased consumption of wine and an increase in the average price of a bottle, which is generally higher than in most other European countries. Wine consumption is forecast to rise by 3.7% between 2001 and 2010, in other words three and a half times faster than the worldwide figure. 
In general, however, the British will continue to drink less wine than the French, Italians, Americans and Germans. In 2005 in Great Britain 1.7 billion bottles were consumed, approximately 27 litres per person (38 per year in 2010) almost as much as Australia (28.3 litres) or Holland (28.6), but less than Denmark (38.3) or Germany (36.6). 
The main choice tends to be red wine though rosé too is rapidly growing in popularity. The Brits are changing their consumption habits too: preferring products from the new wine markets to the traditional French wine, which witnessed a drop in imports of 7.58% between 2001 and 2005. The figures speak clearly: imports from Australia have risen by 51.7%, those from the United States have more than doubled and those from South Africa have risen by 50%.


Source: http://www.vinitaly.com