COURSES AND EVENTS OF MARCH

Dear friends,

march is always one of the busiest months of the year with a succession of unbelievable soirées and tasting opportunities and in 2010 the month is no different!

To begin with, in chronological order, three encounters with three of the best wine estates of Italy: Pio Cesare, Tenuta di Capezzana, and Il Marroneto: in other words, Barolo, Barbaresco, Carmignano and Vin Santo, Brunello di Montalcino…truly some of Italy’s greatest wines and interesting, funny, well educated owners that will greatly add to the pleasure of the evening.

Two evenings will be dedicated, after february’s Brunello soirée, to the Anteprime of Chianti Classico and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, in which we shall get to taste the new vinatges of these wines taht are exceptionally good this time around…. Many of these wines aren’t even available in wine shops yet, so you’ll get to try them here first!

And don’t miss out on two star tastings, both dedicated to white wines, in which you’ll get to try the great Rieslings of Italy as well as other great Italian whites along with wonderful wines from Chablis, Germany, and Alsace. Evenings guided by Massimo Claudio Comparini, who co-founded one of Italy’s best food and wine magazines before deciding he wanted to work with wine in different ways and therefore moving on, on Burgundy wines and Ian D’Agata, Italy’s greatest Riesling expert and who started studying the grape variety already back in the 1980s, when practically nobody in Italy was talking or writing about the great Rieslings of Canada, Alsace, Germany or from other countries. Just one of the added bonuses of the Wine Academy and that sets this wine institution apart from all others in Rome and Italy.

And ATTENZIONE: we begin this month with the special offers for our Silver Academy members, discounted evenings we hope will convince you even more of the fact that membership at the Academy definitively has its rewards!

Last but not least, make a note in your agenda of the weekend of April 17-18 when we shall leave for our second Wine Tour, this time dedicated to Montalcino, with three o four winery visits, fantastic lunches and dinners in beautiful settings and authentic country fare, and more.

So, in the hope of seeing you here soon and numerous, we wish you many happy tastings!

COURSES

Level 1 (6 lessons, 2 hours) - To Know, Appreciate and Choose the Right Wine
First lesson, Tuesday March 16th, 7.30 pm

Cost: Euro 240,00

Level 2 (8 lessons, 2 hours) – Italian Wines : Regions, Grapes and Wines
First Lesson, Monday March 1st, 7.30 pm

Cost: Euro 300

EVENTS

Wednesday 3th at 7.30 p.m.
SPECIAL BURGUNDY SOIREE part I: the Cote de Beaune, five wines to die for !!!!
A non Italian wine evening, but rather quality time spent with some fantastic French wines that are either Premier or Grand Cru quality…these are some of the world’s more expensive white wines, all chardonnay, revealing a magical minerality and a deft use of oak. Come try these rare, absolute beauties for a totally different taste sensation. With Massimo Claudio Comparini who has been travelling the wine routes of Burgundy for the past twenty years, blessed with an expertise on the subject like few others in Italy!

Cost: Euro 40 (€30 for Silver card members)
Time: until 9 p.m. roughly

Thursday 4th at 7.30 p.m.
The new edition of the Price-Pleasure Wines guide:
drink like a Prince, and spend like a Pauper!!!!
Twelve MORE great wines for you to try, many of which we are sure you may never even have heard of... Ottaviano Lambruschi, Damiano Ciolli, Macarico, Elvio Cogno, Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona, and wines such as Rosso di Montalcino, Vermentino Colli di Luni, Aglianico del Vulture, and more... we hope to surprise you and also show you just how easy it can be to drink well in Italy without spending a fortune, something that is even more important nowadays when you are having lunch or dinner at a restaurant...

Cost: Euro 25 without the guide (€35 with the guide)
Time: until 9 p.m. roughly

Saturday 6 at 6.30 p.m.
Supertasting : 10 great wines of the BEST 100
from the D’Agata & Comparini 2010 guide
Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello di Montalcino, Carema, Pigato... great and famous names, or star little known ones, such as Mastrojanni and Poggio dei Gorleri, from Luigi Ferrando to Boen, from Ceretto to Castellari Bergaglio Barolo, Supertuscans, Barbaresco, Dessert wines, Pinot Grigio, ten great wines in all, and a chance for you to taste along with the experts to see if you agree or not with their choices!

Cost: Euro 25,00 without the guide (€35 with the guide)
Time: 6.30-8 p.m. roughly

Monday 8th at 7.30 p.m.
Meet the wines of the Alba area: Barolo, Barbaresco, Roero, Langhe and many more
Not just Barbaresco and Barolo, but also delicious, fun wines such as Arneis, Dolcetto, Barbera and many more... don’t miss this opportunity to try 12 different wines that will thrill you, and open your eyes to the diversity of one of the best winemaking areas of Piedmont.

Cost: Euro 15 (free for Silver members)
Durata: 9 p.m roughly

Thursday 11th at 7.30 p.m.
Anteprima Nobile: the magic of the new vintage
of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Riserva
Nobile is one of the great wines of the world... wines from very fine producers such as Tre Rose, Boscarelli, Contucci, Poliziano, Gattavecchi and more will be on hand for you to taste, many of which aren’t yet even available in wine shops. An altogether different wine from Brunello but just as structured and capable of aging.

Cost: Euro 25
Durata: 9 p.m. roughly

Saturday 13th at 6.30 p.m.
The great wines of Pio Cesare, from Grignolino to Barolo
Pio Cesare is the only historic Barolo o Barbaresco estate that is still located smack in the middle of downtown Alba, a beautiful family home that has incredible depth to its cellars, parts of which are closer to underground rivers than they are to the roads above! What we really appreciate of Pio Cesare, besides the fine manners, pleasant personalities and hard work of the family members, is that they excel with many different grape varieties and that you won’t fine better restaurant buys anywhere since all their wines are also fairly priced. And the two Barbaresco and Barolo supercrus Il Bricco e Ornato are in the top heap of Italy’s best wines.

Cost: Euro 20,00 (if you also sign up for the Capezzana evening, only €30 for both)
Duration: 8 p.m. roughly

Monday 15th at 7.30 p.m.
Discovering Carmignano: the great wines of Tenuta di Capezzana
Besides making one of Italy’s five best Vin Santos which we shall also get to taste this evening, Capezzana is dear to all wine lovers hearts since it is the estate that most has done for the quality and the reknown of Carmignano, on eof Italy’s most famous and best wines already back in the times of the Medici family. A don’t mis evening that will open your eyes to the beauty and grace and sheer pleasure of one of Italy’s least known great wines.

Cost: Euro 20,00 (if you also sign up for the Pio Cesare evening, only €30 for both)
Duration: 8 p.m. roughly

Wednesday 17th at 7.30 p.m.
SPECIAL BURGUNDY SOIREE: the Cote de Nuits, five wines to die for !!!!
The second in our Burgundy soirèes this month, and again with either Premier or Grand Cru quality wines only, this time from the Cote de Nuits... Pinot noir at its best, folks! This is the wine inspiring the writers of Sideways, because there wouldn’t even be a Santa Barbara Pinot Noir if it not for the real things coming from France. So come see what all the fuss is about, five great wines will be on hand to tell you their story...

Cost: Euro 35 (€25 for Silver card members)
Time: until 9 p.m. roughly

Thursday 18th at 7.30 p.m.
Anteprima Chianti Classico: the new vintages, Chianti and Riserva,
a constellation of fantastic wines
Chianti is, along with Bordeaux, Napa and Mosel, one of the world’s most famous wines and it deserves to be better known in consideration also of its great recent quality surge and the easy drinking charm it displays. A very different wine from brunello, but certainly not a lesser version of sangiovese, and one the finer aspects of which you should get to know better. Ten great wines from different estates and different wine zones, so you can get a feeling for the different nuances present depending on where the wines come from.

Cost: Euro 20,00
Duration: until 9 p.m. roughly

Saturday 20 at 6.30 p.m.
Italy’s great Rieslings: a new frontier for an ancient variety
Riesling is rightly considered the world’s greatest white grape variety, but truth is, it’s only become an important grape variety in Italy in the last ten or so years. Ian D’Agata will be on hand to guide you through eight great wines, including a comparison of some great Alsatian and German examples, so that you may see just what our country is doing with the grape and the style, all its own, that it is busy developing. Ian is the Italian wine writer that knows this variety best, as he was
studying it back in Canada, Alsace and Germany back in the ‘80s, and about which he was writing on the Gambero Rosso already at the turn of the new century. He has also, along with Helmut Koecher, recently put together the International Riesling Symposium in Rome.

Costo: Euro 25
Duration: 8 p.m. roughly

Thursday 25 at 7.30 p.m.
Brunello di Montalcino by Il Marroneto: a fantastic panorama
Il Marroneto is truly one of the up-and-coing wine estates of Italy with some mesmerizingly good wines being turned out in recent years, though few out there know the estate or the wines. We’ll have a great chance to get to know them better this evening, one that is sure to send you home smiling!

Cost: Euro 20,00
Duration: 9 p.m. roughly

Saturday 27 at 6.30 p.m.
The great white wines of Lazio and Chablis: ten great wines in a taste-off
So, you like white wines? Here’s a beauty then: some of Italy’s very best, freshest white wines go head-to head with the great white wines of Burgundy, specifically Chablis, in whjat promsies to be an unforgettable evening... from the light and the mineral to the big, aoky and brawny.

Cost: Euro 25,00
Time: until 8 p.m. roughly

To make a reservation: email to info@wineacademyroma.com, mobile +30 3319995549 or phone +39 06 6990 878
A minimum of 10 participants is required for each course
Reservation policy: To secure the reservation please ask our credit card details form, or just pay 50% in advance. The booking can be cancelled without charge, by email or fax until 3 days prior the fixed date. After that term the total cost of the course will be charged to the given credit card.