About Me

A friend of mine coined the term Full-of-Yourself Friday. So it's the perfect day to talk about myself and fill you in on my background.

I was born and raised in Vancouver, BC. My parents immigrated from Italy in the 50's and I grew up speaking Italian and travelling often to Italy to visit family. I even attended Saturday morning Italian classes. Trust me, at 16, that was not exactly how I wanted to be spending my time. But, mother did know best and it really paid off.


In 2003 I threw caution to the wind and moved to Italy. Even though I had spent a fair amount of time there as a child and was fluent in Italian, adjusting to living there had it's challenges. From time to time, I will post about those times as there were some funny experiences. But for now, it's about the wine.


In the fall of 2003 I saw an ad for a sommelier course. As I already had an interest in wine I thought this was a good idea. Not only would I learn something but I could meet people with similar interests. It was very challenging taking a course in my second language and I was fortunate to have the ability to dedicate myself full-time to my studies. In May 2005 I became a sommelier.


In Italy there are 2 sommelier societies, FISAR and AIS. I am a FISAR sommelier. Each year each society holds a competition to crown a Sommlier of the Year. Last October, I competed in FISAR's competition. There were 8 of us in the competition and I was the only woman. Not to mention, the only one that wasn't a native Italian speaker. There were 3 parts to the competition and it took place over 2 days. Day 1 was the written exam with the practical and oral exams on day 2. On that second day, you performed before a panel of 5 judges with each judge asking you 2 questions in a specific topic. For example, one judge asked about wine/food pairing, while another asked questions about Italian wine regions. At the end of Day 1, I was told I had scored the highest on the written exam so I felt pretty confident going into Day 2. Not only are you performing before a judging panel, but it's open to all the members attending so it's extra nerve racking. I had studied quite hard for this competition and that hard work paid off when I was crowned Sommelier of the Year 2007.


I will be honest, there were a few people (men) not too happy about it but I scored so much higher than everyone else they had no choice but to award it to me. I don't know if they were bitter because I was a woman, or a Canadian or because they didn't like my chapter club president. They never did give me the respect I deserved but so be it.


So here I am today sharing my knowledge and experience with you.

Decanting Wine

When I'm out talking to people about wine, I get asked many questions. And there are many Frequently Asked Questions. So, along with talking about wines that I'm drinking, I also want to address those questions. They will be labelled FAQ. (I know, I'm just too clever sometimes). So, for the inaugural FAQ, I want to talk about decanting wine.

There are 2 main reasons to decant wine. 1, to add oxygen and 2, to prevent sediment from getting into your glass. Older red wines (and some whites) can form deposits (sediment) in the bottle. By pouring that bottle into another container (decanter) you can make sure that if there is sediment in the bottle, it will stay there. Some decanters come with a fancy strainer to help you out. Don't worry if you don't have one because you really don't need it. When you are decanting wine, pour the wine slowly and gently from the bottle into your chosen serving vessel. Do not pour it like you are filling your bathtub. Wine is more temperamental than women and really doesn't like being handled roughly. The best way is to let it glide from the bottle down along the inside of the decanter. Look at the neck of the bottle while you are doing this and watch for the sediment. If the bottle you are decanting has sediment, you will not pour all of it into the decanter. Make sure you leave all the sediment in the bottle. In order to do this, you will also be leaving a bit of wine behind too.

The next question would then be, how long do I leave the wine in the decanter before serving? This depends on the wine you are decanting. People think that older wines benefit from decanting more than younger wines. The opposite is actually true. I wish I could give you a handy chart or formula telling you if the wine is X years old, decant Y hours before serving. It doesn't work that way. Each wine and wine region is different. The varietals used, the year and the wine-maker all factor in. So here's some general guidelines.

If you have a young red wine, decant it at least 30 minutes before serving. You don't want to give it too much oxygen or you may lose some of it's character. Here's an example. I served a 2004 Chianti Classico by Rocca delle Macie last week. I made the mistake of decanting it too early. By the time we got around to drinking it, the wine had lost some of its tannic qualities making it smoother than it should have been. My guests thoroughly enjoyed the wine but I found it lacking. Sometimes, the younger the wine, the more oxygen it will need. Keep that in mind when you're picking up some of the new releases. Sometimes you can't wait to open that bottle even though you've been told to store it for at least 6 months.

Now, what if you have a really old bottle? Say something that's over 20 years old. The reason you decant this is for sediment purposes. Taking a very old wine and letting it sit in a decanter for a long period of time is not a good idea. As wine ages, the color becomes more orange. Think, terra cotta. This is a natural process. What started out as a ruby red will become more orange with time. This wine does not need any more oxygen to mellow out the tannins. My advice would be to decant and drink. Slowly of course (both the decanting and the drinking).

Hopefully this has taken away some of the mystery about decanting. Now you can use that fancy decanter that I know you've got in the cupboard but didn't know exactly how and when to use it. And if you don't have one, you now have a good excuse to go buy one.

PS. When you clean your decanter, just rinse it out with really hot water. The last thing you want is soap residue in it. Chateau Palmolive really doesn't sound appealing.

New Blog Features

So I've been playing around with the blog layout and trying to discover more features to add. In the blog world they are called 'gadgets'. So, you will now notice in the right hand column, that you can become an official 'follower' of my blog as well as being able to 'subscribe' to it. I've also included some of the blogs I follow.

Hopefully you'll take advantage of some of these new 'gadgets'.