Italian Teacher/Wine maker: You learn something new everyday.

Today in Italian class, we were going over key phrases we have to know in order to be able to go out to eat or book a hotel room, echetera echetera. Things like, "Avetete un tavolo per due?" ("Can we have a table for two?") or "Vorrei un bicchiere di vino bianco della casa." (I would like glass of the house white wine.)

WRONG. When our Italian teacher (pretending to be the waitress at a restaurant) asked Mary Raine what she would like to drink, she said that she would like glass of vino biano della casa. Our Italian teacher replied, "Whaaat? House wine? White house wine? No, no, no." Mary Raine had apparently given the wrong answer.

First off, white wine is NOT what to order in Italy. That would be red. I did know that much. But all this house wine we have been ordering at restaurants is a sign of our limited other knowledge of vino. Unless you are dining at an exceptional restaurant, the house wine is generally the worst--there are no restrictions as to how the wine is made or what is in it. Mathilde told us that there could be anything in the bottle. Here is where she let it slip that her second job is wine-making! She lives out in the countryside in the Chianti region were she and her husband produce Chianti Classico with a group of other vineyard owners. Who'd have thunk it? An Italian teacher/wine maker!

We begged her for advice on how to know which wines are good to order and which are bad and what we should look for. She gave us some guidance on some of the ratings and ways to tell the quality of a bottle of wine--(I.G.T, D.O.C., and D.O.C.G, echetera) as well as provided us with the name of one of the wines that she helps produce that we should try: Clemente VII, a Chianti Classico.

As Mathilde told us, wine is an incredibly important part of Italian culture, and, if it is good wine, it can be very healthy and good for us in moderation. She said that we should think of it as something we are putting in our stomach--we don't want to put just anything in there if we want to be healthy and good to ourselves. For that reason, she says that it is better to drink less very good, potentially more expensive wine rather than more bad cheap wine.

Amy and I decided that we are going to begin looking at the grocery store for reasonably priced red wines that have one of the signs of quality I described above and having a glass or two often with our dinners. None of this bad stuff. There is even a wine shop down the street where Annie said the nicest woman helped her find some great wine! Perhaps we will venture down there and see what she has to say.

As we discussed in class, wine is good for your health and good for your soul- and we certainly don't want to be depriving either while we are here in Italy!

Best,
A budding Italian Wine Connoisseur