Blog #3

I spent last weekend on the Amalfi Coast. I stayed at a hostel in Sorrento and traveled to Positano, Pompeii, and Capri. At the hostel, I ate more group cooked meals which meant more pasta. It was good but nothing spectacular. In Capri, I had an amazing orange and lemon granita. The man making it poured at least four shots of vodka in it while I watched him make it, however, the sweetness of the drink counteracted the bitterness of the alcohol. I decided this was a dangerous mixture and only had one. In Pompeii, I had a really good pizza with a thicker crust. I am assuming it was so good because we were so close to Naples. In Positano, I opted to eat picnic style and ate an avocado, a yogurt, and some chocolate on the black sand beach.

This week’s reading talked about Nebbiolo, a native grape to Italy. Nebbiolo is the base of many of Italy’s best wine’s. The name comes from the Latin word for fog which could refer to when the grapes are most in season or what the grapes look like when they are in bloom. The Nebbiolo grape grows in a very specific area of Italy making it more difficult to grow. The Nebbiolo can mutate its phenotype to fit its environment to create many different types of biotypes. It was really interesting that both the Barolo and Barbaresco wines are created with 100% Nebbiolo grapes but they are still considered very different wines. We learned in class that they are created differently. We also learned that Barolo is considered the “King” because it was created first and Barbaresco is considered the “Queen” because while just as good, it was created in spite of Barolo.

I do not have much personal knowledge about red wine. I usually prefer white wine and the only thing that I know about red wine is that it has the grape’s skin. Something with this grape skin also correlates to tannins in the wine. I also know that for me, personally, that cheap red wine can sometimes give me migraines.