Yesterday, I began a story about an event Jose and I attended in San Francisco. It was for vintners who belong to the San Francisco Wine Association, entitled Crash Course at Crushpad with the San Francisco Wine Association,where each member showcased his or her wine.

Sorry for the hiatus, I actually spent all of last week at Syracuse University where I gave a guest lecture and held a wine tasting for Due Cani and I had trouble finding time to write. The experience made me realize how romantic the notion of wine and the wine business is. I was there to share my experiences in entrepreneurship with a group of MBA students, and I was really surprised by how many people are intrigued by the wine business, not because they love wine, but because it has this aura of romance that surrounds it.

"a little citrus, maybe some strawberry… passionfruit…  and, oh, there's just like the faintest soupçon of like asparagus and just a flutter of a, like a, nutty Edam cheese... " Miles in “Sideways.

 ”When you read a review of a wine or see a comment like Miles’ above, are you left wondering what the wine writer/critic means by “cigar box,” “pencil shavings,” “leather,” “asphalt,” “tobacco,” “hedonistic” “soupcon” and “saddle?”  Or other terms such as “pungent,” “bretty,” “herbal,” “wet-dog,” “barnyard,” “band-aid” (1) and “briary?”  Numerous articles and even scientific studies have been written on the relationship of wine descriptive terms and the actual taste of wine (2) but they lack a real explanation of “what does that mean?”

The Wines of Italy wine tasting kicked off the Festa Italiana in Tampa last night, and host L'Unione Italiana presented a variety of wines from each major wine region of Italy. I was pleased to find a selection of wines outside of the typical Chianti Classicos and Super Tuscans that you find standard fare at any Italian wine tasting.