Hello, I am such a dummy when it comes to choosing wine. I would like to go to a shop in Venice and buy some inexpensive, but good wine to sample. We are staying in an apartment near San Stin Square, so I would appreciate it if someone could recommend a nice little shop also. Thanks for your help! Laurie
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Posts: 517 | Location: Near Des Moines, Iowa | Registered: 04 February 2003
There is a wine shop that sells wine in the bottle and from the barrel between you and Campo San Giacomo dell Orio. You'll find it when you get there - it would be hard not to run across it. Definitely go to the wine room at Drogheria Mascari in the Rialto. It is on the Ruga d. Speziali near the fish market. There are lots of other places in the Rialto area to buy wine, and probably a couple of little markets around your apartment, too.
quote:Originally posted by Laurie0605: Hi Shannon, Thank you for your reply. Can you suggest a brand of wine that we could ask for? Thanks, Laurie
Don't ask for any specific "brand". Just tell the shopkeeper that you are not an exper of wines and you want to buy x bottles of wine and to fix a selection of bottles (say 2 dry spumante to be drank with the entrèes, 2 different white wines to be drank with fish, 2 sparkling red wines that go with pasta or gentler tasting meats os strong tasting fish, such as tuna, 2 bottles of more importnat reds to be drank with "important" meats, 2 sweet spumante bottles that may go with the desert and one passito, that may be drank at the end of the meal) for you. If the "enoteca" is competent, you will bring home some good stuff. You may also explain that you don't want to spend too much on wines, but don't base your choice on price alone. For instance, Picolit is really one of the most incredible experiences one can have with wines, even someone who is a dummy (actually, I think that passiti are one of the best way of approaching wines, since they are both extremely characterized and, IMHO, it is quite easy to taste the difference between a well-balanced one and one whose taste is unbalanced or bad), so although the price of one half bottle can be extremely high, you should really bring some home ^____^ HTH.
Alice Twain -- I don’t want to take what you can’t give / I would rather starve than eat your bread I would rather run but I can’t walk / Guess I’ll lie alone just like before Pearl Jam, Corduroy
Venice has more interesting wine bars into it than many a city. A couple of my favorites are Do Mori and Achiugetta. Achiugetta is connected with a wine shop next door where you can buy the bottles you taste in the wine bar. It is located on Campo SS Flippo e Giacomo, between San Marco and San Zaccaria. Do Mori is near the Rialto.
Another good wine shop is near San Georgio degli Schiavoni. If you are at the chruch with your back to the door, there is a canal on the right. Foloow this down a ways and thee is a wine shop.
In Venezia, you are in the Veneto, home to many a great wine. Valpolicella is undergoing a revolution there days. They are red wines with low tanin conten and abundent fruit. They are great with richer fish, pasta and red meats. Some great properties to look for are Le Salette, Tomasso Bussola, Vivianni, Raimondi for small wineries, and Masi and ALlegrini for larger producers. FOr a eral treat look for Quintarelli or Dal Forno Romano, but these will be much more expensive. Valpolicella come in many a different "level". Valpolicella is the lightest, next come Valpolicella Superiore, Riserva, and the Ripasso. Ripasso is a late harvest style that is a big wine meant from meats and cheeses. Classico on the lable means that the wine is from the original growing area and nothing more. It is not a quality statement or a style statement.
Also from the Veneto are wonderful Cabernets from the area called the Colle Eugani.
For white wines, you will see a lot of wine from Friuli and the Alto Adige. I would look for wines like Tocai Friulano from Friuli, or Sauvignon and Gewurztraminer from Alto Adige and Trentino. Walter Filliputti, Pra di Pradis, Furlan, Jermann, Doro Princic, Ronco del Genmiz are all great wines from Friuli. Sam Michael Eppian, Cantina Terlano, Maso Furli are all superb producers from Alto Adige Trentino.
Laurie, they will have some of the wines Dean has written about, and possibly a bottle of the Picolit that Alice wrote about, in the Drogheria Mascari. It is a family run operation and one of the sons speaks very good English, and if you bring a list he will help you shop. It is close enough to your house that it will not be too much of a drag to carry a bunch of wine back to your apartment.
I just thought of another great shop in the Rialto, with excellent wines from the barrel and some interesting bottles too. It is called La Cantina, and it is sort of hard to find. When you are walking from your apartment to Rialto, once past San Aponal you will be on the Ruga Rialto. Look at the all the calli on the left. When you see the sign that says Pizzeria 900, go down that calle, and the wine shop is back there. You'll see a bunch of wine barrels in front.
Laurie, you are getting good advise on some nice shops. You are staying in a lovely part of Venice away from the main tourist areas where you will be able to experience the pattern of life. Regarding wine: If you are interested in wine for drinking while you are there (as opposed to bringing home something special), I recommend doing what the Venetians do – and this is an ancient practice almost dead in other cities in Italy. Drink vino sfuso.. This is wine that is sold in little stores that only sell wine (an enoteca) and it refers to wine that is vended from very large casks up on shelves with long siphons coming out of their necks. They look like huge Chianti flasks. The name literally means loose wine. All of the wine vended in these shops will be local wine from the Veneto, and it is all excellent and dirt cheap! The wine is all very fresh and fruity and easy to drink. You won’t find aged award-winning stuff here, but you will find very satisfying wine to go with your food in the apartment.
Now here is the wonderful part: you must show up with your own container – empty liter plastic bottles are the most popular. Filling one of these will cost you about one Euro. Yup, a little over a buck for a liter! For reds, Merlot and Cabernet Franc are the best bets. You have to do this just for the experience.
One of the best enoteca sfuso is not far from you at the top of Campo Santa Margherita (a wonderful place to experience Venetian life). It’s name is Vinaria Nave de Oro. When we arrive in Venice we can can’t wait to get to this enoteca and get our wine for the apartment. We return every day. As a bonus, Nave de Oro has the most beautiful artesian grappas made for it that they sell in their shop. Each is made from a single varietal and comes in a gorgeous bottle with hand lettered label & wire twist over the cork. This is something worth taking home! These grappas are much cheaper than the ones you will find in fancy wine shops in exquisite Murano glass bottles.
So Nave de Oro will be the wine for your apartment. During the day, you will drink little glasses of wine all day long as you stop in the hundreds of barcos for a bite to eat and an umbra: the Venetian word for a little glass of wine. We like to drink Prosecco in the barci, the local slightly fizzy white wine that goes go good with cicheti, the little tidbits served in all the stand-up bars. Your section of Venice is filled with them. Enjoy! A good site for exploring Venice with a great map and a good index to local eats: VeniceXplorer
I should have been more clear - the barrel shops I speak of are the same as the vino sfuso shops Evo speaks of. Most Venetians buy their everyday wine at them - the Nave de Oro chain alone has six or seven locations.
I shouldn'ta called them barrels - they are glass (or sometimes plastic) casks. For some reason we just called them "barrels."
If you don't have a plastic container to bring, don't sweat it, they always have some in the shop to fill. Generally they are 1 1/2 liters and come out to about 3 Euro - so that is 2 bottles of wine for 3 Euro!
The wine is low alcohol too - usually about 11% so you can drink more and feel no ill effects.
It is worth it though, to try some of the bottled wines that Dean speaks of, because they are a fraction of the cost of what you would pay here.
Go to a few wine bars,pay attention to the type/grape you like,buy what you like don't let some arbitrary point scale or recommendation sway you. you may learn more about wines and decide to get more involved or not.Your palate may become more selective or you may just have a casual relationship with wine as 99% of the public does.RR
Posts: 6465 | Location: Culver City, CA, USA | Registered: 08 November 2002
Thanks, Shannon. We will see if we can find La Cantina. It is good to know that the shop will have a container available, too. I really appreciate all the advice.
I have been busy reading Chow! Venice, and checking some of the websites listed in the book.I also read about some of the shops Ruth listed that are near our apartment. I am glad to hear that there is a grocery store nearby. Thanks again for all your help!
Robert and Dean, This sounds like good advice. We are not big wine drinkers at home. Actually we tend to like beer more. But, while in Venice we want to experience some local wines, so I appreciate the advice. Thank you! Laurie
Posts: 517 | Location: Near Des Moines, Iowa | Registered: 04 February 2003
In Venice, a jug of Coke about $3 (dollars) a jug of "house" wine E 1 hmmmmm. One other note about eating in Yurrup, no matter where...very good food --- excellent food, not one "bad" meal in 20 years!
Daniel and Priscilla in Fort Lauderdale
Posts: 630 | Location: South Florida | Registered: 25 July 2001
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