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Today finds me in Tuscany, where I've been having a look around Chianti Classico.

(I'm currently making my way up from Rome, where I landed yesterday, to Verona, where I'll be attending Vinitaly, Italy's annual wine trade fair.)

It was incredible to see how green the landscape is there: a very short (practically non-existent) winter has accelerated the vegetative cycle here and throughout Italy.

As one grower said to me today, the soil just never got cold enough.

The Boulder Wine Mechant has a new contributor to its blog!

My name is Jeremy Parzen and you may have noticed that I started posting here a few weeks ago.

I already know a lot of you through wine and food social media. 

But for those of you whom I've never had the pleasure to meet (virtually or in real-time), please allow me to introduce myself.

I first became interested in European wine while a graduate student in Italy where I lived and worked for many years (I received my doctorate in Italian at U.C.L.A. in 1997).

Feeling confused (overwhelmed, actually) by the tide of French and Italian appellation designations? 

Well, join the club!

Historically, the wines of France have been classified under the AOC or Appellation d'origine contrôlée system: Appellation of Controlled Origin, a classification created by the French government in the 1950s.

To obtain AOC status, wines must be made from authorized grape varieties grown in designated areas. And they must be vinified, packaged, and marketed in accordance with the appellation's standards.

Let's face it: Italian winery designations can be confusing, hard to understand, and difficult to pronounce.

In this post (the first in a series of winery designations explained and correctly pronounced), we look at three very common Italian winery terms: cantina, casa, and cascina, and discuss their meaning and usage.

Do you have a term that's left you scratching your head? Please leave a comment in the comment section and let us know what it is: we'll deliver an explanation in an upcoming post.

Boulder Wine Merchant's owner, Master Sommelier Brett Zimmerman, will be heading next week to California for the Paulée de San Francisco, the annual gathering of Burgundy producers and collectors, now in its fourteenth year.

A Master Sommelier’s Guide to Valentine’s Day

Join Sommeliers Matt Mitton and Brett Zimmerman, MS from Boulder Wine Merchant as we open and offer tastes of these amazing older Burgundy wines from the 1983 vintage.  The evening is geared to benefit the Wild Earth Guardians Foundation.  Make a charitable donation and drink some rare Burgundies.  Sign up by calling (505) 988-9126 x 0.  See a list of featured wines below:

This past Tuesday, I was one of 12 lucky sommeliers who was invited to take a tour through Bordeaux and Burgundy with wines ranging from the 1975 vintage all the way back to 1825.  Our host has been collecting some of the world's greatest and rarest wines for the past 25 years and wanted to move through a few of the bottles in his cellar that he felt were ready to consume.

A select group of sommeliers were dispatched from around the country and assembled in Aspen to assist with the service and enjoyment of these amazing wines.