palava · welschriesling
South Moravia: the wine region Europe forgot to visit
A sommelier's orientation to South Moravia, Czechia: Pálava limestone, Welschriesling, cellar lanes, pet-nat, and how a Moravian wine tour from Brno works.
Wine knowledge
Plain explanations of natural wine, sulfites, qvevri and karas, orange wine and biodynamics, from a sommelier who pours natural and classic wines on his tours.
These are the questions I get asked at the table, written down properly. What natural wine is and what it is not. Why a qvevri in Kakheti and a karas in Vayots Dzor are not quite the same vessel. What sulfites do in a bottle, and how much is really there. How to taste a wine without performing for the room.
I pour both natural and classic wines on my tours, so nothing here takes a side; the point is to understand what the winemaker chose and why. Start with natural wine explained or qvevri, karas and amphora, then bring your questions to a cellar in Kakheti or Vayots Dzor on one of the tours.
history · qvevri
Eight thousand years of wine: Gadachrili Gora and Areni-1
Georgia's Gadachrili Gora jars and Armenia's Areni-1 cave winery: how they were dated, what residue chemistry proves, and where my wine tours visit them.
cellar-visit · food-pairing
How to visit a winemaker: etiquette, questions, buying
Sommelier Dante Minutello on visiting a winemaker: how to book, what to ask in the cellar, supra and sklípek manners, buying wine and getting it home safely.
saperavi · rkatsiteli
Saperavi and Rkatsiteli: the two pillars of Georgian wine
What Saperavi and Rkatsiteli are, how Kakheti turns them into Tsinandali, Mukuzani and amber qvevri wine, and where I pour them on my Georgia wine tours.
areni-noir · history
Areni Noir: Armenia's grape from a 6,000-year-old cave
Areni Noir, the red grape of Vayots Dzor in Armenia: the 4100 BC winery in the Areni-1 cave, how it grows and tastes, and where I pour it on my wine tours.
cellar-visit · food-pairing
How to taste wine like a sommelier (in a cellar, not a classroom)
Sommelier Dante Minutello on tasting wine in a working cellar: look, smell, taste for structure, and what to ask the winemaker, from Armenia to Moravia.
biodynamics · sulfites
Biodynamic wine without the mysticism
Biodynamic wine explained by a sommelier: Steiner, Demeter, cow horns, the moon calendar, what trials show, and the winemakers on my tours who farm this way.
sulfites · natural-wine
Sulfites in wine: the honest guide
What sulfites do in wine, how much a bottle really holds, who reacts to them, and how winemakers in Beaujolais, Collio and Georgia work with little or none.
orange-wine · skin-contact
Orange wine: skin contact explained without the hype
Orange wine is white wine fermented on its skins. How the method works, how Kakheti in Georgia and Oslavia in Friuli, Italy do it, and how to drink it well.
qvevri · karas
Qvevri, karas, amphora: clay across the wine world
How Georgian qvevri, Armenian karas and Italian amphorae differ, what clay does to a wine, and where I pour them on my wine tours in Kakheti and Vayots Dzor.
natural-wine · food-pairing
Natural or classic: what a decade of pouring both taught me
Natural and classic wine side by side, from Etna to Kakheti: what each method changes in the glass, where each fails, and what a sommelier pours on tour.
pet-nat · sparkling
Pét-nat: sparkling wine the old way
Pét-nat is sparkling wine from one fermentation finished in the bottle. How it differs from Champagne, and where I pour it on tours in Moravia and the Loire.
natural-wine · sulfites
What natural wine actually is (and what it is not)
Sommelier Dante Minutello explains natural wine: farming, wild yeast, sulfites, how it differs from organic and orange wine, and what he pours on wine tours.
Tell me where you want to drink
Write in any of my five languages. I answer personally, usually within a day.
Dante replies personally, usually within a day, in English, Russian, Czech, Armenian or Italian.