blog

Natural Wines and the RAW Fair, London.

Mon, 07 May 2012 13:26:52 +0100

Sagraitalia along with Vinitours and Livinginlemarche promote the wines and produce of various regions of Italy, always concentrating where possible on food, olive oils and wines made by small artisan producers.
We try to use and promote wines that are produced by organic and biodynamic methods and more recently wines made in a purely natural way. Natural wines are made with the minimum of chemical involvement and normally only using the very smallest amount of sulphites which are necessary to allow the wine not to sour.
Stefano Milani from Selezione Zanotto London who we work closely with at events and tastings will be present with his range of natural Col Fondo prosecco and other organic and natural wines from his fine wine collection.
Natural wines are increasingly popular in the UK though for the moment this is mainly focused in London and the south East of England.

To further promote Natural wines in the UK a wine festival is being held in London which is given over solely to this type of wine, it is being held at the Old truman Brewery, Brick Lane near Liverpool Street on the 20th and 21st May .
The artisan wine fair is also known as RAW and will host some of the best wine talent in the world of natural wine, all the wines being from vibrant, sustainable organic and biodynamic vineyards. There will be talks, debates and a series of wine tastings and several famous wine associations will be present.
Sagraitalia hopes to be present at the show, visitng some of the producers that we already deal with and also meeting new producers for the future.

Wine and Olive oil event at Veneticus in London

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:09:44 +0100

Sagraitalia together with Selezione Zanotto will be holding a wine and olive oil evening at the Veneticus Delicatessen in the Clerkenwell road in London on Thursday April 26th, the event will start at 5.45 and finish around 8pm that evening.
Stefano Miani of Selezione Zanotto will be hosting the event and show casing some of the fine Italian wines that he imports from italy.Andrea tomassetti from Frantoio Montedoro in Le Marche will also be present and will be holding tutored tastings of some of his superb olive oils.

Libera in Belgravia and West Norwood

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 12:33:52 +0100

Sagraitalia with Slow Food London and Norwich held the Libera Terra evening at the Market Quarter in Belgravia, London last Thursday.
Alistair Cameron kindly let us use this great venue to hold our second Libera Terra evening in London and the evening proved to be very popular and the food and wine were well received by all who came on the night. Among the guests were several Italians now living in London who had links with the Libera Terra movement in Italy and it was excellent to hear about this fantastic organisation from people so closely involved.

There were five Libera wines to taste at the event, these are from Centopassi branch of the organisation as well as olive oil, pasta, passata and compotes. All the produce on the night was supplied by Sagraitalia who liaise closely with Slow Food in the UK, Libera having close links with Slow food in Italy.
The next event featuring Libera produce and wines will be at the West Norwood Slow Food festival on March 21st in London. This event is being held in close co operation with Slow food London, Alistair Cameron from Slow food London and the Market Quarter will be present to give a presentation on Libera Terra in the afternoon.

Market Quarter Libera evening

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 17:46:33 +0100

The launch of wine and produce from the Libera Terra organisation in Sicily is being held at the lovely Market Quarter Delicatessen and wine merchants in Elizabeth Street, Belgravia on Thursday March 15th. The evening of tastings of the wines and produce from Libera starts at 6.30 and finishes at 8.30 pm and is strictly limited to just 24 guests.
Details about the Libera organisation can be found on a dedicated section of this website and we hope that this event will mark the start of a series of similar events in London, Norwich and Cambridge.

The wines to be tasted on the evening are two reds and two white wines from Sicily and the Italian region of Puglia and all the wines will be available in the UK from April 2012. There will also be a tasting of the fine organic olive oil which Libera produces and a small selection of their pasta and marmalades available on the evening.
Libera Terra is involved in many community based projects in Sicily and southern Italy and we at Sagraitalia feel passionately about helping to promote this unique organisation in the UK.

Le Marche wine and food in Norwich

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:26:54 +0100

The Le Marche evening that was held at St Benedicts restaurant in Norwich on the 25th January was a great success and proved very popular. All the tickets were sold many weeks before the event and there were 48 guest present to try the wines from Le Marche as well as a typical Italian rustic meal prepared by Nigel from Raffles restaurants.
Stefano Milani from the specialist wine importer Selezione Zanotto came up from London to give a series of taks on the different wines as the evening progressed, the wines included the white Passerina and Pecorino and the red Rosso Piceno and Marche Rosso. There was also a typical Le Marche dessert wine the Vini di Visciole which is made from cherries and also Stefano produced one of his special natural Proseccos for the guest to try.

There are several more events being planned both in Norwich and London to feature wines from the Le Marche region and also wines from Veneto which are imported by Selezione Zanotto. Sagraitalia also has several olive oil tastings in London on April and May and we also hope to have a olive oil workshop with one of the oil producers from Italy at one of the new London markets in a few months time.
We believe that the relatively unknown wines from the Le Marche region in Italy need to be brought to the attention of the public in the UK and we will continue organising events to promote both the wines and the small artisan wine producers involved in making these wonderful wines.

Le Marche evening in Norwich

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:38:52 +0100

Sagraitalia will be holding a special Le Marche evening in Norwich on Wednesday 25th January, in co operation with Slow Food Norwich and Raffles restaurants.
The evening will be featuring wines from the Le Marche region of eastern Italy and a menu of dishes which are typical of that beautiful Italian region. There will also be a tasting of the wonderful extra virgin olive oils from the Frantoio Montedoro which is located close to the Le Marche region Adriatic coast.
The wines will be from small artisan producers, the main wine of the evening is from Vini Centanni from near the beautiful village of Montefiore dell' Aso the south of the region and also a small selection of wine from Azienda Venturi which is located in central Le Marche.

The Le Marche region of Italy is still relatively unknown outside of Italy and its wines are normally not found in the UK apart from the white Verdicchio which is now proving a popular wine in some of the bigger supermarket chains.
At the Norwich evening there will be two white wines, a passerina and a pecorino and two reds, a rosso piceno and Marche rosso, the pecorino is only produced in very small quantities and rarely seem outside of the Le Marche region.
The meal will be a variety of typical Le Marche dishes, with an antipasti, main and dessert and with this will be served a vino di viniscole which is a sour cherry desert wine.
The event has proved extremely popular and is fully booked several weeks ahead, several similar events are planned for the spring and summer of 2012 in London, Cambridge and Norwich.

Selezione Zanotto, Frantoio Montedoro at Caponata, Camden Town.

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:12:52 +0100

Sagraitalia is pleased to be involved with Selezione Zanotto of London at their next wine and food event in London on Monday 19th January.
The evening will begin at 7.30 and should prove popular as Selezione Zanotto has been winning clients and a loyal following since launching in the UK at the end of 2010.
Stefano Milani of Selezione Zanotto is hosting a wine, cheese and jazz evening at this prestigious Italian restaurant in Camden Town, north London and this is one of many that Stefano has arranged in the Autumn and Winter of 2012. Stefano will be guiding the guest through a tasting of some of Selezione Zanottos wonderful range of fine Italian wines which they import from exclusive producers in Italy.

As well as the fine wines, great cheeses and excellent jazz music there will also be olive oil provided by Sagraitalia for the guest to try.
The fine olive oil is from the Le Marche region of Italy, which boarders on the Adriatic and is provided by the producer, Andrea from Frantoio Montedoro which is near the beautiful Adriatic coastal resort of Senigallia. The oils to be tried that evening are the wonderful monovarietal Raggia olive oil and the organic oil which the Frantoio is now starting to produce to satisfy the demand of its clients.
Dermott will be around to explain to guests about the wonderful olive oils and also about the producer which is a small artisan Frantoio making fine extra virgin olive oils which have proved popular with clients and the public in the UK in 2011 and hopefully for many years to come.

Gyoza Otaku debuts at The White Horse, Hoxton, London.

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:33:37 +0100

London's first Japanese pop-up, Gyoza Otaku debuts on Sunday 4th December at the newly refurbished White Horse in Hoxton Street, London N1.

They will be serving up fresh hand-made, delicious Japanese pot stickers, and will be open for business between 1 and 6pm. Anyone looking for good food, good music and great vibes need to be there!!

Also during that time there will be arcord fair for those in search of fine vinyl, this is accompanied by DJ's playing soulful vibes, this will continue to 10pm. Sets on the day will come from Kyri r2 (r2 records), Chris Phillpis (Jazz FM), T.Maronie (The Ladyz) and Spencer Lowe (Welson Creep, Shook)

It promises to be a great afternoon and evening and for more info check out GyozaOtaku on Facebook or Twitter or email gyozaotaku@gmail.com

Italian Sagra in Chesham.

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:11:36 +0100

Sagraitalia is pleased to be working closely with the recording artist Kirsty Hawkshaw to hold an Italian Sagra event at a venue in Chesham near London on December 8th, part of the proceeds form this event are going toward the Air Ambulance charity in Buckinghamshire which Kirsty has also previously helped with funding.
Up to 60 to 70 guests are expected at the Sagra and the evening beginnings at 7.30 and will finish after midnight with music being provided by a band and Kirsty is also performing some of her music, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FIXlKL805Q .
Kirsty is well known in Chesham where she organises events and is part of the vibrant local community and she has travelled the world performing her music, including the US, Japan and Europe.

Where possible Sagraitalia tries to use authentic Italian produce from small artisan producers in Italy, so the wine for the event is from a small organic wine producer in Italy who makes wonderful Umbrian Rosso and white Grechetto in the winery near Todi. The olive oil is from Frantoio Montedoro in Le Marche and there will be some produce from Libera Terra, the anti Mafia organisation based in southern Italy and Sicily.

Sagraitalia connection with Libera Terra started in 2010, we now promote and market their produce, organising tours to their farms, vineyards, olive groves and holiday Agriturismi in southern Italy and Sicily. We are very pleased to support both the local Buckinghamshire Air Ambulance and also the socially active Libera Terra organisation in Italy.
http://www.tvacaa.org/ http://www.ilgiustodiviaggiare.it/
Libera Terra will be increasingly important to Sagraitalia over the coming months and years and we will be helping this excellent organisation with marketing both their produce, wines, holidays and educational visits in the UK and also possibly in Ireland.

Painting and drawing in Le Marche, Italy.

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:38:12 +0100

Sagraitalia as well as organising and supporting local Italian events in London and the UK also likes to promote Italian based businesses who can offer clients different types of holidays and experiences in Italy.
As we are primarily involved in the Le Marche region of Italy we are therefore very pleased to be able to recommend a wonderful painting and drawing in Italy website, http://www.paintingholidaysitaly.com/

Painting and drawing lessons are offered by Caroline Crawford at her beautiful home near Camerino in Le Marche, there are two artist studios in the main house, as well as outbuildings in the large grounds. Outside there are two large terraces shaded by pergolas and these offer stunning views of the Le Marche countryside and also a large pool and gym in which you can both exercise and relax!
Caroline also has guest artists throughout the year and UK based sculptor, Andy Smith will be holding classes at the house next year.
So do contact Caroline at the website above for all the latest news, dates and courses in 2012.