TTITIM #4: Diego and Donini Wines

The last few hits (coming in the next few days) in my Top Ten Italian Things I’ll Miss list (you can see all TTITIM here, and catch up more on the reasons and explanation behind the list) are ones that I’ve mentioned a few times at least already on the blog (unlike a couple below that I missed posting up on earlier), and ones that were central to our pre-tirement in Italy. Starting with our now-friend Diego, the owner, vintner, and driving force behind Donini wines. I’ve talked a lot about both the wine-maker and the winery (read another Donini blog here, or read some on my cocktail blog), with good reason: the wine-maker has been incredibly welcoming to us, and the wines are delicious and have been a perfect liquid accompaniment to many meals and snacks. We’ve stopped at the winery, say, 20 times, and have taken most visitors there, too. Each time, Diego has taken us around the winery (different rooms every time it seems--it’s a good-sized place), and we’ve gotten to take many tastes straight off the casks (once even tasting a certain wine three times--once a version aged a year, then the same aged two years, and then bottled and aged longer), as you can see in this pic of Diego and Nat:

Diego, as you can tell if you take the time to talk a bit (he loves to talk, and has English skills that are much better than he thinks), loves making wine, and loves making wine that people can drink enjoyably (there’s no snootiness at Donini, unlike most wineries, and no hard sell, either, which is refreshing), daily. I just wish some importer on the west coast would start bringing in Donini wines for more people in the US to have--or just for us to have. One final Donini pic I don’t believe I’ve posted before, the room way in the back, the original room of the winery, where the big wood casks are:

Here’s a final toast, Diego, thanks for keeping us in good wine and being a good friend.

*All TTITIM