Photoless Friday (28): Wines in Lombardy and an upcoming wine festival!

Lombardy isn't known for its wines, but it has quite a few respectable ones, including spumante (since we can't call it "champagne," anymore) from the Franciacorta area, which straddles Lombardy and the Veneto...More......

Why can't we call it "champagne," anymore? Because "Champagne" is the name of a region in France, from which this kind of sparkling white wine took its name, but now European Union rules say that only sparkling white wines from that regione can be called that. (The same thing happened to the Italian "Tocai"--now called "Friuliano," after the northeastern region of Italy in which it is principally produced--a name considered by the European Union as too similar to the Hungarian "Tocaj.")

Let's get to the point: the 25th of September there will be the Festival of the Grape in the only DOC area in the Province of Milan (the governmental organization between the levels of city and region...think of it as "county"), San Colombano near the Lambro river, in the "oltrepo pavese" region (that is, the area near to Pavia on the other side of the Po River). The hills of Miradolo Terme and Graffignana are involved, and the event is held--for the 54th time--by the San Colombano DOC Wine Association. For more information: http://www.sancolombanodoc.it, tel. +39.0371.89.88.30.

Piqued your interest in Lombard wines? Here are a few websites in Italy (YOU can look up "wines in Lombardy" easily for yourself!), which seemed reliable:

VINOSTORE.IT (yes, it's trying to sell you the wines, but the list looks helpful): http://www.vinostore.it/lombardia.php

Google maps for "vino in lombardia" (wine in Lombardy) turns up this handy map of some of the vintners in the area: http://www.google.it/search?q=vino+lombardia&hl=it&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ITIT343&prmd=imvns&source=univ&tbm=plcs&tbo=u&ei=AutyTvrKEsfj4QTuicGgDQ&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=more-results&resnum=2&ved=0CGkQtQMwAQ

Lombard wines and the "VinItaly 2011" convention: http://www.lombardiavini.it/

A pdf publication dated 2009, and which appears to have the official approval--to be taken with a grain of salt--of the Region of Lombardy, about Lombard wines: http://www.buonalombardia.it/images/File/Allegati%20pubblicazioni/Vini09%20ITA-Ok.pdf

The wine roads in Lombardy (principally Bergamo, Brescia, Lodi, Mantova, Pavia, Sondrio): http://www.paesionline.it/lombardia/itinerari_ed_escursioni/strade_del_vino.asp

Though the sources are in Italian, if you're a wine buff you'll recognize terms. Even if you're not, hopefully it should be pretty obvious when they're talking about a wine, or a city: at least you'll get the names that you then can look up in English, yourself.

Running...unfortunately, not towards a glass of wine...at the moment!

Enjoy!