GREETINGS! Welcome to Melgab International CC. We specialise in imported Italian wine. Established in 1993, we are arguably the largest independent importers of Italian wine to South Africa, maintaining a strong cultural connection that keeps us in continuous contact with Italian, European and other international food and wine sectors. We also import Argentinean, French (Champagne), Portuguese and Spanish wine, amongst others.
At Melgab, we strive to source exclusive Italian wines to make them available to our South African clients at affordable prices. We pride ourselves on delivering a professional service with the interest of establishing and maintaining close and personal business relationships with customers and producers alike. We deal directly with major retailers, numerous restaurants, wine shops and private individuals around the country.
Through our comprehensive wine license, we are able to offer free delivery directly to your doorstep. So what are you waiting for? Take a look at our current selection and proceed to order wine online directly from us.
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Publication: Financial Mail | 24 June 2005
Author: Neil Pendock
Italian Lessons
Marco Savoia, sales manager for Cape Town-based wine importer Melgab International, sells 40 000 bottles of Italian wine a year. And he says there has never been a better time to buy Italian wine in SA ...
» Full Story (subscription required)
Publication: Cape Times | 12 November 2004
Author: Kim Maxwell
Working in Asia and dating an Italian, I learned a lot about enthusiastic eating. Air-couriered packages of Italian salamis? became the signal for noisy gatherings over risotto? to ... Marco Savoia playfully persuades us to try the Erta & China Sangiovese Cabernet Sauvignon blend? and Chianti Renzo Masi. Both easy-going Italians work with our food ...
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Jacob Gaffney (winespectator.com) writes:
Red wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Shiraz make for potent bacteria killers, according to research conducted at the University of Missouri. While not all red varieties were found to be helpful in killing harmful bacteria, those that were did not affect non-harmful and helpful strains, such as those that aid digestion, called probiotic bacteria. Promising as the results may be, however, it remains unknown if the positive effects from the lab would be realized in humans by drinking red wine.
I'm waiting for the new Doctor's recommendation: Take two glassfuls with food in the evening, preferably roast game or mature cheeses, and call me in the morning...
Note: this does not refer to the type of headache that comes from drinking too much wine. Panos Kakaviatos (decanter.com) writes:
A Nasa scientist has developed a device that can assess levels of headache-causing agents found in some wines.
Some biometric amines - compounds which occur naturally in some red wine - cause headaches by elevating heart rates, amongst other triggers. The modified amino acid tyramine is a particular culprit.
Now University of Berkeley chemistry professor Richard Mathies - who suffers form wine-induced headaches - has created a device to detect these agents.
Great stuff! Can't wait for it to hit the shelves.
Update: Now also in English!
With Afrikaans the lingua franca of SA wine producers, ethical issues concerning wine writing raised by George Claassen in Die Burger on Friday should attract some interest. Claassen, former Professor of Journalism at the University of Stellenbosch, is ombudsman for the newspaper and his comments in “when the wine in wine-journalism turns to vinegar� pull no punches. SA wine hacks are not the only ones to feel the wrath of the Claassen pen, with allegations made by Italian publication Il Mio Vino? that Decanter magazine sells stories given another airing – this time in Afrikaans. Will Decanter sue Die Burger as they threatened www.winenews.co.za when I reported on the Il Mio Vino bombshell earlier this year?
Claassen’s comments get straight to the point: “how much value can wine lovers attach to the ratings of wine publications and wine writers?� he asks when he receives so many examples of unethical wine judging and marketing. The one he presents is of a “blind� tasting at a restaurant on top of Table Mountain with a group of wine connoisseurs and writers judging bottles from which the brand labels had been removed - although the back labels were “conveniently� still visible.
...
Claassen then looks at the state of play outside SA and moves on to a piece I wrote for www.winenew.co.za earlier this year. Called “when everything has a price�, it quotes extensively from a feature in Il Mio Vino by Gaetano Manti alleging that one of the major international wine magazines, Decanter, offers stories for sale?. I wrote the piece in response to complaints by several local winemakers about the coverage of the Decanter World Wine Awards in the magazine where the form in which results are printed is a function of how much you pay. With over a thousand entries this year, the DWWA are up there with Veritas and the Michelangelo International Wine Awards as the most important wine shows on the SA calendar.
In Afrikaans nogal... uitgeleerd soos 'n jakkals.
HOEVEEL waarde kan wynliefhebbers heg aan die evaluerings wat wyntydskrifte en wynskrywers aan wyne toeken?
Dit is ’n vraag wat al lank by my spook omdat ek al soveel voorbeelde van lede van die publiek – ook lesers van Die Burger – gekry het wat praat oor die onetiese wyse waarop wyne beoordeel en bemark word.
My eie ondervinding is nogal sprekend. Eendag het ek tydens die een of ander Kaapse fees in die restaurant bo-op Tafelberg beland langs ’n groep wynmeesters en -skrywers wat klaarblyklik besig was met die een of ander beoordelingsessie van wyne. Die handelsmerk-etikette op die bottels was verwyder, maar die sogenaamde agterplat (al het ’n bottel nie eintlik ’n agterkant nie!) se etikette was nog almal “gerieflik� sigbaar.
Dit gaan egter om veel meer, want as daar twee terreine is waar die joernalistiek nogal oneties bedryf word, is dit die wyn- en motorjoernalistiek. Die kommersialisering van die joernalistiek, die sogenaamde advertorials of betaalde redaksionele kopie, word een van die grootste euwels in die joernalistieke bedryf.
Dit gebeur wanneer die produsent of bemarker of adverteerder betaal vir redaksionele kopie wat natuurlik niks leliks oor ’n produk sê nie. Wat ongelukkig dikwels gebeur, is dat die redaksionele kopie aan die leser aangebied word as net dÃt en tipografies moeilik onderskei kan word van redaksionele kopie wat nuusgedrewe is.
Die korrekte prosedure is om oop kaarte met die leser te speel en by sodanige kopie duidelik deur middel van ’n opskrif of banier aan te dui dat dit promosiekopie is. Daar moet by die leser nooit enige twyfel wees dat wat hier gelees word, eintlik betaalde advertensie-cum-redaksionele kopie is nie.
Waar die leser egter die meeste mislei word, is wanneer betaalde kopie oor wyn of ’n wynplaas aangebied word asof dit ’n eerlike redaksionele beoordeling van daardie produk of instelling is.
It's hardly a new topic, but definitely one worth revisiting... Svetlana Kovalyova (africa.reuters.com) writes:
MONTEPULCIANO, Italy, Oct 9 (Reuters Life!) - No sugar?, no wood chips and only the best local grapes patiently aged in oak? barrels make Italy's premium Vino? Nobile di Montepulciano wine.
"Old World?" winemakers of France, Italy and Spain have come under growing competition in recent years from "New World?" producers in the Americas, Australia and South Africa who often use innovative techniques to make more wine, more quickly. But producers of Montepulciano in the famous Italian wine region? of Tuscany and home to Chianti, believe they can beat new these fashionable wines by holding on to centuries-long traditions and imposing high standards on quality.
» Full Story (via wine.co.za)
Ahem...
Speaking of traditional Italian wine, I will be visiting the Salone del Vino in Turin, Italy this coming week. While I've covered the event in the past this will be my first time attending. *joy* It promises to be a most profitable and tasty affair:
The market numbers and the peculiarity of the 2007 grape harvest - particularly early due to specific weather conditions - makes the usual Torino date with the Salone del Vino (Wine Salon) rather interesting this year.
For the first time, the celebration is dealing with verifying the quality of the vintage?, not to mention determining the economic dynamics of a sector considered to be one of the most important under the Made in Italy banner and the absolute top sector regarding agricultural production.
Another of the event’s top draws is the highly anticipated Workshop Internazionale. For wine shops, this encounter represents an almost singular opportunity in Italy to meet the biggest world operators in real business briefings. Special attention is reserved for wines from indigenous wine production, stars of the 3rd Forum Nazionale that presents all the best wines from Italy’s extraordinary ampelographic heritage.
Not to be missed are the delicious Slow Food workshops, mouth-watering tastings, and the lively Shopping del Bacco opportunities.
» Full Story
» Melgab's Piedmontese Wines
Eric Asimov (thepour.blogs.nytimes.com) writes:
I cursed myself and the designers of Manhattan galley kitchens, but to my surprise the peppers stayed down there. They’re still there, and I don’t know what to do short of somehow rigging up a very long tube for the vacuum. Oh well, the chicken? parm and the bread pudding came out really well, and I opened a 2000 Radici Taurasi from Mastroberardino, a longtime producer in Campania.
The wine confirmed for me my long-held opinion that aglianico is a terribly underrated grape. It has lovely aromas of dried cherries and tar, a firm? but not impregnable structure?, and went very well with the chicken. The Radici is done in an elegant style?, without the overlay of oak? that you see in some of the very ambitious aglianicos. I don’t think 2000 was a great vintage?, and the wine was enjoyable now (I decanted it) and will be for another five years or so. I also have a bottle of the 2001, a much better vintage, but I may not open it for a few years.
As good as the wine was, it didn’t bring back my red peppers.
Do want? All yours...
Frank Smith (decanter.com) writes:
An Australian winemaker? has patented a method of removing sulphur? dioxide from wine immediately prior to consumption.
James Pennington, of Rivendell Wines in western Australia, patented his PEWA (Preservative Elimination in Wine At consumption) system earlier this year.
The system consists of a levered plastic stopper which is placed on the top of the recently-opened bottle of wine. When the lever is raised and dropped, a small amount of hydrogen peroxide is released. The hydrogen peroxide neutralises the sulphites and the stopper can be removed.
According to Pennington, once the proceedure has been performed the wine is almost completely sulphur free.
... the only obvious drawback of using the PEWA system is that the wine can't be kept for much longer after the treatment, since hydrogen peroxide is a strong oxidising agent.
The editorial team at just-drinks.com report:
Italian wine exports have seen a lift throughout the first half of the year and are set to break last year's record, according to recent figures.
Citing data from the Italian National Statistic Institute, the Italian Wine Union (UIV) said yesterday (2 October) that the value of Italian wine exports was up 12% compared to the same period last year, hitting EUR1.6bn (US$2.27bn) in the first six months of 2007.
In volume terms, exports increased by 15% year-on-year to 925,000 tonnes, the union said.
Wine exports for the full-year are expected to exceed the record of EUR3.1bn registered last year, the union noted.
This is a fantastic crash course covering the more prominent Italian grape varietals? used to make Italian wine today. Tom Hyland (wineloverspage.com) writes:
At the heart and soul of Italian viticulture? are the wines made from indigenous varieties. These grapes - many of which are native to only one or just a few Italian regions and nowhere else - offer this country's bold answer to the claim that too many wines around the world taste? alike these days.
Everyone's familiar with Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvingon and Merlot. While these are widely planted in Italy, they are not dominant and do not represent any particular region? or district?. Rather, varieties such as Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Barbera, Greco and Fiano tell the story of Italian wines in detail and with great complexity?.
In today's world, where it seems everyone wants information at their fingertips in an instant, it's no surprise that the wines of the world have been dumbed down to the Big? Six, as I like to call them; the six varieties that dominate plantings in many countries around the world. These six are Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc? for white and Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Syrah for red. All are wonderful varieties, but as you don't eat the same foods all the time, I'm assuming you want something different in your glass of wine as well.
So turn to Italy, as foreign sounding and as unusual their varieties may be. To help ease the confusion, here is a brief guide to some major Italian varieties (not all 2,000!) from A to Z. This is just a brief list, remember; we won't even get into some of the more exotic varieties such as Sciascinoso, Caprettone or Freisa!
Goes on to mention the following classics: Aglianico, Barbera, Coda di Volpe, Corvina, Dolcetto, Erbaluce, Favorita, Falanghina, Fiano, Garganega, Greco, Incrocio Manzoni, Kerner, Lagrein, Montepulciano, Nebbiolo, Oseleta, Picolit, Pignolo, Pinot Bianco?, Pinot Grigio, Prosecco, Rondinella, Sagrantino, Sangiovese, Schiava, Schioppettino, Tazzelenghe, Uva?? di Troia, Vermentino, Vernaccia, Verduzzo and Zibbibo.
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