Forces combined (such as in espresso and gelato)

Victoria and I traveled to Valpolicella last weekend with one of our importers. We had an amazing time  touring vineyards and sampling wines. For me, it was amazing to travel with Vicky, not only because she's one of my closest friends and co-workers, but also because she's trained as a chef before becoming a wine waiter. Some of you may remember my last trip of this kind where I went to Ribera del Duero in Spain. Myself and another one of our importers traveled alone, and we were shown around by an export manager who was also a sommelier. The discussions we had about the wines we tasted were excellent and very in-depth, but also very wine-focused. For example, when comparing tasting notes, we'd see phrases such as "minerally" or "buttery" or "full-bodied" or "oaky". You get it, your average sommelier-speak. I came back burbling about ageability and drinkability, and differences in terroir and fermentation. Which is what I was supposed to do, don't get me wrong. But tasting with Vicky not only includes discussion of the effects of Slavonic versus French oak, but also pure flavor. Now I know that specific smells and tastes are highly subjective, but for our purposes it's still a highly relevant discussion to have. If we found ourselves noting blackberry on the palate, what dishes would go with that? During what season would we serve this? In what order would we serve the wines, at, say, a winemakers dinner in early spring based on the seasonal produce available? It's not normally my domain, as I usually try to entertain myself by trying to blindly identify grapes during these trips, but it was really fun and I think we both came away feeling that we'd not only scouted several excellent wines which you'll be able to drink at Bloom as soon as we can import them, but we'd also learned a  lot about the local "flavor profile", if you will. Sometimes I think that one only truly understands a wine if one has tried it in its place of origin. 

(lots and lots of great Valpolicella wine!)

We had some time to wander around Verona as well. We came away about a million shots of espresso taken, a few litres of gelato eaten, lots of Prosecco, Brunello di Montalcino, Barbera d'Alba drunk, and copious amounts of pizza, pasta, risotto, truffle, mozzarella, bresaola, parma ham eaten eaten and one pair of hideously expensive high-heeled boots (despite the limitations on our luggage!) richer. We sort of felt like we'd found ourselves again after a summer and autumn of hard work. Then we wandered in to this place, and literally found ourselves:

Hilarious!