Let's ignore winter's chill and go for another European wine tasting. This time we travel to Italy!

Our favorite Somm, Joe Breaux, is back with another new import portfolio, this time from Rosenthal Wine Merchants. Every wine they import speaks clearly of its origins. They cultivate extraordinarily close relationships with their growers: multi-generational, family-run enterprises that share the company’s founding commitment to the notion of terroir.

From the Rosenthal website: "Italy is a country rich in tradition and proud of its history.  It is modern, yes; but, by and large, the Italians accept modernity with a shrug.  Nothing is more comforting nor more calming than standing in a damp cellar deep underground, whether it is in Tuscany or Piedmont or Umbria, before a series of massive old wooden barrels holding solid, rustic red wine destined to become over time a distinguished author of a consumable work about a piece of…