Great honor for me. Dinner with Secretary Kathleen Sibelius.

May

After all the rain the vineyard is very luscious...now we are waiting for the sun...

Great time at Resta, lot of people coming to visit, am superbusy, all very nice, a lot of connections, the 2007 completely sold out, the 2008 ready to come out.

I met Alice Waters and this was very important for me, she is such an amazing person.
Inspiration for my cooking projects, and life in general.
Thank you to the Borgo Finocchieto, that gives me these wonderful opportunities.

This picture was taken as a project for a book, but will tell you more later...suprise surprise...

April

I just came back from our important annual wine fair in Verona, Vinitaly. Martino went very well, am so proud. There are new openings for markets: Austria, Germany, Canada and Switzerland. Now I have to send them samples, and wait for orders. Am referring to the 2008 vintage, that will be ready in a couple of weeks. The 2007 is completely sold out. Still can't figure it out how this happened. 4.000 bottles, gone.
Winebow INC. ordered more bottles, I will post soon the restaurants in the US that keep it.
Am posting a picture of the new baby vine growing, every day a little bit.
And one of the new presence in my cellar, a slavonian oak barrell. I don't use it for aging the wine, but I wanted to recuperate it from a winery that was going to throw it away. It looks very charming!

And one with Leonardo Locascio, President of Winebow.
Am starting to have some tastings here, am getting busy with planting flowers in the courtyard's pots, and tomorrow will decide on some t-shirts with Martino's name on. Why not?
A presto!
Anna Lisa

February

We had ONE day of snow, these are some picks. This was last week.

Despite the weather, the air has been changing in the last couple of days, and we are looking forward the spring.

Seems like a long winter...

January

Dear all,

the year started very well here at Resta, I am now waiting to prune, probably in the next couple of days.

Have been busy with the kids, driving them everywhere, and with a yoga practice I enjoy , with a very good teacher. And am taking guitar lessons, once a week.

Am pretty sure that in a couple of months life here will be a lot more busier. And, sincerely, I can't wait! You know how much I enjoy to entertain.

Am planning some "marketing strategy" - something I need to do even if I "only" produce 4.500 bottles... - decide to which wine shows to go to, still working on the website (seems like a life-long project), and thinking of new recipes for the cooking classes.

We have a very ambitious program for the coming year with my Orcia Consortium: this year we celebrate 10 years, and we are going to organize an event each month. All locally, connected to the regional "festas", as the truffle, the honey, the artichoke, etc.

Am going to send some bottles to a tasting in Genova and one in Milan.

An important italian journalist came last week, up to now I didn't receive anything about what he has been writing, am crossing my fingers.

I just opened a page on Facebook for Martin del Nero. Of course I am very active in my account, Anna Lisa C. Tempestini, let's see what happens with this one. Will I handle to coordinate everything? It is not active yet, I am just working on it, am waiting for Clara to help me.

Someone wrote to me that had a bottle of Martino in New York, in the Italian restaurant named "Maialino". So happy about it.

You may find the wine in Tosca in Washington DC.

Please write to me if you are planning to come to Toscana, if you need help from me.

Would like to post a more sunny picture, but the sky is really grey today!

So, instead, I post a picture taken yesterday: I prepared with my friend Miria the seasoned salt for the season. All organic products, most of them coming from the courtyard.

Anna Lisa