Veneticus Food night

The weather might be pretty awful at the moment but we had a fantastic evening at Veneticus in the Clerkenwell road near Holborn, London last Thursday evening.
Oscar set the evening aside for our latest special wine and food event and Stefano and Andrea co hosted the event which proved very popular and was attended by over thirty guests.

Stefano had provided a selection of his natural wines and a Col Fondo natural Prosecco, he also gave a talk about the production and ethos behind the Natural wine movement.
Andrea from Frantoio Montedoro also gave a presentation of four of his olive oils including his organice oil which he started producing at his Olive mill in Le Marche in 2010.
We were also lucky in having a small party of Italians who were visiting London who were very interested in hearing about the Natural wines and also Leonor who owns the Essentia Relais hotel near the Adriatic coastal resort of Senigallia in Italy.
Our next event will be in Shoreditch in London in June and then at a wine and olive oil evening in the market town of Fakenham, Norfolk in July.

Olive oil and wine event at Veneticus, London

Selezione Zanotto of London together with their good friend Andrea Tomassetti of Frantoio Montedoro in Le Marche, Italy will be holding an olive oil and wine tasting evening at the Veneticus Delicatessen in London on Thursday 26th April.
The event starts at 5.45 and will finish around 8pm or later, and it is hoped that up to 60 guests will be present on the evening. Oscar Panizzon from Veneticus has strived to make the venue a focal point for excellent Italian food and wines in this part of Central London since taking ownership nearly two years ago and this is one of a series of events that Sagritalia hope to hold at this venue in 2012.

Stefano Milani of Selezione Zanotto will be presenting a small selection of his range of fine Italian wines including some natural wines from the Veneto region of Italy. Selezione Zanotto work closely with Sagraitalia to promote Italian themed food events and parties in London and the east of England, including Sagre at Creake Abbey in Norfolk, the natural fair in Great Missenden and wine and food tastings in Belgravia and other parts of central London.

Andrea is visiting the UK this April to hold a series of tutored tastings and workshops in London and Norwich following the success of his visits in the spring and autumn of 2011. The workshops have proved very popular and his oils have consistently come first at blind tastings and it is hoped that Andrea will continue to visit us in the years to come to promote his wonderful olive oils.
Visits to try Andreas olive oils at his mill at Frantoio Montedoro in Le Marche are also starting to prove popular as can be seen in this video and we hope to expand the number of workshops that we can hold each year in the UK.

Selezione Zanotto will also be presenting a small selection of  their natural Italian wines at the RAW natural Artisan wine fair in London on the 20th and 21st May. The RAW fair is now one of the most prestigious events in the natural wine calendar in Europe and Stefano Milani will be present to host the tasting and presentation of these fantastic wines.
Natural wines are a speciality of the Selezione Zanotto range and Stefano is always happy to arrange tastings for clients in and around the London area.

Libera Terra Evening and West Norwood Food Fair

Sagraitalia with Slow Food London held a very successful wine and food evening at the Market Quarter in Belgravia last Thursday evening. The produce featured was from the Libera Terra organisation in Sicily including a wonderful olive oil, orange and lemon compotes, pasta and passata, these were tasted along with their wines which are from the Centopassi range offered to the public by Libera.
The evening proved very popular with members of Slow Food London and Norwich with almost  half the other attendees being Italians now living and working in London!

We now hope that this will prove the start of a much higher public profile for Libera Terra in London and the next big event where Libera will be promoted is the West Norwood Food Festival at the end of March.
Alistair Cameron from the Market Quarter in Belgravia and a member of Slow Food London will be holding a talk at the festival about Sicily and also Libera Terra at this popular food event in south London. We will be there to provide samples and publicity material for this event and look forward to a rolling series of events in London and the east of England over the coming months.

Libera Terra in Belgravia

We will be holding a Libera Terra week at the Market Quarter in Belgravia in early March as part of our ongoing promotion with Slow Food of this fantastic Sicilian organisation in the UK.

Libera Terra is the socially active organisation made up of local communities and students in Italy which rents properties and farms that have been confiscated off the Mafia and organised crime by the Italian state. All the foods and wine produced on the confiscated lands are then branded and marketed as Libera Terra, the profits are either then re invested in similar projects or are used to help underprivileged individuals and communities in Sicily and the south of Italy.

Sagraitalia together with Slow Food London and Slow Food Norwich have been active in the promotion of  Libera Terra for the past year and the event at the Market Quarter is going to be one of an ongoing series of talks, tastings and social events to help spread the word in London and the UK about Libera Terra and its work in Italy. There are also plans to hold another one of our popular wine and food evenings on behalf of Libera Terra in Norwich in April, Cambridge in early May and also in Holborn in London at the end of  May.

Other events being organised and hosted by Sagraitalia include an exhibition of work by a Maltese artist in east London in May, a Le Marche olive oil tasting with wines from Veneto in Holborn at the end of April, a second Le Marche food and wine event in north west London in May and a large outdoor Italian style Sagra at Creake Abbey Barns near the beautiful north Norfolk coastal village of Burnham Market in July, this will be hosted by Anna Mosesson and will be the third of these very popular events to be held in beautiful north west Norfolk. 

Sagraitalia will also be hosting several food events in Italy in co operation with Vinitours who organise wine, truffle and olive oil tours in the Italian regions of Le Marche and Umbria.

Later in 2012 we hope to be able to offer visits and tours to Libera Terra farms and vineyards in Sicily, together with accommodation at agriturismi managed and run by Libera groups

Sagraitalia and Selezione Zanotto

Sagraitalia is very happy to have been involved with the London based Selezione Zanotto for most of 2011 and we are both looking forward to co operating with our successful Italian themed food events in 2012 and beyond.
The next event that we are holding together with Slow food Norwich will be on Wednesday 25th January and will be an evening featuring wines from the Le Marche region of eastern Italy. Stefano Milani from Selezione Zanotto will be guiding the guests through the wines that will be accompanying the food that evening and will also be giving a short talk about the wines and the Le Marche region.
Dermott from Sagraitalia will also be speaking about Le Marche as he has been involved in the region for over ten years and also knows the producer of the wine featured in Norwich that evening very well.
Stefano Milani has built up a loyal customer base for his fine Italian wines over the short time he has been involved in the wine retailing business in London and he has also been a keen supporter of wines from Italy whose producers are also members of  Slow Wine Italy
Selezione Zanotto has a large range of fine Italian wines and also concentrates on sourcing excellent organic, biodynamic and natural wines, their natural Prosecco wines being a particular favourite of customers.

The Norwich evening is already fully booked up and several more tastings are planned in Norwich, Cambridge and London over the coming months. A tasting of natural wines is being planned in Norwich for the spring and two large Italian Sagre will be held in North Norfolk in the early summer and autumn.
As well as the superb wines at the food events, Sagraitalia also features fine Italian organic extra virgin olive oils, including wonderful oils from Frantoio Montedoro in Le Marche.
Andrea Tomassetti from Frantoio Montedoro will be in the UK in April to tutor tastings of olive oils from Italy at workshops in London and Norwich.

Montedoro Olive oil from Le Marche

Our favourite olive oil from Italy is produced by the Frantoio Montedoro in central Le Marche, which is run by a good friend Andrea Tomassetti. This small artisan Frantoio is located near the village of Roncitelli about 4km from the Adriatic coast and the beautiful coastal resort of Senigallia.
Frantoio Montedoro produces several wonderful extra virgin olive oils, including a single variety Raggia olive oil, a wonderful blend called Progetto Qualita and increasingly a very popular filtered and also an unfiltered organic olive oil.
In these days of questionable providence of Italian olive oils the oil from this Frantoio is all certified as produced from olives that have been grown locally or in other parts of the region.
Andrea is also very keen on arranging visits to his olive groves and mill for clients interested in learning more about olive oil production and also how to appreciate and taste fine extra virgin olive oils

With the assistance of Sagraitalia and Olivaverde in the UK these olive oils have now been brought to the attention of a wider public outside of the Le Marche region and are now available in the UK, Australia and Canada.
Andrea visits the UK several times a year to hold talks and tastings in selected venues in London and the east of England and in 2012 we also hope to hold workshops at several major universities and food markets in London, including the famous Borough and Spitalfields markets..

To accompany a Le Marche wine and food evening in Norwich on the 25th January we are also arranging a small tasting of the olive oils from Frantoio Montedoro which will include the Monovarietal Raggia olive oil and the new Organic olive oil.
At a large Sagra or food party to be held in north Norfolk in May we will be having a special stand at which Andrea will be holding a workshop on olive oil making as well as holding tutored tastings and this should prove as popular as similar events held in the past two years in the east of England and London.

Chesham Event and Caponata in Camden

The wine and food event held on Thursday 8th December in Chesham, Buckinghamshire proved to be a great success in raising money for the Bucks Air Ambulance charity. Over 60 people turned up to help support this worthwhile charity, there was great music by Kirsty Hawkshaw and her friends, wine from Umbria which was supplied by Sagraitalia and a great range of cheeses from Italy which were from Isle of Cheese which is run by Ivett Kerekes.

Selezione Zanotto is holding a wine, cheese and jazz night at the Caponata restaurant in Camden Town in north London on Monday 19th December.
The evening will feature wines imported from Italy by Selezione Zanotto and Stefano Milani will be hosting the event at this fantastic Sicilian restaurant.
Sagraitalia is pleased to be involved and will be supplying the fantastic Le Marche olive oil from Frantoio Montedoro which will be used on the food that evening as well as holding a small tasting event.