If you’re after a foodie treat this autumn, Been there readers have the answer – try chestnuts in Sorrento, a wine tour of Alsace or a meat-feast in Rio

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WINNING TIP: Chestnut festival, San Felice D’Ocre, Italy – 30 November

In an impossibly perfect medieval hilltop village, a stripy food tent is crammed with extended family groups dining on chestnut dishes made with beef or chickpeas, then a selection of chestnut desserts. A steady stream of sacks is delivered to a giant hotplate for roasting, then transported to the back of the kitchens to be transformed into more chestnut delicacies. bit.ly/pQe7OM MandyMc

France/Germany

Alsace wine route
We toured the Alsace wine route one autumn. The vines were bare as it was after the harvest, but the little wine towns of Kaysersburg and Riquewihr were ravishing. For one afternoon we popped over the Rhine to the pretty university city of Freiburg in Baden-Württemburg for a look at the gorgeous high-gothic Münster. In the Christmas markets we sampled hot bratwurst in crusty rolls, currywurst and dampfnudel – a suet pudding – with a cherry sauce and custard.
duncandonuts

Italy

Sorrento, Campania
In late summer, the evenings are cooler, but the days are still sunny and warm, and the colours of the autumn foliage blaze along the Amalfi coast. Foodies are in for a treat, as this is the time of year for freshly picked mushrooms, chestnuts and walnuts. For a splurge try L’Antica Trattoria – fabulous food (tasting menu €180 for two people), a beautiful terrace and a cosy traditional interior for the cooler evenings. For a restaurant with a local neighbourhood feel, try Il Leone Rosso – spot on for an authentic pizza marinara (€4).
lanticatrattoria.com, illeonerosso.it
troutiemcfish

Sibillini mountains, Le Marche
We spent a superb weekend in autumn sunshine staying at Villa San Raffaello with its great apartments, amazing views and free organic vegetables. We blew away the cobwebs walking along old mule tracks in the rolling hills, past the heady scent of locals making vino cotto (cooked wine). The next day we hiked into the Sibillini mountains and ate at the rifugio (refuge) at Monte Amandola – tasty strozzapreti pasta with truffle and sausage, and succulent lamb cooked on coals. The bill, including wine and homemade tiramisu, was under €20 a head.
villasanraffaello.com, apartments from €700 in autumn; rifugiocittadiamandola.blogspot.com
VinniForno

Santa Lorica, Livorno, Tuscany
Surrounded by wooded hills and vine covered slopes, this rural agri’ is perfect for foodies and families. Breakfast on homemade preserves, tarts and local cheeses while taking in the views across to the medieval town of Sassetto. The evening meal was our daily highlight, the friendly owner and his family served delicious and unusual regional dishes, always with an equally tasty veggie option. We chatted over local wine at communal tables under the stars while the kids hunted in the grounds for wild boar and fireflies.
+39 0565 794335, agriturismo.it/santalorica, €55pp half-board
dawnhove

Brazil

Marius Carnes, Rio de Janeiro
There are loads of all-you-can eat meat restaurants in Brazil and we tried three while I was there for a two-month stay working my way through Brazil. This place was the best. For meat-eaters it was heavenly. Best tip – don’t bother having lunch and stroll up about 7pm. You’ll feast. If you take a trip to Brazil now it will be coming into their spring – it’ll be hot but a great time to visit.
Av Atlantica 290B, +55 21 2104 9000
Mozzawatt

UK

Northumbria Food and Wine Festival, Corbridge
This takes place over three days, featuring wine tasting and live music, plus classic British cuisine. You can indulge your tastes, explore some great local food, all in a picturesque rural setting. Entrance includes tokens for wine samples and a commemorative tasting glass to take with you as you trot gracefully (or stagger) between tables. A great starting point for a trip to Northumberland.
7-9 October, Tynedale Park, tickets £20, northumbriafoodandwinefestival.co.uk
Forbesspeaks

guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle

The Natisone valley in north-east Italy is home to hidden villages in fairytale forests. And in autumn, the local restaurants play host to one of Europe’s best food festivals

I live in Venice, and I’ll make any excuse to escape the invading tourist hordes at the weekend, not to mention the eye-wateringly expensive restaurants. So when friends told me about an autumn food festival, Invito a Pranzo (“Come for lunch”) in the Natisone valley in Friuli, on the border with Slovenia, I jumped at the chance to explore one of the wildest, most upspoilt corners of northern Italy and, at the same time, discover a unique regional cuisine at knock-down prices.

Every weekend, in-the-know food lovers flock here from all over Italy, unable to resist the temptation of a lazy three- to four-hour lunch – especially when the fixed price for a 10-course tasting menu is just €23. A dozen rustic trattorie and osterie take part in Invito a Pranzo each year, and although they are open all week, this special menu is only offered every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from October through to December and you must make a reservation.

Many of the restaurants also have rooms, either basic B&Bs or old-fashioned pensione accommodation, so it is easy to plan a long weekend that takes in not just a couple of the restaurants, but also hiking or mountain biking through thick pine forests, or less strenuous pursuits, such as trout fishing and mushroom picking.

Natisone is an isolated, mountainous land that divides Italy from Slovenia. Getting here is easy, as the autostrada links Udine, the rather noble capital of the region, with Venice, Treviso and Trieste, all of which have low-cost air links with the UK. A short drive from Udine brings you to the ancient Roman town of Cividale del Friuli, where things start to get more complex. Road signs, when they do appear, are in both Italian and Slovene, and addresses of the restaurants taking part in Invito a Pranzo rarely give accurate details of their actual location, in tiny hamlets deep in the forest. It is impossible not to get lost – satnav doesn’t work here – and many winding lanes peter out into dead-ends or lead you over the frontier into Slovenia.

I headed first for the Trattoria Alla Posta (+39 0432 725000) in the sleepy village of Clodig, where the road hugs the Cosizza river, passing austere stone farmhouses. Just outside Clodig the river widens, with an islet in the middle marked by a bright white statue of the Virgin Mary. There are probably only 30 to 40 inhabitants in Clodig, but just as many cars are parked outside the Posta. This trattoria is a gastronomic temple to la cucina casalinga (home cooking), with Maria Gilda Primosig creating dishes in the kitchen that are worthy of a Michelin-starred restaurant. She makes wonderful use of autumnal products – wild boar and venison, dandelion and chestnuts, porcini mushrooms and radicchio – then produces her own recipes, adding wild herbs she collects in the surrounding forests. Her chestnut and porcini soup is unforgettable, her blecs (buckwheat pasta) are flavoured with nettles, her risotto features myrtle berries, while the first bite of her melt-in-the-mouth strudel shocks – it is filled with pumpkin and pears.

Maria’s cuisine is so fresh and surprising it makes me think of the media hype surrounding new cooking methods in Scandinavia, as pioneered by Noma restaurant in Copenhagen; except that here, no one is following trends or food blogs, they are simply using seasonal, carbon-zero products as creatively as possible.

The idyllic Albergo alla Trota (via Specognis 10, Pulfero, +39 0432 726006, allatrota.com, double rooms €60) sits right on the edge of the Natisone river itself, and the speciality of the house is, naturally, delicious river trout, oven-baked with herbs and served with polenta. The owner-chef is Patrizia Maring, who used to be the local school teacher until she bought the Trota, transforming it from the village’s general store into a trattoria and albergo, or family-run hotel. Maring has been president of Invito a Pranzo for the past 10 years, and she told me that each autumn the event attracts more and more visitors. Not surprising, when her Invito menu features 10 different assaggi (tasting dishes) for €23. Wine is not included, but then a litre of the surprisingly good vino della casa costs only €9, and at the end of the meal, several glasses of the local digestive, a serious prune brandy, are offered on the house.

Lunch at the Trota is served outside on a shady terrace that has panoramic views over the river and pine-clad mountains, and while most of the tables are packed with visitors, this is also still very much a local bar. One table is left for villagers who spend the afternoon in an animated game of cards, and I found it a bit of a culture shock that none of the locals speaks Italian, as everyone prefers to talk Slovene here.

Driving up into the high mountains that surround Albergo alla Trota, tiny villages seem to pop up in the middle of thick forests – a few houses, a bakery selling the famous local cake, Gubana, and a cosy locale taking part in Invito a Pranzo. Osteria all’Antica in Cras (+39 0432 709052, osteriallantica.com) has a fabulous flower garden and waterside terrace in summer, but in autumn, diners prefer a cosy table inside, sitting around the stufa, a traditional stove, where a pot of polenta is slowly bubbling away, ready to be served with a hearty wild boar stew.

Don’t expect too much in the way of gourmet dining at the simple but friendly Trattoria Ai Buoni Amici (via Tarcetta 76, Pulfero, +39 0432 709164), while San Pietro al Natisone’s Enoteca ai Trevi (Via Alpe Adria 118, San Pietro al Natisone, +39 0432 727454) only serves local cheeses and salamis, though it does offer an exceptional cantina of local wines.

And for a last stop-off, I couldn’t resist lunch at Sale e Pepe in Stregna (Via Capoluogo 19, +39 0432 724118), no longer part of Invito – something to do with local politics – but renowned for the highly original cuisine of chef Teresa Covaceuszach. Stregna is right on the Slovenian frontier, and the place feels like the end of the world, but push open the door of Sale e Pepe and you enter a warm, elegant dining room, where Teresa transforms strange Italian-Slovenian recipes into gourmet dishes. Bizna is a rich minestrone soup of potatoes, beans and brovada (pickled turnips), while wild duck is roasted with chocolate and cinnamon. And forget the traditional Gubana for dessert, as the house speciality is Teresa’s take on a crème brûlée, leaving the kitchen clouded in fragrant puffs of smoke.

Driving back to Venice from Sale e Pepe, I got the feeling I was leaving a curious no man’s land and coming back into Italy again.

• Invito a Pranzo, Friday, Saturday and Sunday lunch from 1 October– 8 December. By reservation only: +39 04321 714559, invitoapranzo.it

guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle

Coffee is a popular brewed drink prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. They are seeds of coffee cherries that grow on trees in over 70 countries. Green unroasted coffee is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world. Due to its caffeine content, coffee often has a stimulating effect on humans. Today, coffee is one of the most popular beverages worldwide.

The energizing effect of the coffee bean plant is thought to have been discovered in the northeast region of Ethiopia, and the cultivation of coffee first expanded in the Arab world. The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking appears in the middle of the fifteenth century, in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen in southern Arabia. From the Muslim world, coffee spread to Italy, then to the rest of Europe, to Indonesia, and to the Americas. Coffee has played a crucial role in many societies throughout history.

In Africa and Yemen, it was used in religious ceremonies. As a result, the Ethiopian Church banned its secular consumption, a ban in effect until the reign of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia. It was banned in Ottoman Turkey during the 17th century for political reasons, and was associated with rebellious political activities in Europe.
Coffee berries, which contain the coffee seed, or “bean”, are produced by several species of small evergreen bush of the genus Coffea.

The two most commonly grown are the highly regarded Coffea arabica, and the ‘robusta’ form of the hardier Coffea canephora. The latter is resistant to the devastating coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix). Both are cultivated primarily in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried. The seeds are then roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor. They are then ground and brewed to create coffee. Coffee can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways.

An important export commodity, coffee was the top agricultural export for twelve countries in 2004, and it was the world’s seventh-largest legal agricultural export by value in 2005. Some controversy is associated with coffee cultivation and its impact on the environment. Many studies have examined the relationship between coffee consumption and certain medical conditions; whether the overall effects of coffee are ultimately positive or negative has been widely disputed. The method of brewing coffee has been found to be important to its health effects.

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Hoping now to start anew with more frequent posting, I return to that region with the red wines that most closely hold my heart: Tuscany. But on this occasion a somewhat unusual Tuscan: Fattoria Le Pupille, Morellino di Scansano 2004. Some background: Morellino di Scansano, recently upgraded to DOCG in 2007, is found in Maremma on the Tuscan coast. Morellino is the local name for Sangiovese, and with Brunello/Rosso di Montalcino, it is one of only two Tuscan wines required to be composed of 100% Sangiovese. I don’t have a lot of experience with Morellino, but my limited sample suggests two distinctive characteristics: a ripe style of fruit, and very prominment earthiness. What’s unusal about this particular wine is that, while having some distinct Tuscan characteristics if you had given it to me blind, I might very well have guessed it was from the Languedoc!

Fattoria Le Pupille, Morellino di Scansano 2004
Pure, juicy black cherry uprfront, with plum, hints of citrus rind and tomato, and prominent baryard-style earthiness, with herbs on the finish, the whole also having a pleasant “sea air” salty quality. Medium-full bodied with a ripe style of fruit (but not overly ripe), and a sharp style of acidity (but not unpleasant). White the citrus rind, tomato, and herbs mark it as Tuscan, the overall style of the fruit and the baryard remind me as much of Minervois in the Languedoc as they do of Tuscany, or within Italy, perhaps of Salento in Puglia. Whatever the case, this is quite a nice wine, perhaps now at its mature zenith, and should be drunk now or in the next two years. Excellent (87 -90) [5/8/10]

read on tastingwines.blogspot.com

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Back after a long year without a single blog. That’s a direct result of starting to work for Microsoft – a wonderful, exciting and challenging experience, but no time for wine blogging. Comes our vacation to Umbria, Italy and there is a bit time to blog.

read on tastingwines.blogspot.com

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Of all the world’s wines, Italians are nearest and dearest to my heart. I could hardly imagine life without Bordeaux and the Rhone, and it may very well be the case that France produces the world’s greatest wines. But Italians are my favorite – somehow, they suit me better than all others – their robustness, grace, and the same vitality you find in the food, the people, and the very land of Italy itself. And they are just a joy and a pleasure to drink. One of the world’s great undiscovered wine treasure-troves is southern Italy: there is simply no other place on earth with such a diversity of delightful, unique grapes. And some of them are beginning to get their due praise. I stumbled upon one of these almost unheardof gems recently – I had never heard of Nero di Troia before I saw a bottle on the shelf, and for $5 I could hardly resist trying it. I actually had to look it up: more commonly called Uva di Troia, it is very popular in its native Puglia. And after tasting it, I am suprised it is not better known – this could be the southern Italian answer to Chianti.

Vini Coppa d’Oro, Nero di Troia, Puglia IGT NV
A clear but deep ruby in color. Heady nose of black cherry, but with perfumey floral notes. On the palate, deep black cherry upfront, with perhaps a touch of blueberry/blackberry, and overtones of plum, followed by nectarine, orange rind and floral notes, before a generous finish of spice. Medium-full in body. Lovely stuff. Unique – almost like a cross of Syrah and Montepulciano (the grape) – it has some of Syrah’s concentration, headiness, and structure, but overlayed with Montepulciano’s gracefull, delightful, and high-toned fruit. This is just the sort of delightful little wine you might find at a cafe in Italy – very fruit friendly, with a softness to it but also a rich depth. In fact, this is a fair challenger for Chianti. [Oddly enough, I have had one other grape in some ways quite similar to this: a hybrid called St. Vincent, which is grown in the Midwest of the US.] Fantastic little table wine for everyday drinking with Italian food. And it’s even good chilled. I got it on sale for $5 – what it goes for elsewhere I do not know, but by far the best wine I’ve ever had for the price. Excellent (87 – 90). [6/21/08]

read on tastingwines.blogspot.com