Author: wareontheglobe

A Winery Visit Near Touristy Assisi at SAIO!

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By the time this article has posted, I will be a real Italian citizen! YAY! This post clearly had to be about Italy in light of this major life accomplishment! As such, this post reviews our visit to the SAIO winery just outside of Assisi in Umbria, Italy, where we spent the first day of my 40th year in December. In sum, the wine could be better, but this is a fun stop near touristy Assisi.

SAIO decked out for the holidays (my birthday is December 26th).

SAIO winery is a small winery located only 800 meters from Assisi’s famous St. Francis church. That being said, St. Francis church is located on a hilltop and SAIO is located on the ground level, so its not exactly walking distance or that close in reality , but does offer fabulous views of Assisi. SAIO brands itself as the “winery of Assisi” and prides itself on its wines and olive oil. SAIO is run by the Mencarelli family and makes a small selection of reds and whites.

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A Fantastic Meal at El Chato on a Bogotá Layover!

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As the lovely El Chato just received the high honor of the 25th best restaurant in the world (also on the list are Borago, Pujol, and Cosme that I’ve visited), I decided its time for me to publish my review on Dan and my wonderful lunch at El Chato last year on a layover in Bogotá, Colombia when flying from New York to La Paz, Bolivia.

Not the first time on the 50 Best list!

El Chato describes itself as a “contemporary Colombian bistro that pays tribute to the producers” of local Colombian producers.  Chef Álvaro Clavijo opened El Chato in 2017 after studying in Barcelona and Paris and working at numerous high-profile restaurants, including Copenhagen‘s famous Noma (now closed). 

El Chato’s entrance.

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A Tale of Two Wineries in Berat, Albania

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The area around Berat, Albania is well known (at least in Albania) for producing wine with local Albanian grapes, many of which I had never heard of (and still cannot remember). Loving wine and really loving the wine that we tasted in Montenegro and Croatia in 2019, Dan and I visited two wineries in the Berat area on our vacation to Albania last summer – Çobo Winery and Alpeta Agorturismo. We enjoyed the tastings and tours and I would recommend an afternoon visit to one of these wineries while visiting Berat. This article reviews our time at each winery.

ÇOBO WINERY – more authentic feeling, tasty sparkling wine, a good meat, cheese, & olive pairing

Our Berat wine adventure began about 25 minutes outside of Berat at Çobo Winery, which is mentioned in many a guide books discussing Berat. Side note, “Çobo” is pronounced nothing like it looks.

Çobo Winery.

We arrived at Çobo and drove up what appeared to be a residential driveway. And, it may have been a residential driveway, but it was also the entrance to Çobo. Our driver parked and walked us inside, where we were greeted by a Çobo employee. The employee gave us a quick history lesson on Çobo and a brief tour of the facilities, which were pretty tiny. The highlight for me was the wine themed mosaic in the cellar.

The drive way to Çobo Winery!

Outdoor tasting area at Çobo Winery.

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Touring the Tarija, Bolivia Wine Region: Great [and Terrible] Wine, Lots of Steak, and Gorgeous Scenery!

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Last April, Dan and I traveled to southern Bolivia to drink more of our favorite wine – Tannat (a close tie with Sagrantino de Montefalco from Umbria, Italy)! You may recall that we traveled to Uruguay a few years ago for the same reason! And like before visiting Uruguay, we knew absolutely nothing about Bolivian wine country, or really even Bolivian wine, prior to our visit. In fact, we only knew that Bolivia makes Tannat, and that was enough for us. It also didn’t hurt that I had really been wanting to visit Boliva, and that Dan loves South America. We sandwiched our trip to Tarija between the Bolivian tourist hotspots of Uyuni and La Paz and hoped for the best, as there was MINIMAL information available online regarding wine tourism.

Bolivian winelands.

We found Bolivian wine country, or Tarija to be exact, beautiful, difficult to navigate, and having a variety of wines – some to our taste and others terrible in our opinion (in all fairness, Bolivians generally like really sweet wine and we do not). We will certainly be back to Tarija when we have more time to explore. For those planning time in Bolivian wine country, this article shares the knowledge that we learned on our trip, which seems largely missing from the internet.

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A Taberna do Mar: The Most Reasonable Tasting Menu in Lisbon

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As you may know, Dan and I have spent a lot of time in Portugal, including getting married there in 2017! We tried a fantastic and inexpensive seafood tasting menu on our last trip, and it was one of our best finds yet! Yes, I’m talking about A Taberna do Mar or, in English, The Sea Tavern. It really just sounds much better in Portuguese. This is my review of Taberna do Mar!

A Taberna do Mar is a tiiiiiiny restaurant in Graça are of Lisbon (think Alfama). The chef, Filipe Rodrigues, learned to cook from family in the Algarve and has worked at a number of Japanese restaurants in Lisbon. As a result, A Taberna do Mar offers a small menu of local seafood prepared in a cross between Portuguese and Japanese technique. The menu changes regularly, but often features similar things, and offers ordering a la carte and a tasting menu. The tasting menu was only 25 euro per person during our visit (yes, you read that correctly!) so we opted for that! Everything was fantastic, but the menu is almost exclusively seafood, FYI for non-seafood eaters.

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