Last weekend we visited my Mother in Naples. Florida. On Sunday we had about as perfect a day one could have: family, baseball and Italian food and wine. Ro and I spent the late morning and early

afternoon in Port Charlotte, Florida watching our nephew Michael play in a Tampa Bay minor league intra squad game; the first game of the Spring Training season for Tampa Bay’s prospects. After the game we ate at Sonny’s BBQ; nothing like a Southern barbecue restaurant.

That evening we took my Mother to Osteria Tulia http://tulianaples.com in downtown Naples; we had dined at Osteria

Tulia last year. Osteria Tulia opened in January 2013. The owner, Vincenzo Betulia, and his family immigrated from Sicilia when he was seven years old. Today his parents help Vincenzo make his daily variety of home-made pasta.

Like last year, we were treated to excellent food, wine and hospitality. For appetizers we had mushroom salad and grilled octopus. Our main courses included salmon, amatriciana and “all the seafood in the house” linguini.

As we did last year we ordered a bottle of Galardi’s Terra di Lavoro. We commented to Amanda, one of our two servers, how we appreciated the extensive list of Italian wines; including a representative sample of wines from Southern Italy. During our conversation I expressed to Amanda my passion for wines from Southern Italy.  Our second server, Lisa, came over and also discussed wines from Southern Italy. Interestingly, Lisa is a sommelier who has expertise in California and French wines. She is working at Osteria Tulia’s so that she can develop an expertise in wines from Italy.

The General Manager and wine consultant, Jason Zadorski, stopped by our table. Jason is passionate about Italian wines; his goal is to have wines from all regions of Italy available at the Osteria and the adjacent Tulia Bar. We discussed the challenges of introducing the American consumer to Italian wines. Jason’s view is that over time, and as long as the restaurant is recognized for quality (which is a given at Tulia’s) you can introduce Italian wines by either suggesting wines to pair with a food item or making  wines available by the glass at a reasonable price. Jason explained that he currently has a primitivo wine available by the glass. He encourages patrons to try the primitivo instead of ordering a cabernet sauvignon.

During the conversation we discussed our preference for wine makers that abide by sustainable viticulture. We also discussed the emergence of wines made from “re-discovered” grapes such as the

casavecchia. pallagrello nero and pallagrello bianco grapes. I specifically mentioned the exciting “re-discovery” and wine making prowess or our good friends from Terre del Principe; Manuela Piancastelli and Pepe Mancini http://terredelprincipe.com. Jason said that he was given a bottle by an importer made from casavecchia grapes and he liked the wine, but could not immediately remember the name of the producer. He excused himself to retrieve a bottle and you can see from the photo Jason returned with a bottle of Terre del Principe’s Centomaggia, which is made 100% from casavecchia grapes. Piccolo mondo! (small world!) I told Jason that when we visit next year we will order the Terre del Principe Centomaggia.

Amanda, Lisa and Jason made our visit to Osteria Tulia special; on a special day of family (both ours and the Osteria Tulia), baseball and Italian food and wine.