Filippo BartolottaHere I am over 30000 ft above sea level on my way to San Francisco for another 20 days of road show starting in the Bay area with Quince, a great wine collector (who came along with her mum last year for a Wine Tour with us in Verona, Venice and Trieste) and Chez Panisse.During this trip I will be tasting a lot of different Italian Fine Wines which Ieuroll tell yo all about, but the first one to open the show will be Mario Bollag Terra al Sole Brunello di Montalcino 2004.The reason isneurot only the fact that this is one of my favorite Brunello of the past 10 years, but Mario is also devolving $20 every bottles he sells this year to help re-build a children hospital in Port au Prince together with N.P.H. euro Nuestros Pequeos Hermanos.Mario and wise talented musician wife Athena and their lovely daughter escaped the earthquake and now want to help.Mario has spent many years of his life in Haiti and his wine labels portrait Haitian art.With super sommelier David Lynch at Quince Restaurant in San Francisco we will help raising money for Haiti.If anyone is interested in this charity, please contact Mario.Mario Bollagmario@terralsole.com (415) 713-1315 Az.Agr. TERRALSOLE s.r.l.Villa Collina deuroOro, Montalcino, SI 53024www.terralsole.comNPH in Haiti Fondazione Francesca Ravawww.nph.orgTo donate by bank transfer: Banca Mediolanum SpA euro Ag. 1 di Basiglio (MI)IBAN: IT 39 G 03062 34210 000000760000 BIC: MEDBITMMMario will be in San Francisco for another week and so give him a call if you want to try his great Brunello and be part of the Charity. Quince will showcase his Brunello on Sunday together with:Tenuta delle Ripalte Aleatico 2007Montecucco Collemassari 2006Grattamacco 2001Arnaldo Caprai Sagrantino di Montefalco 25 AnniCastello di Banfi Brunello di Montalcino Poggio alle Mura 2004Montevetrano 2005San Leonardo 2004Fontodi Flaccianello 2006Vernaccia Sangimigano Panizzi 2006Vernaccia di Sangimignano Cesani 2008Isole e Olena Cepparello 2006Propriet Sperino Uvaggio 2006Latium AmaroneTerralsole Brunello di Montalcino 2004Elvio Cogno Vigna Elena 2004Elvio Cogno Pernice 2005Sleeping in San FranciscoAs I have already mentioned before this trip to the US isneurot just bringing me new great contacts for my business but is becoming a great life discovery journey.The main objective of our trip was to expand our network of wine and food lovers promoting great Italian Fine Wines and foods with wine challenge evening of different kind.During the organization of this big project though we got to know better some old friends and partners, like Benedetta Vitali of the Zibibbo in Florence -with whom I am going to have a series of wineandcooking evenings for the next 30 days-, all our dear Italian wine makers and producers and new people as well, like Mike Task of Quince Restaurant in San Francisco.This is the Benedetta, Mike, David, Barbara in marvelous Quince Cellar.I think it doesneurot come by accident that we begun our Road Show in Washington with a Charity event that raised over $180.000 for Marthaeuros Table Charity -http://www.marthastable.org/-which not only brings food to homeless a pour people but also create programme to help this people learning more about nutrition and hence with a new life start!The film editor and dear friend Robert Morrison, the new friend Jan Buhrman, opened up the opportunity to get to Washington meeting up with the famous food writer Joan Nathan who managed to pull 15 houses to open to 15 celebrity chef to cook for roughly 500 people and raise money for Marthaeuros Table.LeBaccantieuros role was to pair those fifteen eclectic menus to our 32 wine makers, the Prosciutto di Parma and Malpighi Balsamic Vinegar.The events went really well with the pairing going very exciting. We had nothing but raving happy feedback from the host and the Chefs.A lot of people were veryskepticalabout my pairing of these 15 menus with Italian Wine only. But this event proves, one again, how great wines and great cuisine always lead to unimaginable marriages!During the evening I made it to three houses where I gave a speach on Italian Healthy approach to nutrition and a little journey into the Italian Wine and Food World.And I did that after the Alice Waters spoke during the Sunday Sips. An event where over 150 people gathered to contribute to Martha's Table again.Among the many guest we met with Wolf Blitzer from Cnn and Alan Gerson. I saw them coming in our cosy wine tasting room on the top floor where LEBACCANTI were showcasing the wines and products of Italy at Your Table.All of a sudden they both head for the wines and we start talking about Italian Food and Wine while tasting away!Allan alsotaughtme some serious Wine Karate Moves:)Anyway the evening was a blast and then we simply run to our dinners with Joan Nathan as our Orchestra director!We met again two days later with Wolf Blitzer and his wonderful wife. Here is when Idiscoveredthat Wolf'sfavoritefood is Parmigiana.He loved the Vernaccia di Sangimignano and he seemed to be pretty serious about love for Italian food. We should meet up again soon to go to hisfavoriterestaurant inWashington: a secret Italian Trattoria!Mr. Blitzer came across as anextremelyfun gourmet lover with a lot of wit and passion for Italy.GOING TO THE WHITE HOUSEWaiting to get in...After that evening we had an early start to go to the White House with all the chef to meet with the Chef of the White House and Sam Kass, chef for the First family from Chicago, now helping with the Food Program.We spent the whole morningvisitingthe House, the kitchen of the White House and the Green Garden.President Obama and the First Lady made a revolution with their green garden.A lot of people say it's just a little thing, but not only the garden has been thriving it also has a bee house and it will be expanded a little more this year.The message the White House is sending to a quarter million of Americans and more people in the world is: eathealthy, try to eat as much local food as you can and have plenty of Veggies.I think is actually pretty impressive how much the White House is moving in the right directiontacklingsuch a fundamental issue likeNutrition: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/summary/10002010.2004.htmlAlice Waters asked chef Sam Kass to give us some assignments to helpchangingthings helping people to have a better and healthier approach to food. Mr. Kass is working on putting together a round table to discuss this issues farther, he told us and he will let us know more about this.I still can't believe we spent the whole morning there with all those amazing chefs. Alice also brought along some home made bread andclementinesas a gift which we put together after having a warm Italian American breakfast at Potenza -potenzadc.com- to go over the heavy night.What a trip...what a trip. Now I am off to the Farmers Market in San Francisco to do some shopping for our event tonight.All this while Vanessa is working from NYC making sure everything happens.She is the person behind the scene, always on Skype and always on the ball. Among all the things that are happening she managed to put our new web site on.line...THANKS VANE...Yours Truly,f