Dear Readers,
We have mentioned before that Italians don't tend to promote their wines through the more Australian accustomed channels of having a cellar door. Rather, if you have a particular interest in a wine then they regard it as a honor, that you would follow up specifically and make an appointment to view the winery and taste the wines.whilst this is a lovely idea, it precludes acts of random discovery and doesn't enable you to visit many places in a few days. Moreover, you need to have a reasonable knowledge of the wine otherwise, like anywhere, there are some great wineries and some less than great wineries.
Our host Edith recommended this winery called Dievole - very near to the township of Vagliagli, where we were the day before. It's a large concern now Swedish owned and brought in 1973 for a mere €10,000. in Chianti there is around 10,000 hectares under vine. This represents a mere 10% of the total chianti area which is predominately forest and is protected. Of this Dievole has about 1,000 hectares under wine. Dievole make a chianti "party wine" - an everyday drinking chianti that traditionally the farmers would consume daily with every meal. The second type of wine is what is called the Chianti Classico which is the regulated wine with DOCG status - a particular status afforded to a producer acknowledging that the wine is grown and made to a certain proscriptive standard of regulation. To be a legitimate Chianti Classico, it must be at least 85% sangiovese grape, the other percentage can be merlot, cabernet savignon, or franc or syrah but all must be grown locally. The third type of wine is a Super Tuscan, which enables the winemaker and the winery to move away from the strict regulations of the chianti Classico and make a blend that is just a nice wine. And it is seriously nice gear.
Our tour began with this local guy called Dario who is a little bit gorgeous and chronically cool. It is apparent very early on that all the girls at the winery are in love with Dario and we also think that perhaps Dario is a bit in love with Dario. He is medium height and is wearing calculating aged designer jeans, white t-shirt and a grey linen blazer. He has blue eyes and lond hair with a touch of grey that he wears longish and looks quite the arty author! As well as speaking great English, he also has a slight British accent as he was born in England and came to Italy when he was 9 years of age.
His tour of the winery is a combination of both the history of the chianti wine, the chianti region and the Dievole winery itself. We walk around the winery with our first tasting as he describes the reinvestment by the Swedish company in the abandoned chianti region and the embracing of the knowledge and abilities of the few local farmers who had remained in the region. They are celebrated on the labels of the party wines and throughout the winery photographically.
Our second wine was tasted in the ancient cellar and accompanied by a flavorsome proscuitto. Chianti Classico is something you drink with food as it's a strong robust wine that in Dario's words, closes the mouth. From there we head to another ancient cellar as this place is hundred of years old. Here we try their Supertuscan but this time with a wheel of aged peccorino cheese. As we taste we hear of the battles between Sienna and Florence for this territory and the famous people who have come from Chianti. Michaelangelo, a famous navigator bloke whose name escapes me but he has a bridge in New York named after him, Puccini, a prime minister who invented the Chianti standardization and the DOC system of regulation and finally, even though Leonardo di Vinci was born just 3 kms outside of the Chianti region, they claim him as a local boy as well.
For those of you old enough to remember, when chianti first made an appearance on tables world wide, it used to be in those bulbous round bottomed bottles with the wicker casing. Well guess who invented that casing? It was Leonardo di Vinci and it's called a fiasco!!!! The reason is that the bottles used to be mouth blown and so the bottoms were never entirely flat and didn't sit evenly on a table surface, so Leo at the age of 12 or thereabouts came up with the idea of a woven wicker casing to stablise the bottle ! A child protégé no less!! The fiasco is listed alongside his many other inventions!
We finished with a dessert wine called Vinetsia which was quite lovely and then headed to lunch and enjoyed three courses with another bottle of Chianti Classico. After this we headed home for a Nonna nap as we had to bat up for dinner at the Fattoria this evening. We had dinner with a lovely couple from New Jersey/Florida called Clarisse and Bob and two great guys from Prague who have travelled to some amazing places.
I spoke to Dad today and he had hoped to operated on but it looks like he will be operated now on Sunday. They recast his plaster cast which caused him some pain but he is more comfortable now but more than a little over it. I wish we could do something to help him but the Austin is a good place to be. Keep sending your good wishes into the universe for him and Margaret.
Here's to no more broken bones
Kelly & Siobhan xxxx
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