Tuscan-wine-tours: the birth of the Sangiovesegrape

Tuscan grape variety, the sangiovese grape, is the king of tuscan grapes, we use for the most of our wines such as Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Nobile di Montepulciao, Morellino di Scansano and for many Supertuscans as well.

Enjoy the movie!

Florence from garden to garden

In Florence there are beautiful gardens,  less famous of the Boboli Gardens, but very charming as well:

Forte Belvedere

Forte Belvedere, once a fortress built between 1590 and 1595 by the Grand Duke Ferdinando I de 'Medici, son of Cosimo I, was built for multiple purposes: to protect  Palazzo Pitti, to protect the south area of the city, and more generally all the Oltrarno, demonstrating with his majesty all the power of the Medici, and finally to provide a refuge for the Grand Duke in case of possible riots: the fortress in fact represented the final stage of Vasari Corridor linking Palazzo Vecchio to Palazzo Pitti with a suspended passage via Boboli, through a impressive network of passages, apartments, corridors, bridges and gardens.

Villa Bardini

The Bardini Villa is an historical garden of Florence's Oltrarno neighborhood.
It covers a large area from the slopes of the hill of Piazzale Michelangelo to the Arno river
In 1309 after the bankrupt of the owner all the family possessions (house buildings and land) were purchased by the City of Florence.

Giardino dell Rose

The rose garden,  was built in 1865 by the same architect of Piazzale Michelangelo, Giuseppe Poggi on behalf of the City of Florence, it covers about one hectare of terraced land with a panoramic view of the city of Florence.

Vin Santo del Chianti: A Holy wine from the land of the Black Rooster

 The Chianti is famous for the dark red tannic Chianti Classico, made with (mostly) Sangiovese grapes. However, the region also boosts a good production of tasty white wines. But did you know that the same grapes that produce these good red and white Chianti wines is also used for the production of a very special fortified wine: Vin Santo del Chianti?  Some of the vineyards that we visit during our Tuscan Wine tour with Angie actually produce some excellent examples of this special wine. 

Vin Santo del Chianti is an Italian fortified wine that shares characteristics with other Italian desert/fortified wines, which are called “passitti” in Italian. The name “Vin Santo” is not special to the fortified wines from the Chianti, but the “Vin Santo” from the Chianti are the most well known and widely praised. The origin of the name “Vin Santo” is not certain and several hypothesis exist: Some historians claim the name “holy wine” to be related to its role in liturgical celebrations as a wine used during mass. Some “Vin Santo” are said to derive their “holiness” from the fact that the grapes to produce them are picked during the “Holly Week” of the liturgical calendar.

 

The production of a fortified wine is quite different from the production of other types of wine. In the Chianti two types of Vin Santo are made: Vin Santo del Chianti (from local white grape varieties, most often Malvasia Lunga or Trebbiano grapes) and Vin Santo del Chianti Occhio di Pernice (made predominantly from red Sangiovese grapes).  In September-October the grapes  are harvested manually upon full maturation in order to select the most healthy and loose bunches that still contain a certain amount of acidity. The selected bunches are hanged on racks or laid on straw mats that permit the full circulation of air. For a period of two to four months these rosters or racks are placed in special spaces called “appassitoi” (often on the highest story of a house) where there is a free natural circulation of air or in specially designed spaces with articificial ventilation systems. The goal now is to desiccate the grapes and to avoid the formation of molds and fermentation by keeping them in a temperature between 10-15°C and well ventilated. 

 

Between the 1^st of December and not the 31^st of March the grapes are well dehydrated and concentrated. The grapes are then stripped off their stems, crushed and put into small 50 liter wooden vessels called “caratelli”. These “caratelli” still contain a starter yeast, a dark dense sediment called “madre” (mother) that is a residue of the production of previous years. The further evaporation of the Vin Santo will cause a decrease in the level of wine in the barells and some producers choose to poor the wine in smaller barrels as it condenses over time. Some producers also pass the wine through a sequence of barels made out of different types of wood in order to add different aromas to the finished product. After a minimum aging period of three years the sediments are separated from the liquid and the resulting liquid is our famous Vin Santo del Chianti. This fortified wine is slightly stronger then other Chianti wines with an alcohol level of arround 15-20%. Vin Santo has an intense colour (ranging from a pale yellow to a dark golden or amber colour), and is known for its caramel, vanilla, honey, nuts and dried fruit aromas.

Vin Santo is most of all a wine of celebration. A desert wine used to end a good and gratifying dinner. You can find it on most restaurant menus, but many Italian families enjoy the wine at homely dinner parties. The most well-known combination is to dip traditional cantucci toscani in the Vin Santo and eat them moist with the fortified wine. These cantucci toscani are a type of dry sweet biscuits with pieces of almonds in them. These biscuits are not excessively sweetened and soak up considerate amounts of the Vin Santo.  The wine is also combined with other types of local biscuits or with cheese (especially the sweet variant of gorgonzola cheese).

Vin Santo is a part of the culinary richness of the Chianti that ought to be enjoyed to its fullest. A wine that is produced according to local tradition and that caries the unique flavors of the Chianti. A tasty dessert wine that comes highly recommended for you to… enjoy!  

Capturing the Chianti on camera...

Is not an easy feat. But a challenge well met by the happy visitors of my Tuscan Wine Tours with Angie. The Chianti is of an enchanting beauty with its rolling sun-kissed hills. To capture some images of the cheerful spirit of our trips and to share the pretty photos taken I decided to open a photo contest. Over twenty people sent in their prettiest snapshots, which were published on Facebook open for public judgment.  After some weeks of open contest, the result was very very close. In fact, we ended up in a tie! I am proud to announce that the winners are…

The Rokos Family from Boston

Jacqueline Bernardin from San Diego, California

Congratulations to the happy winners! I will personally choose some of the best samples of Chianti wine and send them over for you to share some Tuscan sunshine with your friends and family.

The beautiful result of this contest was not only a collection of pictures of a cheerful day in the vineyard, but also a demonstration of the beauty of the Chianti in every season. Where most people imagine the Chianti as a place of summer sunshine, the area is equally breathtaking in the less sunny seasons. Many of the pictures in the photo contest were taken in autumn and spring, showing the vineyard in its different stages of maturity.

The winter vineyard in its rugged beauty

From grape to wine

The cheerful atmosphere of a cellar tour

The typical Tuscan cypress-lined lanes

Playing with oak, clouds and sunshine against a gorgeous background

I would also like to congratulate the contestants who did not win the photo contest. There were plenty of good runner-ups that equally artfully managed to catch the spirit of the Chianti. And for any future vineyard photographers I would like to share the following advice that proved useful to me over the years:

1.      Light

Vineyards are sunny places, blessing the vines with plenty of sunshine to produce tasty grapes. However, all that light might produce good wine it does not necessarily produce good photos. Good photos need soft light, no the harsh light of midday. Photographers use to refer to the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset as “the Golden Hour”, the two hours a day with the perfect soft light that kisses your pictures rather than over-light them. 

2.      Distractions

There are always small distractions that can spoil the general picture: a bad grape, a brown leaf, a lost piece of plastic. If possible, one could remove these distractions totally or angle the camera such that the particular distraction is not visible on the picture. Be aware when re-angling the camera though, you might discover another distraction!

3.      Look for eye catchers

Vineyards are very natural places with a plenty of possible eye catchers. Natural variety can create intense colored leaves and grapes, or interestingly curly vines. Do not forget the breathtaking effect a partially clouded sky could have: bright blue with white.

4.      Steady Camera

Vineyards have very rocky and rough surfaces and it is not always easy to keep a steady hand while making a picture. To avoid shaky and blurry pictures you could either take a tripod/monopod or search for a local rock or branch to steady your camera.

5.      Patience is a virtue!

Most important is a small amount of… patience. It takes some time to remove distractions, look for eye catchers and to steady the camera. Use your walk through the vineyard to spot nice images to catch. Take your time to find the right angle. 

Enjoy the view, take a few snapshots and relish in their memory with a glass of good Chianti wine! 

#Amarone and Vinitaly 2013

Vinitaly (wineitaly) the most famous  wine fair in the world!

In  April, we attended the wine fair in Verona, the roman city famous for  Opera,  Amarone and Valpolicella wine and Giulietta and Romeo

The wine fair returns every year since 1960! ( I know I am terrible in late with this post..) 

We spent three fun days in Valpolicella area, and we took the excuse of the wine fair for exploring this “terroir”,  discovering special wineries, driving through vineyards and ancient Villas.

Just some numbers: at the wine fair more than 150.000 visitors , of which  50.000 visitors coming from 116 different countries and the wine producers were 4255, 128 of which outside Italy

And we were there…  of course we met some of our wine producers, but we met also some new wineries from all over italy

The only regret was that in three days we could not taste the wine of the all 4255 wine producers.