Tuscany, May 22-23, 2017

Tuscany, May 22-23, 2017

It seems that prowling around medieval cities on the hills (All are rather small walled cities on hilltops, better to see the approaching hoards. Side note: we learned that the local citizens were the canon fodder while the real fighting was done by professional soldiers whose only loyalty was to the highest bidder. The most famous and successful was Guido de Ricci, or Guido the Rich), wine tasting and two to three hour dinners can just  eat up  the day with little time for recording it all.

Tuscany is gorgeous. Green hills divided neatly into farms that grow grapes for the wine, olives for the oil or wheat for the pasta. Each farm is watched over by a house that can range from modest to castle, always the terra cotta color with red tile roof. If the roof leaks the custom is to throw more tile on top and weigh it all down with large rocks or bricks. The distinctive tall, pointy, columnar Italian cypress line roads, driveways, hillsides. The roads all seem to be narrow and twisty. There is a reason the cars are small (a Mini Cooper looks like a stretch limo compared to the tiny Fiats and Opels), well maybe two obvious reasons: the price of gas is around 1.5 Euros per liter around here which works out to about $5 per gallon. Second reason is the width of the roads. Two American compact cars would have trouble passing each other. Amazingly I haven't seen a single side swiped car. The taxi drivers (the in town guy wasn't too reliable so we've used a couple of gypsies from around the hood) seem to enjoy flying through these zigs and zags. Definitely an E Ticket ride at Disneyland. As Howard told us and we've since witnessed, traffic signs and signals are regarded more as suggestions than law.

I'm writing this the morning of May 26th, our first free morning. We've spent time sitting in on an art history class taught by a KSU professor with the KSU students (the facility in the Fortezza is modern and minimal with all the technical bells and whistles). He was relating Renaissance art to Greek philosophers and had us and the students mesmerized. We had a chance to visit with the "kids", mostly 18 or 19 years old but with several non traditional more mature students. There are approximately 45 enrolled per session (two each summer). They attend classes on Monday and Wednesday and then go on THE best field trips on Tuesday and Thursday. The day before they had been to Rome and the Vatican with upcoming visits to Siena, Florence, Pisa and on and on. Seeing the art, cities, countryside in person reinforces what they've heard in class. I'm so jealous that wasn't available back in the day...

Lots of wine tasting. We've been to modest cellars in Montepulciano, one of the grand Frescobaldi estates and a relatively new, very modern winery just out of town. The Italians might not care about the rules of the road but they follow the ironclad rules of wine making in Tuscany to the letter. The grapes must be grown, crushed and bottled at the winery. There are precise rules about how long the grapes are fermented, and then held, first in stainless steel, then huge barrels and finally 50 liter barrels. The barrels are French oak. The big ones last 10 to 12 years, the small ones just two then they are sold to designers and decorators and to companies making balsamic vinegar. Cost of the new barrel: 700 Euros. Resale: 35 Euros.

Each January a blind tasting is held at each winery to determine how the wines will be rated, Rosso, Nobile or Reserved. Some years there is no wine determined to be dubbed Reserved. Even the labels have very strict rules. Make a mistake and the wine cannot be sold. At the very modern Icario winery our guide, Lucy, said she was in charge of labels, spending days and days making sure they were correct. Lucy has got to be all of 25, maybe, and the fate of the vintage eventually falls on her shoulders.

No matter the venue, our tastings have been elaborate affairs with a long table set with multiple glasses, water (still and fizzy), crackers, bread or these nifty round crunchy things that look like tiny bagels the size of a quarter, and olive oil. All the wineries also there own oil. These tastings have been overseen by winery owners, including the only woman who owns and runs a winery, the people who travel the world selling their particular wine and the lovely Lucy. These people know their stuff from varieties of grapes to types of soil to picking all the way to bottling and marketing. Most of the grapes are hand picked by skilled locals and seasonal workers from Siena. At the magnificent Frescobaldi Castelgiocondo in Montalcino (they own countless properties so one has to specify exactly which castello) we were greeted by the head of their public relations department. Giacomo told us the wineries are still in the family's hands after 30 generations. When the latest became CEO he had every employee, no matter their position in the company, work in the fields for three months. Not only did this improve everyone's knowledge about the product but each gained new respect for the other and especially for those who pick the grapes. Giacomo said the grapes he and the others who work in the offices picked did not pass muster from the professionals. "Ours would have made very bad wine."

So, back to the tastings. Each winery makes at least one white but the rest are reds. So we begin. But you don't just taste wine, suddenly platters of meats and cheeses appear so we can experience how the wines taste with real food. Quite good! Four of our group are Japanese. The parents, Yoko and Gin, live in Atlanta, but their adult children, Mayu and Kaygo, live in Tokyo. Let me tell you, these people are true students of wine, especially Mayu. She asks very good questions and takes copious notes and then ships cases of the wine back to Japan. She and her brother went to school in Pasadena when Gin and Yoko first came to the US so speak excellent, idiomatic English. They're both cute as buttons and very stylish in their clothing. The tastings are informative and fun. I can now confidently order Italian wine off a menu. Because of the manufacturing restrictions most of the wineries are small production so sell in small quantities to shops and restaurants around the world.

And then there is dinner. We generally go at 7:30, sometimes in Montepulciano but also in neighboring towns. Howard arranged for two minivans to transport us. Jim and I quickly realized that Simona's was the lead dog in this pack. About as big as a minute, she takes those curves like the professional she is. One night we drove about 30 minutes to a neighboring city on a hill to a restaurant outside the walls that is said to be one of George Clooney's favorites. It's one of those if you don't know about it you won't know it's there. Umberto, our host, was dubbed the Dreamy Italian by the women in our group: 60-something with silver hair and dark framed glasses and that nonchalance that can't be taught. He would ask Howard what to fix and then relay that to the two person kitchen who would comply, then we'd eat that course and then Umberto would repeat the process through four courses! The wine he served was so local it wasn't labeled. If only George had been there.......

Jim and I agree that our best meal was the first we had a Le Logge in Montepulciano. Massimo is the chef and owner. It's a small place with walls of brick and one small window. As Massimo explained, everything is historical and nothing can be changed, but who can complain about dinner by candlelight? The food was spectacular from the tiny bowl of scrumptious Tuscan bean soup that tasted of orange with half of a hard boiled quail egg floating on top,sprinkle with black salt. That simple dish might well be my favorite so far. We had a pasta course, then the meat course (Lamb) arrived under individual domes that were lifted to allow the smoke to disappear. Dramatic and delicious. The best was the desert course: a chocolate ball the size of a tennis ball perched on top of a small pillar of ice cream was placed before us with instructions not to touch it. Then Massimo stopped at every plate to pour flaming absinthe over the chocolate ball that melted to reveal an airy tropical mousse. Yowza! Spectacular and delicious. Lots of cameras clicking! Bravo Massimo.

Time to go taste cheese (for a change) and then more wine.

There's still more to tell.