Looking at the coastline of what we now call the Maremma in Tuscany you might have a hard time believing that in the 6th century BCE these beaches and hills were home to one of the world’s most mystical and innovative civilizations. Today much of the area has been turned into beachfront playland where inland dwellers flock in the summer to escape the oppressive mugginess that no amount of fanning will blow away. However, long before the appearance of the many gelateria, flip-flop shops and a swimsuit boutiques this was the area where the Etruscans settled, fished, farmed, smelted iron (so much iron that they’re credited with being among the harbingers of the Iron Age) made wine and praised their gods.

The Etruscans recognized early on the great potential of the area. Beyond the abundance of fish in the sea, game in the woods and iron ore in the northern hills and on the island of Elba there were luxurious mineral springs and the soft, limestone hills called tufa — a type of earth ideal for carving homes, shops, kilns, furnaces, roads, cellars and tombs. This abundance of life’s necessities in one sunny region surely had to have been placed there for them by kind and munificent gods. As a testament to this seeming spiritual inescapability of the area the Etruscans stayed. Not just the duration of their lives but into their afterlives, taking their eternal rest in the hundreds of tombs and necropoli that have been discovered throughout much of the Maremma.

By the 4th century BCE the absorbtion of the Etruscan civilization into the Roman Empire was complete and the complexion of the region began to shift into a less habitable state. Depopulation along with some seismic activity turned the lowlands to swamps and the villages, vineyards and pastures became overgrown. Sections of the region were largely forgotten for centuries and those areas that were viable as farmland or for building ports, were repeatedly fought over by Sienese, Pisan and Florentine armies, then Napoleon’s troops. By the mid-1800s the coastal marshlands were considered to be some of the most dangerous places in Italy, home to bandit hideouts and mosquito infested swamps. The average life-expectancy of a male living in the region from Pisa to the north and Grosetto to the south was 18 years. Number one cause of death: malaria.

Into the 20th century the condition of the region began to change. During the Mussolini years the swamps were re-drained and the resort town of Piombino developed as a favorite vacation spot for Fascists who had grown rich through corruption. After the war the town of Bolgheri was revitalized and grew to great fame entirely because of Incisa della Rochetta who planted what are now his famous vineyards with cuttings from Chateau Lafite-Rothschild hoping to create a Bordeaux in Italy.

Despite the ups and downs in the region’s past there remains a somewhat reclusive hideout feel to the area. The Maremma has maintained an aura of mystery and has carried through time a reputation for being a magical place where the ghosts of Etruscans deities still sit on the hilltops watching the fortunes of men rise and fall. It is this quasi-mythical aura that continues to lure certain people to the region and in some cases is so otherworldly and compelling that it entices them to stay.

One such visitor who was attracted by the seeming spiritual pull of the place is Olivier Paul-Morandini, owner of Volpaiole vineyard and winery. (In the Tuscan dialect, the word 'Volpaiole' means “fox corner.”)

“It would have been nearly ten years ago,” the Belgian-born Olivier explains as to how he found his place in the hills between Suvereto and Campiglia Marittima, “we were on holiday with friends in Tuscany. We were having a meal in Suvereto and we had a bottle of Volpaiole. The taste was so unique that I just had to meet the producers. And so, the following morning we set out for Volpaiole which lies at the end of a long country journey, enough to discourage all but the most determined traveller. It was there that we met Armin and Liliana, a couple who, having reached retirement age, had left Switzerland to buy a plot of land to plant some vines and produce a little wine for their old age. Every year I came back to buy two hundred bottles which I shared out with some friends. In 2007, Liliana told me in her very gentle voice and a confidential manner that they had to talk to me. They announced that they were selling Volpaiole because the work was now too much for them. For the whole of the next year I came down every month to follow Armin in the vineyard and in the wine store, and then I took the plunge.”

There was more than just the vacationer’s-love-of-place that kept Olivier coming back to Tuscany. His ancestry is Italian. “My grandfather was a native of Friuli and it was actually he who was responsible for my destiny and this affection for a country of inexhaustible richness and flavors of all kinds.”

Shortly after taking up permanent residence in Italy Olivier was able to attract the attention of one of Italy’s most respected and sought-after winemakers, Luca D’Attoma. “Before I called Luca and arranged to meet him at Volpaiole, I had been shadowing him via several of his wines and what I was experiencing was not so much a style as the clear expression of wines which were like no others: among them the Fattoria la Torre Esse Syrah 2001, Paleo 2001 and 2004 Le Macchiole which stirred real emotions. At our first meeting, Luca D’Attoma expressed in a very straightforward, frank way exactly what was required to bring out the identity of the Volpaiole wines to perfection, and in no time at all we had come to an agreement about the direction we were about to take together. I trust Luca completely – it is his instinctive awareness and enormous sensitivity which have made it possible for him to create his masterpieces.”

Olivier adds that, “There are a large number of winemakers whose style tends to predominate, since they systematically impose it to the detriment of various aspects, like the soil, a grape variety, a type of winemaking – the very factors which define the actual identity of a wine. Luca D’Attoma has taken a stand as a winemaker who is determined above all to preserve these different factors which give a real identity to the wines they make.”

As Olivier became more immersed in his vineyards and involved in the community it became clear that he felt the same metaphysical pull the Etruscans seemed to have experienced. “It was at that time that I realized how much I liked working with people, not just for the pleasure of being able to provide them with a good wine, but also to be able to tell them something about wine, about the producers, their philosophy, their environment and their unique characteristics. This is the same way I approach art, or indeed, people. The more I come to understand about a painter, a work of art, a country or a person, the better able I am to understand them, to appreciate them in the most fine-tuned way. There's nothing original in this, but fine-tuning is important for me. As for my wines, I dream of making those who drink them want to meet me, so I can explain my work, my environment, my philosophy. If Volpaiole succeeds in being a moving experience for two people who are sitting at a table to eat, and makes that moment better, then I'm the happiest man alive!”

Contact:
Olivier Paul-Morandini
 Azienda Agricola Fuori mondo S.S.
Via Fonte Corboli 13
57021 Campiglia Marittima (LI)
Tuscany, Italia
www.volpaiole.com
Info [at] volpaiole [dot] com

To learn about Olivier Paul-Morandini’s other pursuit (the European equivalent of the American 9-1-1 system) contact:
European Emergency Number Association - EENA 112 
Avenue Louise 262
1050 Brussels
 Belgium

Tel: +32 (0)475 84 00 82

www.eena.org

To find Volpaiole wines in the U.S. Visit: Lyaeus Imports



Truffles possess one of nature’s unique aromas; a scent that, as Goethe said of Venice, “...can only be compared to itself.” With their pungent earthiness, their muskiness and the very oddness of their shapes, truffles have driven people to distraction for 3,600 years, with a bit of a respite in the Middle Ages when they fell from vogue when it was believed that anything found under the soil had been put there by the devil. Truffles came back into style during the reign of Louis XIV. The king’s mistress, Francoise Athenais de Montespan had great influence over Louis for nearly a decade and coaxed the king into trying many things he would not otherwise have. To please his notoriously difficult to please mistress the king commanded his chefs to integrate truffles into his favorite dishes, initiating another of his many royal fads.

The average truffle weighs in at 1 to 3 ounces (28 to 85g) and, depending on the type and quality net anywhere from US$65/€50 to US$132/€100 per kilo for restaurant grade, to US$265/€200 to US$395/€300 for premium grade and about U$5,400/€4,000 per kilo for the favored white truffles. People pay big bucks for truffles mainly because of their scarcity and the skill it takes to find them but beyond the arduousness of truffle gathering there is an intrinsic sensuality, even something transcendental about the aroma of this blob-shaped fungi that drives some to empty their wallets. In 2007 a white truffle weighing 3.3 lbs. (1.49 kg) was found by Cristiano Savini’s dog, Rocco near Pisa and was auctioned off to a casino owner from Macau for US$330,000.¹

Truffle secrete a component called androstenol, the same hormone produced by boars during mating times. The smell is so powerful that when female sows are let loose in the woods they fly into a frenzy and rummage with abandon for all the truffles they can find — thus the birth of the pig as truffle hunter. The major drawback of the sow is that she often refuses to share her finds and many of her handlers have lost fingers in their attempts to wrest a truffle from a her jaws. The use of sows is becoming less common though there are still a handful of trainers in France who specialize in taming them.

The use of dogs can be traced back to the 16th century, specifically to a dukedom in the Val d‘Comacchio, near Ravenna. This area was a duck hunters paradise and was where the truffle hunting breed of today, the Lagotto Romagnolo, originated. In the 18th century the marshes that were once the hunting grounds of the dogs and their dukes were drained to create arable farmland— thus the birth of the Lagotto Romagnolo as truffle hunter. According Stefano Braccini, founder of Tartufie e Cani in Tuscany, the Lagotto Romagnolo, “...took over 20 years of breeding to get to the perfect dog. All the difficult characteristics are now lost. Today it is the perfect breed.” The Italian truffle dogs have had their hunting instinct breed out of them so when out in the woods they are never distracted by birds or other game.

Stefano and Rocky hunting truffles and a group of hunters dining in the forest

 In appearance the dogs look half Portuguese Water Dog and half poodle with eerily human eyes. They are wonderfully affectionate, are very attached to their masters and have one of the keenest noses in all of dogdom. Another great trait is stamina. “Most truffle hunting dogs,” explains Stefano, “usually tire out after two hours of hunting. Their sense of smell fatigues. The Lagotto can go all day.”

Out hunting for the marzuolo truffle with Stefano and his dog Rocky, as in Balboa, as in the Italian Stallion, is an amazing event to observe. One in which human and dog interact in perfect unison. Moving through the beachside forests of Grosetto Province, near the resort town of Cecina, Stefano repeats, “Dove? Dove?” (Where? Where?) in a calm voice as the dog trots from scent to scent. “Rocky can find truffles the size of a peanut buried as far down as 50 centimeters,” says Stefano. That’s over one foot underground. Within moments the dog has found one, then another, then three in one place. With each find Stefano rewards the dog with a treat and praise. Both are clearly happy.   



Stefano Braccini, a truffle hunter and dog trainer in the town of Cellai, in the commune of Rignano sull’Arno, is one of approximately 200 registered professional foragers. In all of Italy there are approximately 4,000 truffle hunters but Stefano is different— he is possibly the only trainer in the country that practices the Metodo Gentile or Kind Technique.
 
To learn more about Stefano Braccini and his dogs visit:
www.tartufiecani.info
E-mail: tartufiecani@live.it

Special thanks to translator Marya Dumont
Marya studied French literature and Occitan sociolinguistics, then sampled the yuppie lifestyle at Microsoft before becoming a travel-hungry expat, tour planner and guide with Butterfield & Robinson. Her favorite place on the planet is Piemonte: home of Slow Food, savory autochthonous grape varietals, and a large per capita population of trifulaos.


1 Portions of the truffle auction proceeds were donated to an Italian group that assists people with genetic disorders, a London organization that helps homeless children and a Catholic charities group in Macau

2 Research netted only one significant mention of the truffle written in 1481 by Bartolomeo Platina, a papal historian in Avignon who commented that the sows of Notza in upper Provence, “...were without equal in hunting truffles however they should be muzzled to prevent them from eating the prize.”


This lasagna is quick, easy and kids love it. It can be made any time of year since it doesn’t require fresh tomatoes.

1 recipe All-Purpose Marinara (recipe below)
1/2 cup grated, standard semi-dried mozzarella
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano
1 ball (125 grams) fresh mozzarella, sliced thinly
2 links Italian sausage (chicken or pork)
1 box no-boil lasagna sheets
olive oil

First make the marinara. [Recipe below] It will take about 30 minutes. It can be made 1-2 days ahead of time or frozen and thawed as needed.

Pre-heat oven to 350℉ (180℃). Remove sausage from casing and fry until cooked, breaking the meat into crumbles.

To a standard lasagna pan (about 11” or 12” x 15”) add 2 tablespoons each olive oil and marinara to the bottom. Spread evenly. Add first layer of pasta sheets, breaking sheets as necessary to make them fit into the pan neatly. Add a thin layer of sauce then the fresh mozzarella. Add another pasta layer, another thin layer of sauce then the cooked sausage. Add another pasta layer, a thicker layer of sauce and the other two remaining cheeses.* Cover with foil. Poke small holes in the top for venting. Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove foil and continue baking until pasta is soft. A quick pass under the broiler makes for a nice crust on the cheese if desired. Serve hot.

* If you’ve never made lasagna, you will effectively be cooking the pasta in the liquid of the sauce so make sure there is enough sauce on top. Be generous - you don’t want crunchy pasta. 

Printable .pdf available here

All-Purpose Marinara
Recipe by Amber Share

This is a very easy marinara recipe for use in pasta recipes and for lasagna when fresh tomatoes are not in season. It can be made 2 days ahead and also freezes well.

2 cans (28 ounces) puréed tomatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan. All at once, to the hot oil, add all ingredients except salt & pepper. Fry on high heat for 5 minutes (this gives it more flavor), stirring frequently. Add salt & pepper. Simmer 20 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally.

Printable .pdf available here

Moving forward through time to the Medieval era we could stand in the same vineyard without a blindfold and watch as pilgrims passed en route to Santiago di Compostela, Spain. These pilgrims followed the trail that still runs through the vineyard called the Via Francigena. This path connects the Spanish holy city in Galicia with Rome. Along this part of the road the pelligrino (pilgrims) trod unknowingly over the same shells with a desire for the salvation that a year’s long walk across the continent was meant to guarantee. One or some of these returning pilgrims brought with them clippings that were later planted.


In the earliest years of the 20th century the Beconcini family arrived and set up the family farm. In the 1950-60s the Beconcini family began to make the slow transition from simple country farm worked by sharecropping to the vineyard and winery we know today which must support the family in the free market. During these years, says Eva, “Leonardo’s father was making the Chianti in the fiasco so he didn’t know what he had in the vineyard, he would blend everything together. When Leonardo came and took over he stopped the production of all these wines from 1990 to 1995. Why? To change the philosophy of the winery. He was always fighting with his father because his father didn’t have the same mentality, of course. For those five years Leonardo and our agronomist studied the vines and we found that we had two very old clones of Sangiovese, not the kind you can find and buy.”

In addition to the Sangiovese there were a number of vines they could not identify. They called them “grape X.”

What made “grape X” especially interesting to Leonardo Beconcini was that it had never been grafted on to American root stock of the Vitis aestivalis, aka “the summer grape.” The grafting of European Vitis vinferia onto American rootstock resurrected the European wine industry following the phylloxera plague of the middle 1800‘s. Strangely, here in their vineyard were 213 vines that had been spared the devastating plague mainly due to the sandiness of the soil. (Because sandy soils drain more quickly the phylloxera louse is unable to reproduce as quickly.) Eva, explains further, “When we found these other plants we didn’t know what they were but we were happy because they were so old and healthy and wonderful, always without problems. The vines never had the problems with the vineyard even with the humidity or odium or parasites. But they were different. With Leonardo’s father they would harvest all the grapes at the same time and every year this lot, was always marmalade. Why? Because the Sangiovese ripens into October and these vines were already ripe. We thought, what is this? So we took a sample to the University of Florence enological department to have the DNA checked. That was when we found out in 2004 that the whole, old vineyard was Tempranillo.”


Tempranillo is to Spanish wine what Sangiovese is to Italian. Prior to identifying the vines there was no known Tempranillo anywhere in Tuscany and only a few stray vines in all of Italy. The only logical explanation as to how the vines arrived in Tuscany is that they were planted by the pilgrims walking the Via Francigena or perhaps it had been brought in by Spanish troops at the time of what what we now call the years of the Italian Wars (1494-1559.)

After the true identity of grape X was revealed there was a problem. Eva explains: “We discovered that we could not make the wine for the simple reason that no one in Italy had ever grown Tempranillo. So we tried but because of the bureaucracy -- because here, in Italy, there is a lot of bureaucracy  -- you know it took us until last June (2009) to be able to say that we are the unique growers of Tempranillo in Italy.”

During the years of waiting Leonardo worked with the variety. “I tried my best to widen my own experience,” he says, “in growing and making wine from this grape that is so unusual for Tuscany. I made the decision to produce an ambitious Tempranillo, using extreme procedures such as semi-drying the grapes before fermentation. The fantastic thing is that our plants are centuries old. These vines are from before the phylloxera, they have not been put on the American feet.” Another fantastic thing is that these vineyards will continue to produce in these historic soils, with any luck, for many years to come.

Leonardo Beconcini produces two 100% Tempranillos

IXE, Rosso IGT Toscana
Aged 14 months in French (70%) and American (30%) barriques. Spends 6 months in bottle before release.

Vigna alle Nicchio, Rosso IGT Toscana
Aged 20 months in French (70%) and American (30%) barriques. Spends two years in bottle before release.

In addition to their Tempranillos they also produce:

Reciso, made of two Sangiovese clones
Maurleo, made of Sangiovese and Malvasia Nera
Antiche Vie, Chianti DOCG
Caratello, Vin Santo
Estate grown Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Contact:
Eva Bellagamba & Leonardo Beconcini
Pietro Beconcini Agricola ss.
Via Montorzo, 13/A
56020 San Minato, Pisa, Italy
info@pietrobeconcini.com
+39 0571 464570

To cook like a Tuscan all one generally needs are the main ingredients, olive oil, bread or pasta, some herbs, and salt. It is a cuisine of simplicity.

When it comes to meat dishes the preparation is just as straightforward. All one needs to make a perfect bistecca fiorentina are the ingredients listed above, less the herbs, with the addition of a wood fire, some cracked black pepper and a T-bone cut of Chianina beef three fingers wide.

If you have not tried bistecca fiorentina you are only half a carnivore. While it is somewhat ordinary in Tuscany it is a delicacy more delicious than decadent and one that ought not make a true carnivore feel guilty about flying to Italy to try just one bite. If you are the sort who is prone to viewing such a trip as an extravagance, bring a friend. The cut is large enough for two, sometimes three people. The flavors are clean and meaty, obviously, and the texture is extraordinarily tender.

The name bistecca fiorentina is a bit anomalous in the Tuscan language and its origins are disparate. The first word of the two word title is said to have come from English tourists of old taking the Grand Tour. Apparently many were nervous of Italian cooking so they ordered “beef steak” everywhere they went. Over time the Italians began to call this cut of grilled meat bistecca, the approximation of the English term. As for fiorentina, this part of the title comes from Saint Lorenzo, the patron saint of cooks who was martyred in 258 CE by being grilled alive. One highly improbable version of the legend has it that while the poor man was slowly roasted to death he allegedly joked: “Turn me over. I’m done on this side!” (Traditionally, bistecca fiorentina is served sangue or rare; perhaps a bit of Tuscan gallows humor?) Another possible source of the dish’s association with Florence may come from the church of San Lorenzo in Florence which was the parish church for the Medici family. Over time these two terms got hobbled together and the name stuck.  

The huge, white Chianina cattle have been a part of the region for centuries. The first records suggesting the presence of the Chianina breed can be found in the 4th century BCE, or the earliest period of the Umbro/Etruscan era. The breed most likely originated in the ancient Indus valley which today lies in parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and north-western India. Centuries of slow migration eventually lead to central Italy where the cow was especially well adapted. Herd sizes increased greatly in the middle and later Etruscan age and through to the 7th century mainly because the Etruscans viewed the cow as sacred. From Roman times to the end of the Second World War, the Chianina cow was the work horse of Italian agriculture living most of its life as a draft animal then, after life, as dinner.

In many respects the Chianina is the perfect farm animal. It is docile yet powerful and when bred for consumption, it is prolific and fast growing. A Chianina bullock can grow to 1,500 lbs / 700 kgs in just 16 months. Females can get up to 2,200 lbs / 1,000 kgs while bulls can tip the scales at 3,330 lbs / 1,500 kgs. One record setting bull was Donetto who at the age of eight years weighed 3,858 lbs / 1,750 kgs. Another legendary bull named Desiderio (1884-1889), who weighed 3,688 lbs / 1,673 kgs, was so prolific that his likeness can found on the label of Merlot/Cabernet bottled by Avignonesi Winery who wished to commemorate his achievements.

No where in Italy will one find a Chianina feed lot. Rather the cattle are always range fed and are out of the pastures only when they come to calve or need veterinary attention. The breed has been protected and breeding is regulated by the Associazione Nazionale Allevatori Bovini Italiani Carne (ANABIC). Recently the Chianina achieved European Economic Community geographically protected recognition (IGP) as “Vitellone Bianco dell’Appennino Centrale.” In limited numbers the Chianina has gone global and the Italian breed can be found in the US, the UK and has been crossbred in much of Latin America with the Zebu Nelore.

One of the most unique purveyors of Chianina beef in Italy is the Macelleria Ricci located in the town of Trequanda. This multigenerational butcher shop, established in 1895 is more than just a place to buy Chianina beef. The proprietor, Enrico Ricci raises the cattle himself on his ranch not more than five miles from his shop.

Ricci got into the raising of the livestock many years back. He explained that at the end of the share cropping system in the 1960s tractors began to replace cattle and oxen in the field. As he says, the Chianina became “redundant.” Because the cattle were no longer needed to plow the fields their numbers dwindled to around 10,000. Rather than watch this once prized and venerated breed vanish Ricci purchased a herd, along with others in his area, and worked to bring the breed back. As a result of their efforts the Chianina numbers have risen substantially.

Ricci’s entire operation is a closed circle model. He has total control from farm to table. His deep admiration for the animal is apparent in his shop where he sells all parts of the cow and personally guarantees that the animals were raised cleanly and treated humanely.

Macelleria Ricci
Trequanda, Siena
0577/662252

Tours of Macelleria Ricci are also available through Food Artisans culinary workshops in Italy.

Printable .pdf available here

It is rare that a business of any kind makes it to the millennium mark but there are a handful in Tuscany. Astoundingly, some have been in operation under the guidance of a single family for ten centuries. One of these gems is the winery owned and operated by Prince Girolamo Guicciardini with the assistance of his daughter Princess Natalia Guicciardini Strozzi.

The first mention of the winery is found in Medieval documents written in 994 though the vineyards were in place and wine was being made long before that. As is to be expected, in the 1,016 years since the first mention of the winery in Cusona, Italy, near San Gimignano, the family has experienced its share of up and downs. Ups included a beneficial alliance with the Medicis who sent the regional white wine they and others produced to the pope. Downs, in later years the Strozzis broke from the Medicis and paid a heavy price in life and exile.

Over the centuries the family has been friends with or associated with some of the power elite of Europe and countless counts, dukes and other celebrities. In the years of Tuscan-European supremacy they kept the young Florentine Niccolo Machiavelli on as a secretary. In 2008 it was proven that the princess is a descendent of Lisa Gherardini, more commonly known as Mona Lisa. Racing into the 20th century the Guicciardini Strozzi became related to British Prime Minister to-be Winston Churchill. More recently the estate has hosted world leaders who have undoubtedly read Machiavelli's The Prince, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Nikoli Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi. And, adds Natalia, “I was great friends with Gregory Peck and I studied dance with Rudolf Nureyev.”

Away from the glare of power and glamour less dramatic but equally vital activities took place on the ancient estate. In the 1300‘s the cellar was dug then updated in 1850. They bought the first tractor Fiat ever made in 1919 and in 1933 they bottled their first vintage of Vernaccia di San Gimignano to commemorate the birth of a son.

Like the Guicciardini Strozzi family Vernaccia di San Gimignano has known its share of ups and down. Throughout the 13th through the 15th centuries the whites of the region were in demand and were even mentioned by Dante in his Divine Comedy as being the favorite wine of Pope Martin IV. As the primacy of Tuscany faded from Italian affairs so did the quality of the wines not just in San Gimignano but the entire region. The reputation of the wine sank so far that Vernaccia was not widely known outside of or even within Italy. Of those who had heard of it, and its detractors, both averred that it was lacking aroma, flavor and character. One wine writer remarked that Vernaccia, “...is welcome after a hard day of slogging around looking at the sites.” Then, starting in the 1966, Vernaccia was the first wine in Italy to be granted DOC status. The status was granted mainly because of the age of the region and little to do with the quality of the product being made. The recognition and the implementation of DOC standards marked the beginning of a new “up” for Vernaccia di San Gimignano.

Vernaccia the grape is thought to be a descendant, possibly, of Grechetto, used in the wines of Umbria to the south of Tuscany. The word Vernaccia loosely means common, local or native grape. More literally vernaccia comes from the same Latin root vernas- which roughly translates to “home-born slave” as opposed to a captured combatant turned slave — a distinction of some importance in Roman times. It is grown in Sardinia, Trentino Alto-Adige and the Marche though the most famous incarnation of this grape is the Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG¹. The sandy hills that surround this jewel of a town that is sometimes referred to as the “Medieval Manhattan,” have proven themselves to be the ideal home for this variety. “Vernaccia is a grape,” explains Letizia Cesani, president of the Consorzio della Denominazione San Gimignano, “that is very difficult to grow. It has gentle skin and bad weather is dangerous. Vernaccia is also a grape that really changes from place to place. In some parts of the region one it is more mineral and easy drinking, another one is more heavy and intense. It is always full bodied and a wine that you can age for a long time.”

There are 201 producers of Vernaccia di San Gimignano with a total output of about 5.5 million bottles annually, and, as Cesani states, “They can vary in flavor from the north side of town to south depending on the soil and the exposure.” One trait all Vernaccia possesses is a crisp acidity that the painter Michelangelo said, “...kisses, licks, bites, pinches and stings” and a subtle, pleasant bitter finish often described as green almond.

Another “up” for Vernaccia di San Gimignano, and all of the DOCG of San Gimignano  has been the increase in the quality and resulting rise in popularity of Vernaccia. Sales of Vernaccia di San Gimignano have soared within Italy where nearly 60% of the wine produced is purchased in its homeland (mainly outside of San Gimignano). Much of the remaining supply is sold in Germany where high acid whites are an ideal accompaniment to rich German cuisine. Most of the remaining bottles make it to the US and can usually be found at a reasonable price (read: cheap).   

Vernaccia di San Gimignano may yet see its days of high marks and high demand return. It is a wine whose reputation and fortunes, like those of the Guicciardini Strozzi family, has out-lived its detractors and the Medicis, who, though they are gone, still “dine” with the Guicciardini Strozzi family. “We keep portraits of the Medicis in our dining room,” said Princess Natalia, “it’s a small vengeance. They’re all dead and every time we gather for a dinner they watch us live.” 

Contact:

Guicciardini Strozzi
Loc. Cusona, 5
53037 San Gimignano, SI, Italia

Consorzio della Denominazione de San Gimignano
Villa della Rocca
San Gimignano, SI Italia
Info@vernaccia.it

1.) A quick word about D.O.C. and D.O.C.G.
Denominazione di Orgine Controllata and Denominazione di Orgine Controllata e Garantita are the Italian wines laws that protect consumers and assure quality. These letters on the label denote that the wine is from a specific region and was produced following prescribed guidelines concerning percentages of blends and aging. There are 316 D.O.C.s and 37 D.O.C.G.s in Italy.

Field, 16th century facilities and cellar worker at Uccelliera

The little brown one — with such a cute moniker one might assume the wines to be dainty, delicate, even simple but Brunellos¹ are among some of the most intense, ageable and complex wines in the world. Professional wine tasters relish a chance to get their lips on a glass of old Brunello, collectors hoard the stuff and many are priced in a range only the most comfortable of household budgets can afford.

What makes Brunello one third of Italy’s killer “B”s — Barolo, Barbaresco being the other two — is its relatively miniscule production. While Italy leads the world in wine production the average annual output of Brunello di Montalcino is but a drop putting out only about 6.5 million bottles. This may seem like a lot but consider that in the neighboring region of Chianti Classico the average annual output is 40 million bottles. As director of the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino, Stefano Campatelli describes Montalcino as, “An iceberg in an ocean of Chianti.”

Brunello is unique not just because of its scarcity. It is also a prized wine for its ageablity. One of the most esteemed names in all of winedom, Biondi-Santi, who has been making wine in the region since the 1880s is the winery that created the standards on which the Brunello D.O.C.G.² rules were written. A recent report regarding a tasting of the 1891 Biondi-Santi Riserva, exclaimed that all tasters were astounded to find the wine still so alive, vibrant and parfumed. How this is possible has to do with the uniqueness of the Sangiovese grown in the Montalcino area, the high acidity inherent in the grape and the meticulous winemaking methods practiced by most in the region. “The difference in Brunello di Montalcino and especially with Biondi-Santi,” said Franco Biondi-Santi, “is that we’re never in a rush.”

Winemaker and his product at Uccelliera

Newer producers adhere to the belief that time is needed to make great wine and in the case of Andrea Cortonesi of Uccelliera, great wine also takes enormous physical effort.

The largely self-taught Cortonesi purchased his vineyards in 1986 and after a few years of careful vine tending felt ready to produce his first vintage in 1991. “I learned by doing,” he explained, “so I worked the vineyards by hand with my father. I also went and worked harvests at other wineries to learn how others make their wines. Our first harvest was small and we made only 500 bottles. We started small but each year we learned what our vineyards could do and we learned what density to plant the vines. The next year we learned a little more and the next some more, and so on.”

Cortonesi continues to do everything by hand. From pruning to harvesting he is in the vineyard and winery overseeing every step of the production. The results of his efforts have earned him high marks in the world’s wine publications and the wines are now among some of the more pricy wines inside and outside of Italy. “It was great in the old days to be working out in the fields with my father, but that wasn’t feeding my family,” said Cortonesi. If one measures time using a Brunello clock, success came fairly quickly to Cortonesi and Uccelliera. A mere 20 years from their first vintage, not counting the six years he waited for his first release.

A little bit up the road is Cortonesi’s neighbor Laura Brunelli, winemaker and wife of the late Gianni Brunelli. Along with Brunello Laura makes some of the best “baby Brunello” or Rosso di Montalcino in the region. By law Rosso wines do not need to be aged as long as Brunellos and are thought of as interim wines as the Brunellos mature. She shares the same belief in the importance of time in wine making. “Now, in the spring” she explained, “is the only time we go fast. It is important now because of the rain and the sun. Overnight the vineyards grow. We have to work fast. It is also important now because the soil is soft on the hills. You respect the soil, to respect the ambience and atmosphere here. In doing this you respect the generations. All this work is for the balance. Here in the Montalcino, the wine is just as much an expression of the place as it is of the producer.”

Stefano Campatelli, local product, Franco Biondi-Santi

1.) Brunello is made from the Sangiovese grape. In Tuscany it is also known as Sangioveto, Prugnolo Gentile and Morellino. According to D.O.C.G rules, a Brunello di Montalcino is always and only 100% Sangiovese. It must spend a minimum of 2 years in an oak barrel and 4 months (6 months for Riservas) in a bottle before release. Most producers extend barrel and bottle time. It is available for purchase 5 years after harvest (6 years for Riservas).

2.) About D.O.C. and D.O.C.G.
Denominazione di Orgine Controllata and Denominazione di Orgine Controllata e Garantita are the Italian wines laws that protect consumers and assure quality. These letters on the label denote that the wine is from a specific region and was produced following prescribed guidelines concerning percentages of blends and aging. There are 316 D.O.C.s and 37 D.O.C.G.s in Italy.

The Italian D.O.C.G. wines are distributed in 13 different regions as follows:

Piedmont: Barolo, Barbaresco, Brachetto d’Aqui, Asti, Ghemme, Roero, Dolcetto di Doglianico, Gattinara, Gavi
Lombardia: Franciacorta, Sforzato della Valtellina, Valtellina Superiore, Oltrepo’ Metodo Classico
Veneto: Recioto di Soave, Soave Superiore, Bardolino Superiore, Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadine
Friuli Venezia Giulia: Ramandolo, Picolit
Emilia Romagna: Albana di Romagna
Tuscany: Brunello, Chianti Classico, Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Morellino Scansano, Carmignano
Campania: Fiano, Taurasi, Greco
Abruzzo: Montepulciano d’Abruzzo
Umbria: Sagrantino di Montefalco, Torgiano Rosso Riserva
Marche: Rosso Conero Riserva, Vernaccia di Serra Petrone
Sicily: Cerasuolo di Vittoria
Sardegna: Vermentino di Gallura

D.O.C.G. wines are considered to represent the typicity of a region and of the fruit grown within that region. Wines of the Brunello di Montalcino became the first wines in Italy to earn D.O.C.G. status on July 1,1980.

* * * * *

To learn more about the wines mentioned in this story contact:

Tenuta “Greppo” di Franco Biondi-Santi
Montalcino, SI, Italia

Azienda Agricola Ucelleria
53024 Castelnuovo dell’Abate
Montalcino, SI Italia

Gianni Brunelli
Azienda Agricola Le Chiuse di Sotto Montalcino
Loc. Podernovone, 157
Montalcino, SI Italia

Nestled in the hills near Cortona, Tuscany cookbook author Pamela Sheldon Johns and artist Johnny Johns make the most of Siena’s rich soil. They own and operate the agriturismo Poggio Etrusco where they teach cooking classes based on the local cuisine using ingredients from their own organic garden. They also produce their own organic olive oil and red wine. Cooking and eating with the pair is a genuine slow food experience that we were lucky enough to experience recently.

Our lunch menu consited of zucchini blossoms filled with fegatini flavored with vin santo, fried elderflower blossoms, roasted pork with apricots and swiss chard, and orange scented olive oil cake with strawberry gelato. As a visitor to Poggio Etrusco you too can learn to cook authentic Tuscan cuisine in beautiful surroundings.

POGGIO ETRUSCO OLIVE OIL CAKE
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups milk
zest of 3 oranges
2 cups flour
1/2  teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Add the olive oil, milk, and zest; mix well.
In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to egg mixture, stirring just blend. Do not overmix.
Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

* * * * *

Agriturismo Poggio Etrusco is located in Siena near Montepulciano. Rooms with full kitchens are available and there is a swimming pool on the property.
Contact Information:
http://www.poggio-etrusco.com/
Agriturismo Poggio Etrusco sas 
Via del Pelago 11, Loc. Fontecornino
53045 Montepulciano (SI)
Italia
Tel/Fax (39) 0578 798 370 
Email: info@Poggio-Etrusco.com
Please note the time change when calling Italy (from USA: 6 hours later than EST)

Ever imaginative, Italy is the only Western nation to make a movie devoted to rice. It is called Riso Amore (1949). The title literally means ‘bitter rice’ but is a bit of word play that can also mean ‘bitter laughter.’ The movie stared Sylvia Mangano (1930 - 1989) as “Sylvia,” the mondina, or a woman who picks weeds in rice fields. The leggy Sylvia falls for a gangster and by the end of the film there is a lot to laugh bitterly about. Off screen Mangano had little to be bitter about, she had a long career and a long marriage to famed producer Dino de Laurentiis. Her grand-daughter is food show hostess Giada de Laurentiis.

The popularity of Riso Amore drew attention to the lives of the mondine and the rice fields of the Po Valley. The mondine, or the ‘women who went to the rice’ were some of the last in a long line of Italian peasants. This now vanished strata of itinerant workers labored for roughly a century that ended in the late 1950’s. As one might expect, working conditions were unpleasant. Rice planting is sweaty, back-breaking work with hands and feet submerged in mud. The still water meant the mosquitos and frogs were plentiful while the pay was not. And, as the age of the mondine was a time of less-then-subtle Communist leanings, the work was politicized, romanticized and bureaucratized.

To allay the tedium of their work the mondine sang. Some of the more popular songs were: O Marinaio Che Cosa Rimiri? (O Sailor, When Are You Coming Back?), Lavoro è Molto Poco (Work Doesn't Amount to Much) and, La Mia Mamma L'è 'Na Ruffiana (My Mama was a Hooker). One of the most sung songs was, La Morte di Una Mondina (The Death of a Mondina), a musical tribute to a slain field worker named Maria Margotti. In those factional, highly charged, political times the sacrificial Margotti was remembered in song as a martyr to the cause of worker’s rights.

So how did rice, the popular subject of movie and song as well as a non-native cereal grain that requires enormous effort to cultivate, come to be such a high-profile staple in Italian culture and cuisine?

There are so many possible answers to this question that perhaps it is best just to say no one really knows. It is certain that the grain was available in Roman times though it was used exclusively for medicines often mixed with honey or wines. In the 10th century records show that rice moved through Sicily en route to Spain by Arab traders who were introduced to the grain by Indians. In true Sicilian fashion it is likely that a portion of this rice shipment was appropriated, shall we say, and began its slow agronomical climb north. Sometime between the 13th and 14th centuries the plains of northern Italy’s Po Valley were cleared for agriculture and grazing and starting around 1475 rice begins to appear on invoices and tax documents with regularity.

Evidently the rice business took off quickly in the north of Italy. By 1533 changes in Venetian law ended the excise tax on rice because it was considered a vegetable and in 1590 Lombardy enacted one of the earliest child labor laws to keep children out of the rice fields. Other evidence of the budding popularity of rice is its appearance in cookbooks. A 14th century recipe called rixo in bona manera is rice boiled in almond milk then topped with sugar. (From this dish comes the Italian expression applied to giggly people: “Che aveva mangiato la minestra di riso.” Translated: He has eaten laughter/rice soup). According to legend the dish we now know as risotto Milanese came into being in 1574 when a stained glass artist named Valerius tinted the local rice dish with the same saffron he used to color glass.

It wasn’t until after the end of WWII that Italy diversified its rice production and the industry grew to the degree that the nation is now the largest producer of rice in Europe.¹ The lone type of rice grown for centuries was called “nosetrale” and may have remained alone had it not been for a Dominican friar who smuggled in other species of rice from the Philippines. It is tough to pinpoint a year in which something is smuggled but it appears that this religious rice trafficking took place in the early 1830’s. The Dominican order planted a test field to determine which rices produced the highest yields and were most resistant to disease. By the middle of the 20th century the weed picking mondine were gone, replaced by better crop management techniques, herbicides, bug-eating carp, row-lining laser beams and machines.

Italian riso is a short grain rice that falls into four categories based on grain size. Large to small they are: commune, semifino, fino, and superfino. The superfino rice is the size of rice most used for risotto though each variety has its own merits when it comes to the thickness, starchiness or soupiness in the risottos it produces. Often used varieties of Italian rice are: Aborio, Carnaroli, popular in Venice, Baldo and Vialone Nano. The Vialone Nano variety grown in the Province of Verona has been given Indicazione Geografica Protetta - IGP (Protected Geographical Indication - PGI) status by the European Union. The IGP statement from the European Commission on Agricultural and Rural Development reads: “Quality is an issue for every farmer and buyer... EU law lays down stringent requirements guaranteeing the standards of all European products… EU quality schemes identify products and foodstuffs farmed and produced to exacting specifications.”

Growing and milling the Vialone Nano rice outside of a town called Isola della Scalla (9.3 miles /15 kilometers south of Verona) are the brothers Gabriele, the jet-setting chef and Maurizio, the logistical and operational overseer, Ferron. The Ferron brothers are sixth generation rice farmers and continue to mill their grain at the Pila Vechia, a facility that went into operation in 1650. The same water driven mill wheel, turned by the passing Zenobio Creek, drives the pestle that pounds the grains to remove the hulls to make white rice. With such equipment, along with another huller built in 1950, the process of refining their rice is slow and painstaking. The end result is a simple, clean, rice grain that has not been subjected to any treatment apart from the abrasion necessary to remove the hull.

The rice produced at Pila Vechia has been part of the local economy and lore for centuries. In its earliest, semi-feudal times the farm was managed as a fief and supported the many families who worked the paddies. In the days of the Risorgimento (Italian unification) the rice was a staple in the diets of Veronese radicals, moderates, unitarians, federalists, republicans and monarchists. During the Second World War the farm was saved from being bombed due to the proximity of a British prisoner of war camp. Able to bring in harvests during wartime the farm fed many nearby families and the POWs. Today the Ferrrons have expanded the scope of their efforts and regularly consult and visit with rice farmers in Africa and Asia on how to increase yields, farm cleanly and improve the nutritional value of the food they grow. They also offer lessons on how to make the perfect risotto and have two restaurants offering tasting menus with wine pairing.

There are as many ways to prepare rice in Italy as there are kitchens. Oftentimes cooks utilize the ideal combinations of their local ingredients to produce plates both savory or sweet, appetizer or main, even dessert. The recipe below is courtesy of the Ferrons. It is the traditional risotto dish of Isola della Scala.

Chef Gabriele Ferron’s Risotto All’Isolana
4 large portions

4 cups (400 grams) Vialone Nano rice
3 1/3 cups (8 decilitres) vegetable broth, boiling hot
3 1/3 cups (8 decilitres) chicken broth, boiling hot
¼ pound (100 grams) pork loin, minced or ground
¼ pound (100 grams) lean veal, minced or ground
2 ounces (60 grams) butter
2 ounces (60 grams) grated Parmigiano cheese
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup (1 decilitre) cognac or dry, unoaked white wine (pinot grigio works well)
1 sprig rosemary
salt & pepper to taste
ground cinnamon (optional)

In a pot melt the butter over low flame with the rosemary sprig. When the butter is golden, remove the rosemary and add the two meats and the cognac and raise the heat to medium. Cook a few minutes, add salt and pepper to taste, then continue cooking on low until the meat is done.

To a large saucepan heated on low add the olive oil and rice and let the rice toast a few minutes. Add the broth, stir gently, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add meat and recover, cooking until the broth is completely absorbed. Remove from the heat. Replace lid with a clean kitchen towel and let sit for 2-3 minutes. Add the cheese and optional cinnamon and stir gently. Serve on single plates or in a large serving dish.

Where to find Ferron rice in the US:
A.G Ferrari & Sons

Contact information:
Antica e Rinomata Riseria Ferron
Via Torre Scaligera, 9
37063 Isola della Scala, VR
Italia
+39 045 730 1022
www.risoferron.com

1.) Italy is also the largest grower of kiwis in Europe. For more on Italian kiwi crops see: New Zealand’s Little Green Goddess on this site.