Calabria: The Legacy of Local

”What was it like?” I remember my aunt asking me later, about walking into the village where her mother was born. Old Calabria, a little village clinging to a hillside like a vine that wrapped itself around a sycamore tree and hung on through time and the elements.

Right now I am sitting in a room at midnight and it’s 85 degrees F. It’s the middle of June and we have at least 3 months of this inferno to go. We’re in a drought, the wind is blowing from the west, range fires crop up and clear cotton fields, threaten livestock. We’re living in a harsh environment and that’s before you take into account the social aspect that we’ve found ourselves in. What was it like?

I can only imagine what they were thinking 100 years ago, when where they were, in Calabria, looked as inviting as that West Texas dust storm raging on the plains. Devastating earthquake, utter breakdown in civilization, a civilization that had been established in the 6th Century B.C. Desperation, hope,a clean slate, away, just far,far away.

The train took us from Brindisi to Cosenza and we followed Merlin back in time, the pine tree forest through the mountains over the hill. Back to grandmothers house. It was the harvest season, September, in a year that would be remembered, by some, as a better than average harvest. 1977.


Cosenza was as it might have been 30 years before. Ten years later a taste of the outside would plant itself in that sleepy little southern town. For now, all we had was a name, Bucita. Somewhere in the hills we would find our cousins and uncles and aunts. And the legacy of their love of the land, and the grape.

Walking into the village, an overwhelming balm infused the air. Ripe figs, roasting inside their leaves in stone ovens. Honey, bay leaf, chestnut-like complex aromas. Unforgettable.

An older man on a donkey approaches us. Yes he thinks he knows who we are looking for. This man, Giuseppe takes me to his house where his wife Teodalinda is standing on a stone floor. My grandfather put that floor in. In his wine cellar Giuseppe would later initiate me into a world where wine held secrets and mysteries inside bottles and barrels. He was a winemaker and the harvest was in full swing.

On the same train, another cousin, Luigi, traveled home. We followed Giuseppe and our interpreter, Antonio (Tony), to a small ancient home. On the table, with a demijohn of red wine and some fresh cookies, and the figs, were pictures of my parents on their wedding day. Connection.

We were just in time, the family needed hands in the fields, a storm front was threatening the harvest. Grape harvest reports supplanted the soccer games on the local TV, people were more interested in the price of Greco or Gaglioppo than Rossi or Zaccarelli. Time was contracting.
The elements here dominate the environment, the sun, the rain, lightning, thunder. Earth, alive and moving. Here comes the sun. Luigi, finding some of his vines have been washed away, clears out a creek bed for water flow. After two nights of Olympian pyrotechnics, the people of the land were given back the hill. Like goats we swarmed the vineyards, competing with the bees for the nectar. His wine vats await the harvest.

Another cousin, Giovanni, has been in his olive groves, they seem to have survived. Tonight his wife Elvira, will be making home made pasta, casalinga, and eggplant, melanzane I segreti della nonna.

Sitting in Giovanni’s home with Luigi and Tony, Elvira and Francesco the weaver, drinking Giovanni’s excellent wine. Below us in the basement is Giuseppe’s wine room, the hum of thousands of crushed grapes fermenting. Teodalinda’s wine flushed face as she posed for a photograph with her husband and a glass of their wine, the ever ringing bells reminding one of the presence of time even in a place like Bucita. They are all gone now.

What remains is the offspring of those days, a life devoted to the legacy of the winemakers met in those early autumn days in southern Italy, in Old Calabria. Since then I have studied wine in books and passed exams certifying me in some realm of wine specialization. But never were those books, even those vaulted chateaus in France, ever as influential and meaningful as spending long evenings in a room lit by a bare bulb with the elders, drinking their wine and talking into the early hours of the morning.

What was it like? In Bucita we found our people close to their land, eating the food they grew, drinking the wine they made, fresh air, clean, pure, sweet water. Their legacy of local. Individuals, charitable people, people whose lives hadn’t been too easy, but souls still able to give and keep on giving. My mother’s people, for so long a mystery to us, to find them was an amazing gift. To be with them and in their daily life was an experience I will never forget.

My destiny was being weaved in that place.

Fathers Day 1977

On to Calabria!

Grapefruit, Eggplant & Montepulciano d' Abruzzo

Something that’s been bugging me off and on is words to describe things that are taken from another word which has another context. About once a week I get someone in a sales group or wine shop asking me about the different Montepulciano wines, that "noble" one from Tuscany and the “other” one from some region to the east of Tuscany.

It is part of the distinct charm of the Italian state of mind to give unlike wine similar names. Or anything for that matter. Anyone who has driven in Italy and tried to find a town starting with the name of Colle, Castello, Rocca or Monte will recognize the dilemma. But, after all, it’s Italy and people have been finding their way around, eventually, to the town or the Café or the vineyard. Or not. And then it’s merely a matter of “recognizing” that wherever they have landed, either be it for lunch or a wine tasting or a day in the country, is just “perfetto” . One of my dear friends would say “ottimo”, most favorable. It’s that Italian sense of latitude relative to their compact with happiness.

What did he say? When in Rome…..

So, what’s with the fruits and vegetables? Those who speak English (and Italian) know the difference between grapefruit (pompelmo) and grape (uva). Also the English speaking (and Italians) know the difference between eggplant (melanzana) and egg (uovo). The Italians use different words than the English so there is no confusion. All clear?

But this Montepulciano business is really something that keeps coming up. The folks in Abruzzo say the Tuscans should rename their Vino Nobile and some of the Tuscans tell the folks in Abruzzo, “Hey, we were here first! Get your own name!”

Mary Ewing-Mulligan, Ed McCarthy, the authors of Italian Wine For Dummies, say it best in their book, and I quote, “The confusion is understandable, but these two wines are definitely different wines made from different grape varieties. Vino Nobile is a dry red wine made primarily from the Prugnolo Gentile variety (a type of Sangiovese) around the town of Montepulciano in southeastern Tuscany. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is also a dry red wine, but made mainly from the Montepulciano variety, which grows in the region of Abruzzo on the Adriatic coast, southeast of Tuscany. The Montepulciano variety is believed to be native to the Abruzzo region, and it has no connection to Sangiovese or to the town of Montepulciano in Tuscany.” That’s as simple and clear an explanation as it gets! Now go and get the book, because there are other nuggets in it.

In trips to Italy I have been really fortunate to spend time in the Abruzzo region and make friends with winemakers there.

There are great memories around the open hearth with vine branches roasting fresh lamb and pork from the macelleria with bottles of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.


Oh, and the people too. One great wine pioneer, Dino Illuminati and his family, stands out in my heart . It was in the town of Controguerra that Abruzzo made Montepulciano theirs. That’s Dino’s town and he’s their Antinori or Mondavi. And he can eat for all three of them. Great guy. Bigger than life. Historical. The stuff great novels are made of.










Now do we have it all sorted out? Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo? Eggs and eggplant? Grapes and grapefruit?

What about this just to mess you up? How do the Italians deal with telling the difference with words like uva (grape) and egg (uovo) when they are growing up? Or what about that Calabrian peasant recipe that has a casserole of eggplant with eggs? You get the picture? Confused again? Good.

And that calls for a glass of wine.What shall it be? Maybe something... Montepulciano? Maybe from a Castello? Or a Poggio? Or a Monte? There is a Monti Montepulciano d' Abruzzo. But dont confuse it with the Montori Montepulciano d' Abruzzo, who also happens to be Dino Illuminati's good friend. But we're way beyond confused again. Pop the cork.

Bona Notte!

Links Italian Wine For Dummies
Illuminati Winery & the US Importer info
Elio Monti Winery & the US Importer info
Camillo Montori Winery
Macelleria Photos from Hank's Wonderful Vacation

Up the Douro River

Where does one go after they jump off the Italian peninsula? One journey I recently made took me back about 200 years to Portugal, Oporto and the Douro River. Portugal, to me, is like going back in time to what Italy felt like when I first went there. Time moves slower, people walk with a gait that resembles an accompaniment to their Fado’s. Yes slow food is very much alive and theirs is slower… food, wine and the music , that wonderful music.

So why would someone jump off the Italian wine trail? Nothing above me, nothing below me, was that one of the koans we were told by the master, selling water by the river? The river in this case, The Douro, and the land that encloses it, is one of the most important wine producing areas in the world. As important as Bordeaux or the Mosel Valley, Napa or Tuscany, Burgundy or Kakheti, Champagne or Piedmont. Places that time has been honored with the toiling of the vine-tenders. But back to the Douro.

We took a few days in Oporto to acclimate to the pace, and I would recommend that exercise. Harvest time is not high season but is the reason this port exists. The ancient wine families and their business houses across the river at Villa Nova de Gaia, small cafes, slow moving boats, all very laid back and therapeutic, in a very good way.

A train is a wonderful way to move people from one time to another. On the train, workers are heading home with skins filled with home made wine. One soul makes eye contact and brings over a sandwich and a boda bag. The wine is a dry rose, definitely home made, something I will remember as well as the 1945 Dows Vintage Port I had a day earlier or the 2005 Chateau Margaux a few months later.

People, hear me, it isn’t always about the 100 point wines, sometimes it’s about the experience, the ride up the hill, that temporary escape from a world gone insane, that journey up the river.

The Alto Douro ~ off at a tiny speck of a village called Tua. Our home, for these days on the Douro, is Quinta Malvedos , a remarkable estate house with a veranda and provisions. We are guests of The Symington family and a gathering of journalists and members of the world wine community are assembled here. This is a little like being in a chapter from Norman Douglas’ South Wind. A master of wine and his young acolyte. A high priest of the wine world and a good hearted soul. They will share the downstairs room. Two journalists for two very prestigious journals for the successful and wealthy classes. Nice chaps, both of them, representing the east and west coasts of North America. Two rooms on separate floors. Myself and the one who brought me, from the lower midsection of the US, a food and wine writer, on the floor with the wonderful veranda. And our hosts, Rupert Symington and his stateside accomplice.I may not be the most critical of people, and I tend to not want to find too much fault in those around me, especially in close quarters and for a short period of time. So why would I mention it? For those reading who might think this is just a shallow glom. These were nice folks, all of them, and they made the trip that much more memorable. And memories are the harvest of experiences.But this isn’t a travel log. Like the master says, nothing above me, nothing below me….so we jump off! (To be continued)

Assisi ~ from the Heart

A spot of heaven on earth. From the center of one of the least known but well loved regions to Americans. Art, hills, green hills, deep spiritual roots, the Umbrian treasures. Great red wines, wonderful white wines. But this isn’t about wine. Yes we’re on a wine trail, but this trail cuts deeper, to the heart and soul of what is important to a person like me. You won't find clues here, but questions and wonder bordering on the inner region of bewilderment.

My son took his first steps in Assisi. We spent two weeks there once on a hillside in October. And during that time the little guy decided this was the time to take that step. Or more like a “move” out of a John Travolta movie from the times. It was only the beginning of many steps he took on that soil, in the footsteps of the mystics of the area, Francis and Clara and many unknown. The green heart of Italy is what the Italians call Umbria, the region where we are in this moment.

My wife, we laid her remains to rest a little higher up that hill. First steps and last resting spot. The cycles of life and death interwoven in my life story. How could I have imagined this?

Why couldn't this have just been a dream?

A close Italian friend of mine, who helped arrange for her interment in a most sacred spot in Assisi, told me about what he did not too long after. He was in his town in the Marche region and was at a plant nursery. At the shop he saw some grape plants with a name that was familiar to him.

It was my name. Our friend bought two of those plants and took them to plant, one at his home and one at the site in Assisi where my wife rests. On top of a rocky crag, midway between the summit of the hill and the forest grove, he planted the vine. The vine grew out of the rocks and is flourishing. Life from lifelessness, beginning from the end of a cycle?

This friend found out last year, about this time, that he had cancer. Two months later he passed away. I was in Sicily the day he died. He was in a hospital in America. The sign, from the Sicilian countryside, was in the form of a bird landing in the gully of a field. It was early morning, the sun was rising and a slight wind was blowing throughout the vineyards from the south. A grey bird with white under wings flew up to my window sill from the gully, landed, looked at me and flew west. That was all the notice I got. Twenty minutes later my cell phone rang.

How sad I thought, it must be for an Italian to die, to have to leave all of this beauty.

written and photographed by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy

wine blog +  Italian wine blog + Italy W

Sicily ~ Memories, Dreams and Reflections

Sicily shelters many memories, like an ancient version of my early California days. Warmth, sunshine, seaside, fresh fruit and lively wines. In many ways these two places are so alike, in their feel. When you scratch the surface though, Sicily is a multi layered cake.

This isn’t going to be a wine posting per se. Memories around the wines and memories before the time I was even on the planet. Where do they come from? Why do I remember an ancient Greek temple but forget the book I read a year ago?

A glass of fresh red wine, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, on a patio by the shade of a palm tree, where I heard my Grandmother singing and cooking and my grandfather watering the plants, the aromas of oregano and basilico washing my senses with light and vigor.

A picnic out in the country with my Aunt Vitina and Uncle Peppino, fresh rice croquets, arancini, a slice of caciocavallo cheese, some sparkling mineral water mixed with the vigorous Sicilian red wine from the cantina, cool and spicy ….

Scurrying around the Sicilian countryside in Zio Peppino’s Cinquecento, stopping to take a picture or get some fresh eggs or olive oil, in this tiny little car pressing on the landscape at a speed that only now seems impossibly wonderful.

On the way home a stop at an old friend’s winery…littered with Ferraris and Fiats, barrels and bottles, we’ve stopped for some Marsala and dessert, little capi duzzi di ricotta with a Marsala Riserva Superiore 10 year.

We are rolling out of an ancient winery, (was this a dream or a memory?) and come upon this sign painted in the time of Mussolini. Now appearing like an ancient fresco found at Piazza Armerina, in Italian it said, “chi non beve mai vino e un agnello, chi ne beve giusto e un leone, chi ne beve tropp e un suino” (He who drinks no wine is a lamb, he who drinks moderately is a lion, he who drinks too much is a pig.)
On the way back to Palermo there is a scene , two country Sicilian men, from the turn of the century standing by their Carro Siciliano. I remember this clearly but was I there at the time the picture was taken, was I even alive in those days? But it is a fond memory nonetheless, even if it is from an ill tempered time machine gone mad in reverse.

Ceretto Moscato d' Asti ~ Warm Season Favorite

CERETTO'S BRIEF HISTORY

In Alba in the late 1930s, Riccardo Ceretto founded the Casa Vinicola Ceretto, which formed the nucleus of the present Aziende Agricole Ceretto. In the 1960s, his sons, Bruno and Marcello, took over the company's commercial and technical direction, respectively, dedicating themselves to a careful expansion of family holdings.Since then, the enterprise's mission has been to acquire and consolidate various high-quality winemaking properties around the Langa region; make them autonomous from a production point of view; and foster synergy between the company's technical and sales staffs. The result has been the selection of land offering ideal exposure, altimetry, and chemical-physical composition, and on this land the family has planted or replanted vineyards. In its wines, the family uses grapes that come either directly from its own vineyards or indirectly from nearby producers who maintain the same high quality standards as the Cerettos and with whom the Cerettos have exclusive contracts.Of primary importance remains the vines' cultivation, at once traditional and-thanks to collaboration with the University of Turin's Faculty of Agriculture-evolutionary. With this sound foundation, work in the cellar has been reduced to a series of measures that complement and complete, rather than modify, nature's product.
In the 1960s, the Cerettos sampled grapes from many regional properties, to determine which were the best Barolo and Barbaresco crus. Then the family began purchasing vineyards, acquiring its first, Bricco Asili (in the Barbaresco region), in 1970. In 1973, the Cerettos built their first winery, the Azienda Agricola Bricco Asili, which comprised two of the area's best crus, Asili (1,2 Ha.) and Faset (1,6 Ha.) and purchased the Bernardot vineyard (in the Treiso district), in 1997. After Barbaresco, the Cerettos assembled-in a series of purchases of small plots over twenty years-a patchwork of Nebbiolo vineyards for the production of Barolo wine: Prapò (2,4 Ha.), in Serralunga d'Alba; Brunate (5,6 Ha.), in La Morra; and Bricco Rocche (1,5 Ha.), in Castiglione Falletto. Between 1977 and 1982, the family constructed an ultra-modern winery, the Azienda Agricola Bricco Rocche, in Castiglione Falletto on the top of the hill Rocche. In 2002, we purchased just under 1 acre on the top (the "Bricco") of the famous Cannubi vineyard, which will soon produce a very exclusive Barolo.
In 1974, the Distillery was built-the first in the Langhe region to produce single-variety grappas from property vineyards. In 1985, a new seat became operative at La Morra (in the Brunate district), where four varieties of grappa are distilled: Nebbiolo,Moscato, Dolcetto and more grapes .
Although the world has always known Piedmont for its great red wines, the Cerettos have never ignored white varieties. In 1977, several small producers of Moscato d'Asti in Santo Stefano Belbo founded the Azienda I Vignaioli di Santo Stefano Belbo, under the Cerettos' technical and commercial direction. 40 Ha. of the Tenuta San Maurizio, rented for 30 years from the Conti Incisa Beccaria, were added to the first 15 Ha. in the 1995. The total production of this estate is 150.000 bottles of Moscato d'Asti, 10.000 of Asti Spumante and 4.000 of Moscato Passito.
In the 1980s, the Arneis-Piedmont's only indigenous white grape-began receiving well-deserved attention, and in 1985, the Azienda Agricola Blangè 35 Ha. after the acquisition of Tenuta San Carlo)was set up, to produce a high-quality, Arneis-based wine.
The headquarters of the Ceretto Aziende Vitivinicole, were transferred, in 1989, from Alba to a completely restored site near the Bernardina estate. Situated in the hills surrounding Alba, it is one of the largest aziende agricole in the area. La Bernardina is also the seat of the Azienda Agricola Monsordo-Bernardina, which produces a Spumante Brut Classic Method, a sparkling wine crafted from Chardonnay and Pinot Nero grapes.
With the 1997 harvest and the bottling of the first Monsordo red, the winery realized its longtime dream of creating a great, "international" red wine, blended-in different proportions each year-from Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Nebbiolo.In 1995, a plot of land extending into the communes of Sinio and Albaretto Torre was acquired in the Upper Langa region (at an altitude of 600 meters). The Rhine Riesling was identified as the ideal grape for this terrain, and its first harvest, in 1997, gave rise to the Azienda Agricola Arbarei.

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Thanks to the folks at Ceretto for this entry

You say Ripasso and I say Ripassa; Three versions

Starting with a basic definition of Ripasso
• (Italy) A brilliant concept for increasing the amount of flavor and interest in basic Valpolicella. The Valpolicella wine is passed over unpressed but drained must of an Amarone. The bittersweet intensity of the Amarone is imparted, in a small way, to the basic Valpolicella, possibly with the help of a minor secondary refermentation. www.thewinedoctor.com/glossary/r.shtml

I have narrowed them down to three methods.(although there are several other variations). But for the time this would be a good place to start from.

1) Traditional
Zenato Ripassa Valpolicella Superiore DOC
A blend of 70% Corvina, 20% Rondinella, 5% Sangiovese and 5% Molinara. After fermentation the wine is put into the vessels recently vacated by the Recioto and Amarone and undergoes a slight re-fermentation that increases both the alcohol and body. (the traditional Ripasso method, where the wine is repassed over the pomace of the partially dried grapes that are used to make Amarone) It remains in tank for 6 months and is then aged in small oak barrels for 18-24 months.

2) Innovative and Fresh

Allegrini Palazzo della Torre IGT
A blend of 70% Corvina Veronese, 25% Rondinella and 5% Sangiovese made in their ripasso style. 70% of the grapes picked are vinified immediately. The remaining 30% are left to dry until the end of December when they are vinified and re-fermented with the wine from the fresh grapes. They feel they have improved upon the traditional Ripasso method, where the wine is repassed over the pomace of the partially dried grapes that are used to make Amarone. They now add whole, partially dried grapes of the same variety to enrich the wine, as opposed to the spent grape skins normally used.

3) Artisanal and Intense (the most complex method of the 3)

Viviani “Campo Morar” Valpolicella Classico Superiore DOC
The grapes are harvested the first or second week of October from the vineyard designated Campo Morar. 50% of the harvested grapes are vinified at the time of harvest, macerated for about 10 days, and vinified in glass lined cement containers under controlled temperatures. The other 40% of the grapes go through “appassimento” (a natural withering of the grapes in an ambient environment) for about one month in order to obtain the highest concentration of all the components of the grapes. At the end of November these grapes get crushed and after the maceration period, the wine is mixed with the juice of the grapes that were vinified in October. Around the end of March, a small amount of the ripassato (pomace) of the Amarone, which is rather sweet, is added to the Valpolicella Superiore. This process, our version of “ripasso” allows the wine to re-ferment for several days. The wine ages in barrels for a period of 24 months followed by an additional 6 months in the bottle.

postcard from Texas--Planeta is here...

click the postcard above

If I were an island, I'd be Pantelleria

Yep, I'd definitely be Pantelleria







Surrounded by Water










Vines and Vini










the Wind....










and Serenity ....now












did I say Serenity?









not here or here ....