The chef recommends: Put yourself in passenger mode, admire the scenery. Get advice and it is the thing you can benefit from the most. Concentrate on pampering at the end of a meal but don't overdo it with desserts! You know what I mean. Beetroot-colored dyes. Best wishes!
Dish of the week: Quinoa with lentils and baked beetroot cream (also good with steam). Beetroot cream: blend the cooked beets with extra virgin olive oil, salt and sesame. Here's how to cook Quinoa!
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A white wine capable of telling the magic of the Phlegraean Fields, a wonderful Campania region, rich in history and charm
In a large kitchen Vincenzo's parents unfold the beans together with his grandmother, while the younger brother, who is about to get married, fills jars of honey that he will give as favors. This is the scene of domestic life that I find, as soon as I cross the threshold of the Di Meo house, winegrowers for five generations: an address of those where it takes little to feel part of the family.
The beans I had already had the opportunity to taste them just before, walking through the vineyards, because here in La Sibilla they are planted between the rows, together with tomatoes, courgettes, broccoli, peas and potatoes … Once harvested, the vegetables are transformed into pickles and preserves and offered on bruschetta to those who come to taste the wine. Their taste is incredible, like the land from which they are born. The vineyards, in fact, grow on sandy soils, rich in ash, lapilli and pumice; most of them are still unadorned and of a considerable age: the particular soil saved them from phylloxera, the "imported" insect from America, which devastated vineyards throughout Europe.
But the surprises have just begun: we are in the heart of the Archaeological Park of Baia, about twenty kilometers from Naples, and when I arrive in the cellar where the wines are aged, I discover that it is made from one Roman cistern. “Here salt water flows at a temperature of 65 ° C; in ancient times this place was a renowned spa town "Vincenzo tells me that, after graduating in Oenology and some experiences abroad, he could not resist the call of his land. The sea under the hill, planted with i indigenous vines piedirosso and falanghina, guards the submerged city of Baia, with the remains of statues, amphorae and mosaics and I like to think that the old roots of the vines manage to capture and restore a little of the magic of this extraordinary place in the glass.
The energy of the sun and the sea, in fact, is found in the white Campi Flegrei Falanghina Cruna Delago 2016, which smells of fresh fruit, with touches of citrus, iodine and Mediterranean scrub. When tasted, it is a breath of freshness and flavor, with all the grace of simple flavors that everyone likes.
Why now: it is a white wine that goes well with the ingredients and dishes of late spring and summer. As did: comes from a selection in the vineyard of the best bunches; after fermentation at a controlled temperature, it refines the lees on steel for six months. To combine with: vegetable pies, rabbit, squid and shellfish Serve it at: 10 ° C Price: 20 euro.
From vineyards straddling the Italian and Slovenian borders, on very special soils, wines are born capable of telling the territory of origin like few others.
Slovenian Brda and Friulian Collio. Two names to indicate the same area, which has always been divided by a border that is as absurd as it is invisible. The political history of this region is troubled, so much so that everyone here tells of having an Austro-Hungarian grandfather, an Italian grandfather, a Yugoslavian father and being born in Slovenia.
The eyes move in a horizon enclosed between the Julian Alps and the sea. "See that white house? It is in Slovenia. But the neighboring building is already Italy ". That is my vineyard down there, my ancestor bought it, the border passes between them. Today it is no longer a problem, but until a few decades ago, it was necessary to face a complex bureaucracy to be able to move from one side to the other with the tractor ". There are many anecdotes that circulate in these parts and that recall a world that fortunately no longer exists.
There Slovenia has been independent since 1991, has only two million inhabitants and is famous for being the fifth greenest country in the world. One does not find it hard to believe, even if only by looking at this segment of territory, where the rows of vineyards alternate with the woods and fruit crops, which give Brda as much fame as wine. "But we also have olive groves because here is a particular microclimate, which makes the fortune of the winemakers, along with the special soil typical of these parts, the opoka, or ponca, rich in calcium"Marjan tells me that since 1988, with the precious help of his wife Valerija, he runs the winery bought by Jožef Simčič in 1860.
Marjan Simčič
This soil is so important and characterizing for the local wines that Marjan has dedicated its most prestigious line to it, produced only in the best years, with the oldest vines (over 60 years of age). He wets a piece of ponca and makes me smell it: it is the same perfume that is found in the chalice of his Rebula, the Slovenian name of yellow ribolla, the most representative grape of the area, which here is vinified in sparkling wine, in white, in orange or as a sweet wine, demonstrating an astonishing versatility, even if the most apt version remains the one that foresees the maceration.
The Brda Rebuola Opoka 2016 is a fascinating and well-balanced wine, in which the tannic component gives a new dimension; opens on peach and apricot aromas with some citrus nuances, reminiscent of chinotto, intense mineral notes, reminiscent of ponca, and spices like white pepper. In the mouth it is velvety, sapid and persistent and tells of a very interesting aging potential: therefore, the advice is to buy and forget the 2016 vintage in the cellar and to drink the monumental 2013 now.
Why now: it is a wine to be savored calmly, to capture all the nuances in the glass. Nothing better than doing it during these days of bridges and holidays.
How it's done: ferments in contact with the skins for 16 days in 1,000 liter cement eggs without the addition of selected yeasts; after soft pressing, it is aged for a year in cement eggs and for 10 months in 500 liter oak barrels.
To combine with: shellfish and seafood, grilled blue fish, smoked fish, eggs with truffles.
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