Tag: wine

The wine of the week: Primitivo 2016 Amastuola – Italian Cuisine

An organic and territorial red wine born in Puglia, in a huge vineyard-garden near the sea

As happened to many Apulians, Don Peppino Montanaro had to leave his land to look for work and luck elsewhere. He made it, giving life to Kikau, a leading company in Europe in the sector of non-toxic paints and aluminum shutters. But the "agricultural cell", as he himself defines the love for the land that his grandparents had passed on to him, has never abandoned it, so much so that in the mid-nineties he began to invest also in the fruit and vegetable sector: with production of table grapes, luck was added another fortune. Without capital problems, you can think of turning a dream into reality and creating in Puglia, a place that has a lot to do with magic.

We are a Crispiano, in territory known as the "hundred masserie" and Amastuola, purchased by Don Peppino in 2003, was an important agricultural center already in the fifteenth century. From the terraces of the company the gaze sweeps over what is the unique peculiarity of the estate, the garden-vineyard, created by the Spanish landscape gardener Ferrando Caruncho from 2003 to 2006: it is a single body of 101 hectares, with the rows arranged in parallel waves, interspersed with flower beds with ancient olive trees and surrounded by five kilometers of dry stone walls. The particular arrangement and exposure of the plants allows the wind to circulate in the right way, thus ensuring healthy grapes that can be brought to an optimal maturation; the rest is done by the mineral-rich soils that ensure the wines have the right flavor.

The first harvest dates back to 2010 and production now stands at 150,000 bottles a year, all certified organic.

The primitive 2016 is the simplest red of the company, as well as the wine that best represents its philosophy (its older brothers are the Lamarossa 2015 and the Centosassi 2015): it is a very territorial label, with explosive hints of wild berries and plum, which combine with the scent of the violet and some salty notes, which reminds the proximity of the sea. Thanks to the harvest of the grapes carried out in three times, it is a fresh Primitivo, very drinkable and with an amazing relationship between quality and price.
From 2017 Amastuola also includes a wine resort with design rooms in the old farmhouse and an excellent restaurant where you can taste the Apulian flavors revisited with creativity. One more reason to plan the visit.

Why now: it is a very suitable red to accompany the meat dishes of the Easter tradition.
As did: after fermentation with maceration at a controlled temperature of three weeks, the wine is aged for 18 months, partly in oak barrels, partly in steel.
To combine with: baked lasagna, meatballs with sauce, lamb and roast kid.
Serve it at: 16 ° C.
Price: 10 euros

amastuola.it

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Oliviero Toscani: the peasant's wine sucks – Italian Cuisine

The statements of the photographer who at Vinitaly talked about his wine and his idea of this product "against nature" are discussing

King of advertisements, images that have made culture. Provocative. Oliviero Toscani is also talked about at Vinitaly where he intervened by attacking the so-called peasant wine without half measures.
"The peasant's wine sucks, unless he is lucky by running into a good year .
Interviewed by the Republic, he told of the wine project that bears his name. He clearly stated that he was watching others make wine, because for him it is a serious thing that does not allow for improvisation. After defining that of winemaking an operation against nature (in the sense that if the nature were left free to act the product would turn into vinegar) the photographer communicated the preference for light wines, which transmit «cheerful lightness.
At the same venue, he underlined the importance of a product like wine for Italy, which at this historical moment represents a real model for other industrial sectors. But are we sure that for Oliviero Toscani wine is such a scientific market?
Judging by his first memory, it seems not: "I remember it very well: we were displaced in the Bergamo area, and Signora Maria gave me two fingers of red wine. I don't remember how often, but I remember the taste, the smell of that wine. And it's a beautiful memory ".

The wine of the week: IS Iss 2015 Tenuta San Francesco – Italian Cuisine

In the hinterland of the Amalfi Coast, there are vineyards with plants that are three, four centuries old: a spectacle of nature that is a real open-air museum. From very rare native vines are born wines with a unique character

The curves of the Amalfi Coast with the incredible overhanging views to the beach of Maiori. Then, a detour to the right, uphill, and within a few minutes the geography is distorted: the sea gives way to the mountain, the temperature drops, the crowd disappears.

We are in the heart of Monti Lattari park, with peaks that touch the 1,300 meters of altitude. As the name says, here once dairy cows were bred and the area was rich in dairies. Today, almost no one produces the mozzarella fior di latte and the viticulture resists only thanks to the determination of some willing, who decided to put their free time at the service of a wine heritage that has no equal in the world.

No description can make the beauty of the tiny plots, in which vines with a flat foot they touch the three, four centuries of age. From the huge and twisted trunks, tied with the willow to the chestnut poles, branch tents spread over ten meters long. Obviously the processing is done entirely by hand, the yields are basic, the sale of the wine, made with unknown native vines, very difficult. “For this reason we have decided to call our most important red, based on the dye grape, is iss, which in the local dialect means here he is, "says Gaetano Bove, who together with Generoso Bove, Vincenzo d'Avino and Luigi Giordano founded the Tenuta San Francesco company in 2004." First we sold the grapes, but in that year there was a market crisis, nobody wanted them, we didn't know what to do, so we tried to make wine by ourselves ”.

Without knowledge, the first results were not exciting, but with the arrival of the avellinese oenologist Carmine Valentino, the company has embarked on a path towards quality that today has led it to be one of the unmissable realities of the Amalfi Coast . The annual production is around 65,000 bottles and in the 13 hectares of property, divided into forty tiny plots, falanghina, piedirosso, aglianico, biancolella, biancazita, pepella and broom are also cultivated.

"The vine dyer it was saved in part because it was cultivated in isolated territories, partly because it gave color and acidity to the wines of Gragnano, very popular in Naples, ”says Bove; the particular volcanic soils did the rest, preserving the local vines from phylloxera, the terrible insect that devastated the vineyards of all Europe. È Iss offers, therefore, the unique opportunity to taste the dyer vinified in purity. Its dark color would make you think of a warm and muscular wine, instead the great acidity makes it agile and smooth, a true mountain wine which is remembered for its long and sapid palate, able to gracefully carry the aromas of wild plum and black pepper. It's a really unsettling red that doesn't look like any other wine. Is iss, in fact.

Why now: it is a wine that deserves to be discovered by those who do not yet know it.

As did: ferments in steel with indigenous yeasts at controlled temperature, then refines in wooden barrels of various capacities.

To combine with: meatballs with tomato sauce, pasta with meat sauce, roasts.

Serve it at: 16 ° C.

Price: 34 euros.

vinitenutasanfrancesco.com

Our recipes in combination

An organic and territorial red wine born in Puglia, in a huge vineyard-garden near the sea

The statements of the photographer who at Vinitaly talked about his wine and his idea of ​​this product "against nature" are discussing

In the hinterland of the Amalfi Coast, there are vineyards with plants that are three, four centuries old: a spectacle of nature that is a real open-air museum. From very rare native vines are born wines with a unique character

The statements of the photographer who at Vinitaly talked about his wine and his idea of this product "against nature" are discussing