8/6/18
I had to work the night before I left at the hospital (Saturday 8/4 to Sunday 8/5); I was scheduled to work until 0800 with my flight out scheduled for 1600. By some miracle I got to leave work at 0150 AM due to overstaffing, and I actually got a decent 6 hours sleep (note to self, no long flights after a night shift.)

I arrived on Monday, after having been up 28 hours (maybe sleeping on the plane for an hour and a half.) I was so happy to be here, staying at a new place this year and the town (small as it is) is a maze; I was worried I’d get lost in my exhaustion. I got coffee, cream and juice, managed to make it back, and fell into bed exhausted and excited.

8/7/18
On a quest today to visit San Giovenale, a church in Orvieto that dates to the year of 1004, although it is thought that the church is built on the site of an even earlier church. When I was on my way to find the church I happened upon a bookstore with an guide to the church in English; most of the guidebooks were in Italian. Many of the frescos been restored in recent years (funny, to see little cards that show “Lion’s Club” as the restoration benefactor.) One of the frescos in my book showed baby Jesus nursing as he sat on Mary’s lap; he’s feeding quite lustily and his hand on her breast is quite possessive, in the book the fresco is damaged where part of his hand is. But in the restored version I saw today, just a VERY slight change in the angle of the first two fingers of his hand really changes the whole character of the painting; the whole work appears more peaceful.

Here is a link to some of the other frescos by that same artist in this church: http://www.keytoumbria.com/Orvieto/S_Giovenale_Frescoes.html Twice when I was outside locals came zooming up the tiny street in their Fiat(s), parked them in a no parking zone, hurried in for a quick prayer or to light a candle, then went off to resume their activities for the day. It was also interesting that the majority of the tourists that visited when I was there didn’t spend more than five minutes inside.

Also of note was the altar which dates to 1170 and is actually comprised of repurposed pilasters and slabs, but amazingly one of the slabs is a piece of marble from the first half of the 9th century (801-900 CE). No pictures could be taken inside and it was quite dark at any rate, presumably to protect the frescos (although there was a little machine you could put two euros in that would turn on the lights for a little while).

8/7/18 (unexpected side trip)
On the way to San Giovenale, I took a wrong turn and a block away happened upon the church of Sant’Agostino (this one had a fee; 5 euros for a pass that allows unlimited entry to three sites in three days). It was restored in 1724 and while the church itself was only mildly interesting, the sculptures were STUNNING. Here are three of my favorites: I loved San Taddeo by Francesco Mochi, and a pair that are part of a piece called the Annunciation, also by Mochi. (I didn’t even know they shared a sculptor until now; it appears I like his work.) I would guess they are each between 8 and 10 feet. One other person came through when I was there, otherwise I had all the sculptures to myself!

8/8/18
A day spent at the museums and largest Church in Orvieto. Originally I thought that I would spend the day in the Duomo sketching, but when I got there I just wanted to sit and be at peace. The art there is so stunning that I need my books handy, so I know who and what I’m looking at. Instead, off to Palazzi Papali, which Heather and I visited last year. I mainly went in to the bottom floor because I recalled there were whale bones, and I was pretty sure that Kirby would want me to re-visit those. This is an underground large hallway that basically looks like it houses all of extras: pulleys, heads that fell off the facade, whale bones, old carts, tools, etc. Much to my surprise they had added an art installation this year, painter Michael Franke: https://www.villavigoni.eu/i-paesaggi-europei-di-michael-franke-in-mostra-a-orvieto/ It was a lovely surprise, with a painting hanging from each sideways “stall” in the passageway, and one on the end. It was all in keeping with the spirit of Orvieto’s cave systems. http://www.inorvieto.it/en/visit/orvieto_below_the_surface.html

Then to the upstairs. I forgot how it smelled; I guess my nose isn’t accustomed to the scent of “ancient.” I am a huge fan of Luca Signorelli and I somehow don’t recall his Santa Maria Maddalena (1504) from last year, which is some kind of travesty of memory. It was by far the best part of my day. (Detail here). I also was really struck by the amazing condition so many of the pieces are which are painted on wood panels; one particular piece had huge chunks that had fallen off, lost forever.

Then to the Museo Archeologico which I really wanted to see last year but we couldn’t fit in. Restored pottery, tomb excavations, all engaging. Some of the photos are on my FB; I continue to be torn by “to restore or not to restore.” Had it not been for restoration and preservation throughout the centuries, none of this would have been here for me to see. Yet a piece of pottery, with the missing pieces patched in in clay, huts my soul. Especially when they use black clay for a black piece, so it all blends in. You’d never see the magnificent art of someone hadn’t put all the shards back together, but I can’t help but think about the midpoints being (very knowledgeable) extrapolation. Maybe now in this new era of 3D printing they’ll print clear shards to match the lost pieces. Somehow I think I could more easily tolerate that. You can also see a little bronze statue of Hermes dating to somewhere between 1st century BCE and 1st century CE; it can’t have been more than 5 inches high. Just amazing detail with the tools on hand at the time. I didn’t post a picture but there was also a suit of armor (breastplate, shin guards, helmet); impressive but so SMALL, I don’t think I cold have worn it in battle.

My VRBO manager Roy invited me to his regular 7:00 PM haunt for a drink. I decided to stop in because I hadn’t talked to anyone for two days and I thought maybe that wasn’t healthy. I actually had eaten lunch at the place (salmon/orange/arugula/white wine) earlier that day and they remembered me, wanting to know if I wanted the same. Roy kindly called and arranged my Thursday cab to the train station, then we had a lovely meal in the shadow of the Duomo at a place I’d never eaten. Homemade Strozapreti (priest strangler, because of the shape, like a rope) pasta with a fresh, green zucchini sauce. Lovely!

8/9-8/10/18
Off for an overnight in Venice. About a 5 hour train trip, and I always love the train. I sort of felt a little ill on the train, then I realized it was because I bought a huge espresso coffee pot to bring home and I drank the equivalent of 6 espressos before I left. No wonder! I met Kirby’s friend Nina there and we walked the city back and forth, as it is only 3 miles and there are a million things to look at it was a nice stroll. We managed to navigate to the Jewish Ghetto, which I had wanted to see as it was the very first ghetto to be name such. A young Hasidic Jew sat studying in the courtyard at a table, and I spotted a kosher restaurant a short distance away. Such a small place for so many people! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_Ghetto I also wanted to see the outside of Harry’s Bar in Venice, and we navigated there as well. All the very expensive looking shops were on the street adjacent to the bar. Nina and I had a lovely supper at Trattoria Pontini. We were very glad to have had our VRBO manager make us reservations on the canal. I’m not sure we would have eaten if we didn’t. In planning for Venice I had thought I would do a vaporetto or a gondola ride but I just couldn’t bring myself to pay. There are rumors about the smell; it was fine, it smelled slightly of fresh fish and ocean even in the heat. On Friday there were fish stands on the street in the morning and I so wanted to take a few home; but given that later that day I missed a train I’m now glad I didn’t try. SO MANY TOURISTS! Much like Rome, a great place to visit but you wouldn’t want to live there. I didn’t make it to the Bridge of Sighs or for cicchetti; something for next time. I also didn’t make it to any of the outer islands; next time also!

8/11/18
Back in Orvieto, off to the farmers market on a fine Saturday morning. Oh the fresh EVERYTHING. Had my phrase book out to ask for quantities, weights, check on prices; it was invaluable. A great tote that smelled of the most perfect garden of summer, a fresh plum to eat on the way home. The local women were buying HUGE quantities of tomatoes and basil. I needed a couple sprigs of rosemary, I asked on gentleman how much, he indicated I didn’t have to pay as he hand rolled a cigarette (or joint). I was buying cheese to fly home with for Heather and I; we managed to find something sturdy enough for travel with, which he then vacuum packed. I made him write down the kind on one of my receipts, but I think that instead what he wrote down was the name of the cheese producer. Based on appearance and taste I believe it is a Pecorino. I suppose he didn’t write down that part because it was so incredibly obvious; he described the sky but forgot to tell me it was blue. I also found some of the chokecherries I love at the market, then made homemade pasta and bread, puttanesca sauce with fresh basil, garlic, olives. A baking stone plainly integrated into the oven design. A perfect day and night.

8/12/18
A quiet day. Nina ill, unfortunately. We had planned to go to the Duomo but she just wasn’t feeling up to it. While she slept I started looking at what items I wanted to bring home; this is the first day I’ve considered departure a reality. She got up in the afternoon, I made her some scrambled eggs, we shopped a bit, and then went to meet Roy to discuss arranging her departure cab for the following day. While she packed and planned her trip to Rome, I went out thinking to have an appetizer, but instead opted for an amazing ravioli with vegetables. There was not one English speaking table at dinner, and the hum of conversation was steady and animated. One lovely elderly couple next to me appeared to be enjoying their meal immensely; it appeared she’d recently fallen and was quite frail, bittersweet.

8/13/18
Madonna del Latte
http://www.madonnadellatte.it/en/

My adventure today took me to a small, 2.5 acre family winery is located halfway between Orvieto and Lake Bolsena. Lake Bolsena is the largest volcanic lake in Europe; formed 370,000 years ago when multiple volcanoes erupted, depleting the lava which then caused a collapse of the rock under the smaller, existing lake. Volcanic debris were then deposited at the higher elevations. This winery sits on one of the deposits 450 meters above sea level with 18 inches of top soil resting atop the volcanic ash below.

In 2000 the vintner Leon’s parents (mother Italian from Venice, father German) bought the land and house, abandoned for 15 years, with the intention of creating a winery (after having the soil analyzed for grape-growing potential.) Leon, then just graduating, decided that he should learn winemaking and studied for 8 years in Austria, New Zealand, and California, among other places.

Leon is German but has been living in Italy since 2007. He has a passion for quality winemaking and crafts all 20,000 bottles they produce each year himself, although he does have staff to assist with the hand harvesting of the grapes (no mechanical harvesters). They do not engage in any marketing or sell to stores. Once on his email list, he sends out an update and everything sells. The 1000 bottles of olive oil he produced from 700 trees has sold out; he shared some of his private reserve and was amazing, more full and round than the other olive oils I’ve had this week. I would imagine his sale quantity was significantly affected by last summer’s drought and high heat. I’ll definitely be ordering some when the email update comes out.

Leon then describes the location of each varietal, pointing out his mother’s favorite which is part of their silver award winning Sucano, a blend of 80% Cabernet Franc and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. Four bottles purchased that will ship at the end of the month, a fifth for me to hand carry home (can you tell how much I loved it?)

In the vineyard, Leon shows an area where he is transitioning from one grape varietal to another. The most efficient way is grafting, where a stem of the new varietal is grafted into the base of an older plant, with an established root system and growing capacity. The new varietal is distinctly it’s own DNA, just borrows the sturdy watering system from the old (the old varietal is never grown together with the new one.) If not damaged by frost, hail or pests, these will produce a grape harvest their second year.

Rose bushes are planted at the ends of every row of grapes to act as the “canary in a coal mine.” Because they are susceptible to the same pests, fungi and blights (but more so) , so they act as an early warning system for care of the remainder of the crops.

Off to the whites, where Leon shows how important the annual pruning is; you can see every bend where there would have been additional branch. This is important because grapes too close together can get moldy, become difficult to harvest, or the bunches can intermingle when young, then grow so tightly together they can become stuck together “like Velcro,” or even worse, the bunches can crush one another as they grow then leak and encourage bacterial growth. Too many grapes can be as devastating as too few. Still, I’ve never seen grapes grown so tightly together. They have had a good summer with lots of rain, good for the new plants, but harder on the old. Leon has us taste these white grapes, you can taste the higher acidity, and the “flatness” of the unripe grape. He thinks these will be ready mid-September, but he will taste them every day, and when the time draws near, crush some for juice and measure the sugar content.

Leon and family dug their winemaking facility out of the hillside, placing solar panels on top. Production is what you’d expect from a small vineyard with an eye for detail; small crates, handpicked grapes, and for Leon at least, some fairly high-tech equipment. I found the most interesting to be the closed liquid sleeve around the fermenters. The liquid circulating into the closed system and sleeve is filled with propylene glycol, allowing for the widest range of temperature adjustment, which can be digitally controlled to fine tune fermentation. (More traditionally, high fermentation temps are controlled by running water over the primary fermenter; far less effective).

Once the grapes are harvested, the white grapes go into the destemmer, where the stems are removed and they are lightly crushed. Then to the crusher where the juice is extracted, then the juice transferred to the primary fermenter and the skins discarded. The red grapes go into the destemmer, are also lightly crushed, but then are transferred with the skins to the primary fermenter to imbue color and flavor from the skins. Because CO2 is a by-product of fermentation, the skins all eventually float to the top and need to be recombined with the skins. Leon has a pump system that takes the liquid from the bottom of the primary fermenter, and pumps it in through the top, pushing down on the grape skins and reincorporating them into the mix. (There is really no other way to get the skins down into the mix, as the top openings of the primary fermentation tanks are rather small, perhaps 24 inches in diameter.) Because he plainly loves technology, he has the pumping action controlled by a panel that will automate the process for whatever period of time he chooses. However, he has found this mixing process to be too hard on the fermenting wine; he believes that the grapes should be treated more gently. As a result, for his reds he has two primary fermenters with wide, open tops with metal floats that allow him to hand mix the whole batch. He did admit this was a workout.

The vineyard ages their wine in what could have been an ancient Etruscan tomb found on the property. He made it seem like this should be kept somewhat secret, but I’m 2 for 2 on Italian vineyard tours utilizing a tomb for wine aging in Umbria. Their Etruscan tomb was filled with garbage from bottom to top when they brought the property; items that could be otherwise disposed of ended up on the tomb. Leon’s family hauled three truckloads away when they decided to clear it out: washing machines, metal, much as you’d expect elsewhere. When they finally got things cleared out Leon’s father (a historian) believed that this was likely an important tomb, as there were both shelves for urns (semi-arc insets higher up) and larger carved areas near the floor level for sarcophagi. Evidently the two different types of burial methods are not usually combined at a single site.

The inside of the walk-in tomb/cave is a constant 12-15% C with fairly constant and somewhat high humidity, year round. The temperature consistency slows the maturation process and the humidity helps to keep the barrels from drying out. They only utilize one kind of French Oak barrels, used because the tree they are created from grows in a cool climate with hard soil conditions, resulting in a hard, dense wood. (Incidentally, hard ground, tough growing conditions, are also good for growing grapes: too soft, too easy to reach the water, results in grapes full of water but no flavor.)

And on to the tasting…

The tasting included a selection of beautiful goat cheeses by his friend “just up the hill there, on the other side of the castle.” Leon says his friend milks the goats by hand, playing them classical music as he does so, ensuring that they are relaxed and calm at the time of milking. The cheeses were delicious, one of which was reportedly made this morning. http://www.ilsecondoaltopiano.com. The olive oil, discussed above, was simply amazing. Some sun dried tomatoes so plump and flavorful they almost tasted like a fruit. The table where we sat was under a rustic pergola looking out over the vineyard. Some lovely local meats that made me wish I wasn’t a vegetarian.

I’m going to say that all the wines were absolutely lovely, and if I give one more attention to the other it’s only due to personal preference or where I am in my wine focus today.

First was the sparkly Spumante Brut Rose, paired with the freshest of cheeses (AKA made this morning!) I loved it, but with the decision to ship only 12 bottles home, and the fall/winter season looming, it unfortunately didn’t make the shipment cut. I’m still regretting not buying a bottle for my checked bag, though.

Second was the Orvieto Classico, a staple of the region, other brands found everywhere in the US. Before today I believed that Orvieto Classico was a known quantity; a mineral rich, slightly fruity light white of varying quality. In fact, the DOC controls mandate that anything sold as Orvieto Classico should contain 60% of the 5x allowed varietals: Trebbiano Toscano (Procanico), Verdello, Grechetto, Drupeggio and/or Malvasia Toscana. Malvasia is limited to a maximum of 20%. However, the majority of winemakers then fight for the ability to market at the lowest price, so they all supplement up to the remaining 40% with something cheap and least offensive. The Madonna Del Latte Orvieto Classico is light, mineraly and airily fruity. I asked Leon how the DOC knows what you put in your Orvieto Classico; he indicated that all plants and harvests are registered daily, and composition can thus be extrapolated from this data. Two bottles coming home.

Third was the Vigonier, a varietal which almost went extinct; now experiencing a resurgence. In my mind it is the perfect summer wine; two bottles coming home. http://www.madonnadellatte.it/images/schede_vini/st_viognier_2016.pdf

Fourth was the Pinot Noir, which for some reason isn’t even listed on their website. I believe I recall Leon saying it was somewhat of an experiment, as this grape requires a partially cool climate. Even though Sienna is known for hot, arid summers, because the vineyard is at 450 meters above sea level the nights get quite cool and they are having some success. The result is a round, light fall wine for Minnesota nights (if that there is such a thing.) Four bottles coming home.

And last, but certainly not least. the gorgeous full Sucano 2011 I discussed above. I’m regretting not buying a bottle of the 2010, referenced in the PDF. How would I get there, I want more, should I rent a car, should I contact Leon? On the stress! “Open one hour before consumption.” Hmmm…a challenge to say the least.

It was a lovely day. Leon asked to wait to ship until the end of the month, “I don’t like to ship when it’s so hot, it’s not good for the wine.” By all means! I’ll be going back next year, what a great experience. (Addendum: As of March 2023 I’ve had 4 cases of their wine and olive oil shipped to me, perfect packing/shipping, never a bottle broken, always delicious.)