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| Fantinel Vineyards at Spilimbergo |
We travelled to the Hotel Weiner located in San Giovanne al
Natisone, a picturesque part of Friuli – it was a pity the hotel wasn’t as picturesque.
It was right next to a railway line and at the time the war was a war going on
in Bosnia. The freight trains loaded with equipment used to go past every night,
I don’t know why as Italy wasn’t involved with the war. All you would hear was
the heavy loads shifting from side to side and the squealing of the brakes
which seemed to stop and start. The hotel was as basic as it could be, iron
beds and blankets, the sort of thing you would stay in if you were a commercial
traveller in some backward eastern-bloc country. The female owner was very
stern and very demanding. She took our passports when we checked in and
wouldn’t give them back until we left.
At that stage Friuli
was without the infrastructure for tourism and many towns didn’t have a hotel
let alone a good one. That changed within a very short time and I have since
been back and stayed at some lovely hotels that have been converted from large
houses.
I had met some of my companions on earlier trips but there
was also a new journalist joining us on the trip, one that would prove to haunt
me a little later that year.
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| Belltower at Ca Ronesca |
We visited several wineries over the next two days: Azienda
Borgo Conventi in Farra d’Isonzo , Azienda Fantinel in Dolegna
del Collio, Azienda Ca’ Ronesca,
Azienda Venica e Venica also in
Dologna (and where we first experienced Prosciutto di San Daniele and Fricco
made from Montasio cheese). At one stage we crossed the border to Slovenia to
meet Renato Keber in Cormons. Our last call before
we left the Hotel Weiner was Russiz
Superiore in Capriva del Friuli
which for some reason, had a tunnel all the way from the vineyard to the house.
I can’t remember why but it was a long, long tunnel. At Russiz Superiore, the owner, Marco Felluga,
had organised for a local chef to come in and cook a meal for us. Apparently
our visit was so special that several wineries had done the same thing. The
chef prepared a wonderful meal of pasta then guanciale (pigs cheeks) slow
roasted with a selection of vegetables and a crostata of forest fruits. It was fantastic,
we all left complimenting the chef and thanking Marco, who sadly has sinced
passed away.
The next day we had some free time so we travelled to Aquilea, an ancient Roman city
that sits on the edge of the lagoons. At one time a thriving port, today it is
landlocked with many of the canals empty and the sea wall running across land but was at one time the edge of the sea. It
was a starting point for many nationalities including Celts, Greeks, Jews and
Syrians who helped establish a thriving commercial city. One of the most
interesting things in the whole of Aquilea is the floor of the cathedral which
was completed in the 11th century. The floor is covered in beautiful
mosaics, most of them protected by walkways if my memory serves me
correctly. Some of them are complete
while others have parts missing, whether stolen or just lost. These are
completed with big gaps covered with cement but the whole thing when it was
first built must have been stupendous.
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| A statue in the garden of Ca Bolani |
We left Aquilea at lunch time to visit a winery with the
delightful name Ca Vescovo
– the Bishops House. We followed this by a visit to Molin Di Ponte – the mill
of the bridge, owned by Ca Bolani. The
Bolani family were very wealthy in Roman times with Count Domenico, the Procurator of the Venetian Republic in Friuli.
This whole area had a very strong connection with ancient Rome and Julius
Caesar kept several battalions of Roman soldiers here. It was regarded as the
Rome of the north and a statue of Caesar still stands in the piazza of Cividale, a major town in the
area.
We headed to a most unusual winery next, that of Walter
Filiputti. A barbecue and evening of entertainment had been planned for us and
the welcome we received was very effusive. The winery and vineyards were in the
grounds of the Abbazia di Rosazza. The abbey is owned by the archdiocese of
Udine and the vineyards, well I’m not too sure. Walter was a guy who could sell
snow to eskimos and we weren’t quite sure what he said was truthful – there
would be a grain of truth and then a lot of BS.
Surrounding the abbey, which was high on a hill, were
thousands of rose plants, every type of rose in every hue, they were
spectacular. We arrived when they had just come into bloom and the smell of the
flowers was intoxicating and the bees death defying!
Walter told us that he had recently resurrected a grape from
extinction. The red pignolo
grape makes a lovely smooth wine that is quite complex in its structure. He said
it had been found in a vineyard longing to one of their contract growers and he
had rescued it. It had since been grafted onto a number of vines and now they
were going to make a commercial amount of wine from it – it was the next big
thing. Unfortunately for Walter I have since heard several stories similar to
this with different people in the role of the hero.
The entertainment at the barbecue was wonderful, several
friends of Walters turned up, one of them with a guitar and we ate and danced
till late before we were taken back to our beds at the agriturismo where we
were staying. By this stage we had split into two group with one half staying
at the agriturismo of Zamo &
Zamo and the other at the agriturismo of Livio Felluga. (Walter has since
left the wine industry)
The next morning we were on the road again with plans to see
several wineries, there were only two days left and we had reached halfway. The
first was Ronco delle Betulle where we met a nice woman who didn’t export her
wines so basically she was of little interest to us. The next stop however
proved to be very interesting especially for the men!
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| Castello Di Spessa |
Castello
di Spessa is a privately owned resort but 15 years ago they were still in
the throes of organising it. The castle itself is large and quite beautiful,
surrounded by wonderful gardens. We were met by a beautiful young lady called Patrizia,
who we thought was married to the owner. Patrizia had on a simple white linen
dress which is some light seemed to turn translucent so that her underwear
could be seen. She had a beautiful figure as everybody could see and she had
the males in the group lusting after her.
She showed us around the castle telling us what a wonderful
time she had had redecorating the place, she had personally chosen every roll
of Laura Ashley paper. She had done Laura Ashley no favours as she had chosen
so many designs above and below the dado rails that it looked like some horrid
psychedelic dream gone wrong. Thousands of tiny blossoms covered the walls in
pale pinks and reds clashing with brown paintwork that looked as if it had come
from a discount sale of end of colours. The only thing I could equate this to
would be someone being violently ill.
Castello di Spessa does not have a winery on-site however
they do have a property down the road a way called La Boatina. Patrizia
was gracious in showing us ‘her’ winery.
We later discovered that the owner was going through a nasty
divorce and Patrizia had met him at a party in Rome. He had taken a fancy to
her (I wonder why?)and let her loose on the castle. She had become very
proprietorial about the castle using ‘I’ a lot. However, the relationship
wasn’t too last and Patrizia was soon back on the party circuit looking for
someone new.
We also were soon back on the road, our next stop the winery
of Girolamo
Dorigo. This eccentric winemaker had a gruff manner and hated being
questioned. However, there wasn’t much that he didn’t know about grapes and
winemaking. We got a lesson that afternoon about density that was going against
the grain on everything we thought we knew but Girolamo was before his time. He
told us about things that are now common practice. No wonder he has been so
successful in Italy.
Our next visit didn’t have anything to do with wine although
we did go to a winery. This time we were going to a balsameria. Traditional balsamic can only be called
traditional balsamic if it comes from a small zone around Modena in Emilia
Romagna. There are only 46 makers of ‘balsamico tradizionale’
left and the product is extremely good although extremely expensive. There are
however, many makers of balsamic vinegars around Italy and they produce an aged
vinegar but quite often it is coloured with caramel and artificially aged and
thickened. Azienda Midolini make a
traditional balsamic but can’t call it traditional balsamic because of their
location in Friuli.
A balsameria is a special space, the aroma is unbelievable.
The vinegar sits maturing in casks of different sizes and woods: acacia, chestnut,
juniper, cherry, oak, mulberry and ash. As the balsamic ages it evaporates and when
the vinegar in one barrel evaporates enough the vinegar is poured into the next
smaller barrel – it’s very similar to a solera system but with different sized
barrels. Most of the balsamic tradizionale is aged for about 12 years +.
At Azienda Midolini the balsamic is called Asperum and it is described as a condiment balsamico.
We were given bottles of it to bring home that were 22 years old, the vinegar
inside was as thick as molasses and it was wonderful. Asperum was on sale at
Simon Johnson at the time and sold for $300 for 100 mls.
After we had had the lesson about balsamic vinegar we then
drove into town where we sat ‘al fresco’ for dinner at La
Di Moret, one of the few good hotels in Udine. We hadn’t realised
that the UEFA cup was on that night and at 10.30 the street erupted with a
number of young men blowing horns and riding up and down on Vespas, the more
the merrier it seemed. Udine had won. We were sat right in the middle of all
the excitement because the hotel had got a large screen TV of the event. We
went back to the agriturismo rather late and slept soundly.
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| Azienda Roberto Scubla |
Next day we were to visit four wineries: Azienda Roberto Scubla, Azienda Collavini, Azienda Giovanni Dri
and Azienda Le Vigne di Zamo. Roberto Scubla was a shy man and his winery was
beautifully positioned for photography but we didn’t learn much about the
winery. Collavini was great fun. Learning about how they decided to name the
wines was interesting and gave longevity to their dogs – the dogs were named
after grape varieties and then the dog was put on the label of the wine. My
favourite was a little dog called Ribolla. He still features on their Ribolla
Giallo wine today. Giovanni Dri was a surprise, totally modernist in design his
wines were also very interesting. Although, his notes on the wines were very
strange. Our last visit of the day was actually held at the winery where I was
staying at the agriturismo, Azienda Le Vigne Di Zamo.
Owned by two brothers and their wives Zamo e Zamo as they
were commonly known, had also hired a chef for the night. We started off with
pasta the same as two nights ago. We all said how remarkable that the chef had
chosen the same thing. We then had our main meal, surprise, surprise, it was
guanciale again. We then had dessert and we all had a bet that it would be crostata.
What a pity it wasn’t a lotto night because we would have won big time. The
chef turned out to be the same chef who had cooked dinner two nights
previously. You would think he would have checked, journalists didn’t visit the
area every day of the week. The family were mortified but we all thought it was
funny. Our adventure with food didn’t end there, we were to meet another chef
the next day who far, far worse!
We left the agriturismo at nine am the next day to go to the
Consorzio
Colli Orientale in Cividale. We had a presentation from the publicity
officer which our guide translated for us. It was quite handy that two of us
other than the guide spoke Italian as the guide kept making mistakes. She had
been with us all week and we hadn’t noticed her Italian wasn’t as good as it
should be as everyone we had visited managed to speak to us in English.
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| From the Devil's Bridge |
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| Julius Caesar |
While we were there, we did a little exploring of Cividale.
It is a pretty little town. At one end of the town you enter by way of a
bridge. There is an old tale about the bridge falling down and the devil
offering to fix it. All he asked for was the first live soul to cross the
bridge. He waited and waited but none of the townspeople would cross until a
little dog crossed the bridge. The devil had to take the little dog as the
first live soul and he wasn’t very happy but he kept his word and the bridge
stands today. It is called The Devils Bridge.
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| The Apothecary |
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| Medieval House |
Another couple of visits during the day and we went back to
the agriturismo to clean up for dinner. This time we were to eat at the
agriturismo of Livio Felluga. Livio had passed away some years previously and
the winery was run by his children. His daughter Ella, who was extremely glamorous,
was our host. We had some antipasto, which was really delicious and then we had
rabbit. Unfortunately the chef, a great big hulking woman, hadn’t cleaned the
rabbit before cooking it and then to add insult to injury she had cut it up
with a meat cleaver. The rabbit smelt terrible from the organs that had been
cooked inside. The meat had tiny slivers of bone all the way through it. We
left it on the plates which was a pity because Ella wanted it to be perfect.
The next morning we made our way to Rome, a six hour drive
and another trip was over. Roll on the next......
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