To Abruzzo with love

Travelling on a mini bus complete with a mink coat, my friend Marina decided to join us on our visit to Abruzzo. She figured as she had organised the trip she would accompany us. Looking glamorous in her fur (still common in Italy) she looked slightly incongruous, obviously not one of the group as we all looked very casual and crumpled in our jeans and jackets.

We arrived at our first winery (which I won’t name as it will embarrass them) and were welcomed by our guide, the director of IRMUS, an agricultural department of the local government. ‘Lino’ was obviously a ‘ladies man’ and gravitated immediately to Marina, who I must admit looked fabulous. He took her by the arm and spoke to her as if she was the only person in the world. This was quite remarkable considering he was supposed to be guiding us through the company’s winery and products. The guys were getting fed up while my friend Patricia (who lives in Italy) and myself were laughing at the obviousness of his attention. Marina was terribly embarrassed and tried to evade his attentions.

As it turned out, he didn’t really know a lot about wine and said a lot of stupid things that put everyone offside, things like the winery’s spumante was better than the finest quality Champagne when we as a group couldn’t even finish it. There was only one wine that was universally liked, an inexpensive Novello.

We finished our tour of the winery and thought we would get rid of Lino here but no, he accompanied us back all the way to the agriturismo where we were staying the night. I must say we all behaved ourselves very well and waited until he finally left before we all had a good laugh.

On te top of the hill, a farmer's cottage for inclement weather

It was late autumn and getting very cold so the next morning we all rugged up for our next foray into the wilds of Abruzzo. Again I will not name the winery as I wouldn’t want to give them bad publicity even though they deserve it.

We found Colle S after a long drive on the highway which travelled over the water – half road half bridge. When we finally arrived we saw a winery which had seen better days but still produced over a million bottles a year and with an enormous market in Miami of all places. We were taken to the director’s office and provided with a motley assortment of chairs. As the winery wasn’t in production at that time there wasn’t anyone else around except for two men who never introduced themselves. We were welcome but no names or positions were mentioned.

We were told all about the winery and the new vineyards that had been planted, how far they were above sea level they were (300 metres) and the fact that they produced 100% organic wines. We also learnt about a 400 year old cottage that was going to be renovated and made into a tasting room. It felt that the room we were in was around about the same age, as it had become dramatically colder while we were sitting there.

They asked us if we would like to taste the wines, of course we said yes and out came a lot of tumblers which you would use for beer or soft drink. Now tumblers do have their place but a wine tasting isn’t it, especially when there is a shelf of Riedel wine glasses just sitting there. We asked if we could use the Reidel glassware and we were told no, they were only used at Vinitaly. I would have thought that if you had a number of wine writers from all over the world you would want them to get the best impression of your wines but obviously not, we simply weren’t good enough for the good glasses!

Marina picks some olives

Our next stop was much more pleasant and was where I learnt how to judge olive oil. Marina Colonna is a Principessa (princess) who runs an olive farm in Abruzzo and produces amazing olive oils. Her extra virgin olive oil and infused oils are available in several shops around Australia and I would advise anyone who cooks fish to try her lemon infused oil.

Picking the olives

We strolled through the olive groves as they were picking the olives, Marina stooping occasionally to tell us something or to scoop up a collection of olives. Unlike most of the producers in the area, Marina picks her olives when they are barely ripe and she presses them straight away at her own Frantoio (The quicker you press them the better the oil. You don’t want to let them oxidise at all). Many local producers leave their olives on the trees and harvest them by machine. It grabs the tree and shakes the trunk leaving the ripe olives to fall off onto mats on the ground, cheaper but it produces a slightly poorer oil as the olives can be damaged and are often over ripe.

Sheep in a shed

Marina Colonna also has 800 sheep on her farm. These are milked daily and the milk goes to a local cheesemaker. The sheep were kept in two enormous brick barns and although not tethered , they never saw the outside world except through the doors of the barn. There were over 100 lambs when we were there and this way of keeping them was absolutely normal. The lambs were very cute but I don’t know how long that lasts as the older sheep were the ugliest sheep I have ever seen with long narrow faces like look more like goats.

An olive grove on Marina Colonna's land

We then went into the house (a magnificent 200 year old villa) and we sat down and learnt the principles of olive oil tasting which is very similar to wine tasting.  You just do it back to front. You smell the oil, taste it and then look at the colour. The tasting is one with blue coloured glasses so that the colour doesn’t influence you at all. However, even though the aroma is pleasant you can feel quite queasy after the tasting as you can’t spit. The oil has to be swirled around the mouth and then swallowed to get the full effect of the oil in the throat. After about ten oils you start to feel sick but I am told that the more experience you get the more oils you can taste.

Lunch was presented next and we were served a lovely meal of lobster with pasta or lamb and pasta. We must have appeared to be pigs in disguise as we all had both. We then had a main meal of Salmon or baked lamb. Again we all stuffed ourselves with both. The food was ‘stupendous!’ We finished off with a simple crostata which was the only thing to serve as anything richer would have made us ill after the olive oil tasting and the hearty meal.

We rose from the table, all of us feeling the inevitable effects of too much food and said our goodbyes and made our way to the bus. We still had another two wineries to visit that day, the last one included dinner. Our last thoughts on getting back on the bus were ‘Would we ever eat again?

Apruntino - wonderful ceramics museum

Next: Our journey continues in Abruzzo

Molise, small and perfectly formed

Molise is one of the smallest regions in all of Italy, covered by mountain ranges and hills, it is also one of the most beautiful landscapes – especially in winter.

Molise used to be part of Abruzzo but in 1963 the region seceded and became master of its own destiny.  In the year 2000 I was invited to visit the region which has only a few wineries. Our host for the three day stay was Alessio De  Majo Norante, who with his father Luigi, opened their house to us.

Their estate is probably the largest and more commercially viable than most of the others. It covers 180 hectares and has 65 under vine. At the time of my trip there were only 5 producers and 3 cantine sociale in the region. Today there are several more and the region is producing quite good wine although it hasn’t quite reached great wine status.

Alessio, who drove an eight seater car/van, picked us up in Rome and drove back to Molise, a trip of about two hours along the freeway.  We arrived at the farm, freshened up and then went straight out to have lunch. We drove about ten minutes and arrived at a tiny restaurant called Ristorante Ribo, a fish restaurant up a hill and a fair way from the sea.

We were met by the three-in-one owner and chef and on that day, the waiter. He showed us a magnificent collection of salamis he had just made and were hanging to dry in the back of the restaurant. We then say down quite impressed and looking forward to a great lunch. Here was his opportunity to show what he could do, four willing food and wine writers ready to compliment each dish.........

As a starter, he brought out a plate of what he called Italian Sushi. It was raw fish but not what you would expect, small raw prawns in their shell and raw squid. It was awful, especially as he sat and showed us how to eat it – shells and all! We then a piece of fried fish, crispy and dark golden brown, cooked so much it was like a piece of wood. We managed to eat some of them while we discussed how he managed to stay in business. According to our host, he did a roaring trade in meat dishes!

The next day we were taken to yet another fish restaurant that was owned by another colourful character, this time a flashback to the 60’s. The owner, who was also the maitre’d, dressed in a black velvet suit and had long ringlets like one of the ‘new romantics’. The fish at this restaurant was a revelation, it was out of this world. After bringing out a great big bass to show us what we were going to eat, we started eating. The fish broth we had as a starter was terrific, the pasta was even better and the main meal was so tasty – I didn’t know fish could be that good! We asked our host why he had taken us to see the first restaurant when he knew it was second rate and he said ‘so we could really appreciate the second’.

When we arrived back at the winery, we were just in time to see them cleaning up after they had made mozzarella. Thick beautiful braids called trecce were sitting on the table, one of them cut for us. Even though we had had a big lunch, we enjoyed the mozzarella, fresh and tasty, perfect with tomatoes.

Millie

The next day we had a proper tasting of the De Majo wines and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves with our host who couldn’t do enough for us. We walked through the vineyards and played with his dogs, one of which took a liking to me – the only problem was I am only 150cms tall and Mollie the dog was a great big mountain dog and whenever she stood up to reach my shoulders she was taller than I was, and a great deal heavier!

The town of Lupara

We ended the visit the next morning and Alessio drove us to Guardiagrelle in Abruzzo where we were to meet another couple of journalists and continue on with our trip. It was sad seeing him go as we had spent three lovely days with him.

Next time we continue with our trip to Abruzzo where we meet some winemakers with strange ideas