Is it Ground Hog Day?

Travelling from Bari north to Pescara was a boring journey. It takes a couple of hours and while the train travels up the coast, the view never changes. It’s the ocean on one side an olive groves on the other. However, we had to get to Pescara for a series of tastings so off we went.

 We left Bari in the middle of Carnevale. Hundreds of children were dressed up in beautiful costumes – no simple superman suits here, there were children in fancy silk and satins, a number of Disney characters like Snow White and Cinderella and of course ‘Topolino’, the Italian equivalent to Mickey Mouse. We watched the children for a while, all in the firm grip of their parents, before we moved onto the station.

We arrive in Pescara to find our accommodation is a masseria (a fortified house – a throw back to earlier times when people would need protection) Many masserie have been turned into B&B’s and small hotels. This one was quite interesting, the rooms all had one wall painted with abstract art, the bathrooms were a sort of extension to the room, situated behind a curved wall and without doors. They were quite beautiful in their own way. The staff however, were perhaps not so brilliant. Each morning we were there, breakfast was supposed to start at 8.00am so we could finish and get on the bus for our visits by 9am, but the staff would take their time and it might be 9am by the time they got their act together so we frequently went out with nothing, not even a cup of coffee. This was not good considering we were tasting so much wine!

Anyway, we made the best of it often stopping somewhere along the way to the wineries and picking something up. We had spremuta (fruit juice) instead of coffee and cornetti (Croissants) instead of a full breakfast.

Our first stop was at Casa Vinicola Roxan, a cooperative with over 700 members and 1000 hectares of vines. Cooperatives were quite common in Italy for many years as it meant you could have as little as half a hectare of vines and that was sufficient for you to sell them to the local cooperative as a second income. To some families this was vital. As the wine industry has improved in quality over the last 40 years, number of cooperatives is declining as they find it hard compete in the modern market. The ones still around produce very good wines as they have learnt to adapt often employing consultants and getting the growers to follow guidelines when growing there grapes. They are no longer obliged to take grapes so if the quality isn’t there, they don’t purchase them.

At Roxan we were told the three most important producers in the area were Valentini (the ‘King’ of wine in Abruzzo who passed away last year), Passetti and of course Roxan. Over 80% of producers in the area sell their grapes to the cooperative. Most of the vines grown locally were between 15-18 years old, making them fairly young.

The tasting was being held at the home of a Baron and Baroness. They were an elderly couple, very aristocratic but so nice. Their home was quite opulent with lots of golden fabrics and furnishings. We almost felt like we were intruding but they were lovely and very anxious to please.

The home had been built in the 1700’s. During the height of World War ll the property had been bombed daily as it was used as German headquarters for the area, fortunately it escaped damage. Recent winds however,had taken the tops off a couple of 200 year old pine trees and their nuts were like ammunition as they were hurled at the front door.

The cellar was fascinating, A huge cauldron sat in the middle of the floor and at certain times of the year it was used to cook vin cotto which is used as an ingredient in Puglian dishes. It is also added to wines occasionally to increase the strength.

At the end of the tasting there was a delicious brunch laid out for us, lots of pastries,pizza and locally made Caciocavallo cheese and bread – fortunately none of us were gluten intolerant.

Puglia use to be the doorway to east and also the earliest presence of man can be found there. The It was also the starting point for the Crusades. Most of the olive trees were originally from Israel and the their pips were use as Rosary beads. The pips are always the same size and they used to be used to measure gold – 24 pips = 24 carats = 1 ounce of gold.

We gradually worked our way through another ten wineries over the next couple of days, none of them as interesting as Roxan. On our final day the twins from the wine tourism board told us ‘today you will have a special tasting, ten wineries will get together and you can try all of their wines in one spot. Then, tonight you will have dinner at a special restaurant where they will prepare for you a special meal’. We all thought hooray, we can see all the wineries in one place which should make it a little easier.

We went to the tasting which was held in another stunning Masseria – painted white and very contemporary, and we saw the wineries showing wine at the tasting. They were the same wineries we had just visited over the last three days. Their wines couldn’t have improved in the short space of time so we were very disappointed. Have you ever heard of the film ‘Ground Hog Day’ starring Bill Murray? That’s how we felt – repeating the same thing everyday until we got it right. The twins had not found anybody new.  We did taste the wines but an argument with the twins ensued and we left. We didn’t go to the dinner either, we went and had pizzas in Bari. We discovered it was a 15 course meal and we just couldn’t take it anymore. The tourism twins were using us to make themselves look good. We packed up and headed back to Bari where we were to spend a couple of days in yet another Masseria.

We arrived just as the sun was setting, the Masseria appearing out of the evening mist after a long drive up a private road. It looked like a set for a horror movie. It might have been deserted and was one of the few we had seen that actually looked like a fortress. It was not the most welcoming place. The lights were off and we knocked on the door and called out for about ten minutes. We were just about to give up when a man came from the back of the building, coming towards us looking as if we had just dropped in from out of space. We explained we were a group of wine journalists and we had booked in. He asked us to wait and he went back in the Masseria. Then, the front door opened and a large woman said to come in. She told the man to get our bags and take them to a group of outbuildings nearby. Apparently we were to stay there and not the house.

We were all processed – passports photocopied and forms filled in – and were given keys to our ‘rooms’. The Masseria must be very popular in summer as there was all sorts of sports equipment lying around.  The rooms were very thoroughly depressing, obviously the sports-people that came in summer must have been at the cheaper end of the market. The shower was over the toilet and the basin next to it. The water was freezing, about the same temperature as the rooms. The one lonely light bulb shone bravely but created spooky shadows. They were not the most comfortable rooms.

We met in a kind of pergola in the grounds and discussed our rooms, everybody had experienced the same thing. We went into dinner glad that we only had to stay there the one night.

When we went into the house we were taken to the dining room. Once again it was freezing but there was a fireplace set up for a fire, maybe that would be lit and we would be nice and toasty. Both the man and the woman kept coming into the room but the fire remained a heap of sticks so finally I asked in my best Italian if it could be lit. Bad move! I got a mouthful of moaning and groaning about the cost but a few minutes later they lit the fire.

We were sitting there freezing and feeling a little trapped while the tiny fire flickered in the corner. The woman came in from the kitchen and said there was a telephone call for one of my colleagues. (We had all been sent a list of properties and phone numbers in case our families had an emergency.) It turned out to be Michael’s wife, their 18 year old cat was very ill an she wanted to take it to the vet and have it put down but she wanted to ask him first as he was very fond of the cat.

Michael came back and told us, we were all upset but it turned out to be good luck as it formed the basis of our escape plan. We would say that the call was about a relative who was very sick and we had to leave because Michael had to fly back to the States. So while we waited we went back to our rooms, one at a time, and placed our suitcases back on the bus, the driver then brought the bus close to the front door and then our guide told the lady that we had to leave because of Michaels’s sad story.

The owner agreed and you have never seen people leave a table so quickly. We piled on the bus and drove off straight away to the cries from the woman ‘I still need to be paid!’

Relief! And, you don’t have to worry about the payment, the organiser ended up sending money through to the woman.

Once we were on the bus again, our guide phoned the hotel in Bari where we had stayed at the beginning of the trip and secured new rooms. Unfortunately for us, Bari was now in the middle of a large medical conference and we had to take what rooms they had. I ended up in a room used by the staff next to the kitchens, I heard pots and pans as well as yelling for several hours but at least I was nice and cosy and it was only one night.

The next day we left the hotel for Bari airport for the trip back to Rome and then home. We arrived around 7.00am. Our connecting flights took off from Rome at various times so I was left until last as I was staying on in Rome. One of my colleagues had borrowed a walking stick in Rome and as he was getting a connecting flight to Hong Kong asked me to take the stick back to where it could be shipped back to the owner. My turn to board came and I attempted to take the walking stick. I wasn’t allowed on board because the stick wasn’t mine. I said could it be put in with the baggage and was told no. I then said where would I put it, it had to be taken back to Rome. They capitulated and agreed I could put it with the baggage but they couldn’t guarantee it would make it to Rome, they were right, it had disappeared.

Next: The mafia are getting very close