What an amazing day. It was very hot, more than 30 degrees, I think and apart from my sprained ankle swelling up to football size I had the best day. Mark met me at the train station and then we picked up two delightful Canadians, the other participant was a young Singaporean (hoping to become a cardiologist). We visited three cantine, two before lunch and one after lunch. Unfortunately, I didn't make a note of the name of the lunch place but will rectify that omission later. (Now rectified) Mark was so knowledgeable and informative and the company was excellent.
The first cantina was Di Filippo where we tasted about 6 wines and had breadsticks to mop up the wine. We saw the grapes being prepared for drying for the passito. We tasted a grape and they were wonderfully sweet. Although I did not buy from that cantina, the wines were wonderful. Next we moved on to Azienda Agricola Dionigi (Dionysus) - marvellous last name for a wine family. There we again tasted 7 wines, this time with bruschetta (olive oil and salt) to do the mopping up. I bought a passito 2006 and a wonderful grechetto. I was very careful to sip only and then tip out so I managed to end the day on an entirely sober note.
Following this we headed off to lunch at Agriturismo Bella Treccia. I expected antipasti but it was a full-blown meal. First some antipasti: sausage, salami and prosciutto, the most glorious bean salad and small bruschette, then a vegetable lasagne - creamy and wonderful, next, a favourite with everyone, onion soup but the soup was all gone, soaked up by the bread topped with cheese. The main was pork, beaten very thin and coated with rosermary and fennel, very, very tasty. With this we had onions, zucchini and sage leaves in tempura.
We had house red, very drinkable, and water. Finally, we had a crostata and coffee. Unbelievable and I certainly had more than an elegant sufficiency. We then headed off to the final cantine - Milziade Antano - glorious wines. Here I bought I Montefalco Sagrantino not yet ready to drink and a Montefalco Rosso that is eminently drinkable at present.
The amazing zuppa di cipolle grantinata
We tried passito at two wineries and tasted it with a piece of 70% dark chocolate in our mouth - not a sweet wine as I thought perhaps more similar to a Donnelly River liqueur muscat. The day ended at the Ponte San Giovanni train station.
Here are my fellow participants and Mark our host.
By the time I climbed up to the Rocca and up the scala to my neck of the woods, I was shattered - very, very hot with swollen ankle so before facing my 6th-floor Everest, I stopped off for a cold aperitivo - vodka tonic at Bar Centrale - and, unbelievably, as I was tapping out this post I became hungry so had a piece of cold pizza from yesterday's lunch. All in all, an absolutely fabulous day and I got the tee-shirt. Below are the wines we tasted at Dionigi cantina.
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