Tag: vermentino

Frank & Serafico farm

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Having passed the town of Alberese and driving towards Marina, we turned left and arrived at the farm after having gone a short distance on a gravel road.

“Frank” is the name of a red wine , while “Serafico” is the name of a white wine. Actually, the name serafico derives from a midge, which is called serafico in the local dialect and which lives in the coastal regions of Maremma.

We met Pier Paolo Pratesi, a young oenologist and entrepreneur who started making beer as a hobby many years ago.

In 2009 he and his friend Fabrizio Testa, another oenologist, founded this farm. Their objective was and remains to produce their own wines and beers with ingredients cultivated at their own farms.

The following grape varieties are cultivated organically, among them white ones: Vermentino, Sauvignon Blanc, Fiano and Petit Manseng; red ones: Sangiovese, Ciliegiolo, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Alicante e Carménère .

The selection of wines can be found here.

Cultivation of the grapevines and wine-making are done using both traditional and modern methods. The guiding principle is to make wines in a sustainable way and letting quality be more important than quantity.

Regarding the beers, all of them have a name beginning with Enki who was a deity in Sumerian mythology.

As stated in their web site: “Enki is the god of the fresh waters on which the earth floats and gives birth to life. Our dear Enki loved beer so much that his daughter, Ninkasi, became the beer goddess. A superb host of feasts and banquets, when he was too drunk, he was said to give talismans and super powers to his diners, forgetting about it all the next day, hence creating great turmoil. It is to him and his sane folly that we have decided to dedicate our beer”.

As regards the ingredients for making beer, they cultivate barley, which is turned into malt, and hops whose leaves are dried before being turned into pellets and used for adding a bitter flavour to the beer and for finishing off unwanted bacteria.

The other necessary elements are yeast, which is bought from a yeast producer and tap water. Thus, malt, yeast, hops and water are used to brew beer in an English way like brown ale, pale ale and India pale ale.

The beer selection can be found here.

The wines and beers, which are made at this farm, are exported to Germany, Switzerland and the United States.

This farm also has a restaurant from which guests can have a look at both beer- and winemaking if they arrive when production is made. In addition, there are tables outside the entrance where guests can enjoy their meals.

Guests at the restaurant can also order fresh bread and pasta whose flour has been derived from grain grown at this farm together with various jams with berries grown at the farm. Vegetables grown at the farm are also used in the dishes, which are served in the restaurant.

The walls of the building housing the restaurant, wine cellar and brewery are covered with vines, making the outdoor space green and pleasant. It’s highly recommended to enjoy delicious meals from the restaurant with excellent wine or beer, while at the same time enjoying the greenery and the quiet atmosphere of this place.

27/09/2018
La Parrina farm

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I visited this farm in November 2016 as described here.

La Parrina was founded in 1830, it’s a large farm and it’s necessary to return several times at different times of the year in order to see how they are cultivating, producing, transforming and selling their products in order to get at least a general idea of what they are doing.

Moreover, the manor, which was housing the Giuntini-Spinola family, forms such a large part of the farm that it’s impossible to avoid it. Although it has been converted into a hotel and a restaurant, the furniture, interiors and exteriors seem to be more or less how they were almost 200 years ago. The hotel rooms, which still bear the names of the original owners, the terraces facing the gardens where guests at the restaurant can enjoy their meals, even listening to live music in summer. All this give visitors a sense of history and tradition.

Having returned in September, the harvesting of grapes take place, but also the initial process of turning the must in the grapes into wine. This time, some workers were assembling pumps, hoses and filters to recirculate the must, which had been extracted 2 weeks in advance from this year’s grape harvest. Being a large producer of wine, relatively speaking, the wine cellar had, say, 15-20 stainless steel tanks with a height of about 5 metres and a diameter of about 2 metres, in which the must was being stored.

There was a valve at the base of the tank and a lid on the top. By placing a filter and a container below the valve, and opening the valve, the must flowed out, passing the filter, which let the must pass, while stopping the pomace, consisting of solid parts like the skin of the grapes. At the same time, a pump was pumping the must in the container to the top of the tank where a worker was holding a hose such that it let the must pass through the hole at the top of the tank. In this way, the must was oxygenated, which aids the fermentation of the yeast and by letting the must pass the pomace, it also receives colours and fragrants from the pomace.

Having watched this work, we were invited to taste the must, which would be turned into the white wine Vermentino and the must, which would be transformed into the red wine Muraccio.

Next, the man responsible for the grape harvest offered us a ride to the vineyards, which were full of clusters of blue grapes. The rows of grapevines seemed to stretch to left and right for several hundred meters, while they also extended to the foot of the hills covered with dense Mediterranean maquis, a couple of hundred meters from the beginning of the rows.

The next day we should have been present at the grape harvest of Sangiovese, but it had been raining in the evening and the harvest was postponed. The grapes need to be dry when they are harvested because rainwater will dilute the must. In addition, the grapes need lots of sunlight and heat to mature and fresh nights during which the maturation slows down and the grapes are resting.

This farm has an extension 450 hectares of Mediterranean maquis and 250 hectares of cultivable land. 56 hectares are used for growing grapevines.

We also visited the well-assorted farm shop https://www.parrina.it/en/shop-and-products.htm where a large selection of organic fruit and vegetables grown at the farm are sold.

We finished our stay at La Parrina drinking wine and eating typical dishes of the house on the terrace facing the garden surrounding the former manor, all of us together, teachers and students of the Terramare language school. It was a great pleasure eating together in such august surroundings, reminding us of the atmosphere of times past when the original owners were enjoying an evening outside with their friends and guests.

17/09/2018
Monte Argentario farm and guesthouse

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We visited this farm where one brother, Marco, runs the farm, while the siblings Mara and Maurizio are running the guesthouse.

On an area of about 30 hectares of fertile soil, vineyards of white grapes: Vermentino and Ansonica, and a red one: Sangiovese are located between hills covered by Mediterranean macquis.

Having arrived during the harvest of Vermentino , we could watch Marco driving a tractor very slowly between two rows of vines, while two workers were standing on a carriage mounted at the back of the tractor. As they passed plastic cases full of juicy grapes, the workers put the cases on the carriage in rows and columns.

In the meantime, we walked along a row where workers were busy collecting grape clusters. First, they cut the stem of the cluster with pliers, next they let it fall into a plastic case. They repeated this procedure until the case was full, then they started filling another one.

After some time, the carriage was fully loaded with cases of grapes, meaning it was time to return to the wine cellar next to the traditional farmhouse, which has been turned into a guesthouse.

Having reversed the tractor such that the carriage was located next to a an open metal container with an Archimedean screw at its base. The workers let the grape clusters fall into the container where the Archimedean screw was continually rotating, forcing the grapes to enter a chamber where they were de-stemmed. While the stems were excreted into a box lying below the machine, the grapes were crushed and the juice was pumped into large steel containers in the wine cellar.

Since Vermentino is a white wine, the must is separated from the skin and the seeds in order to avoid extracting the tannins occurring in the solids. Yeast may be added to the must and in the tranquillity of the container a metamorphosis is occurring: the yeast starts the process of fermentation where the sugars in the grapes are turned into alcohol.

When all the cases had been emptied into the machine, the workers would put them back on the carriage and Marco would drive back to the vineyards where the empty cases would be unloaded, while the the full ones would be transported to the machine for de-stemming and crushing.

When the Vermentino harvest would be finished, Marco and the workers would start harvesting Sangiovese. Contrary to production of white wines, the skin and the seeds of red wines are pumped into steel containers together with the must. In this way, the colour pigments and the tannins present in the skin of the grape, are passed to the must.

As regards renewing the grapevines, it’s common to buy them at nurseries. They become productive after about five years and enter their prime when they are 8 years and they keep on producing at a high level at least until they are 20 years old. However, they can be productive for many more years. For instance, a wine farm I visited in Piemonte had vines dating from 1928!

In between some of the rows of grapevines, there were rows of leccino olive trees, all in all about 1000 trees. The row of vineyards and olive trees together with the verdant hills surrounding the fields created a wonderful mix of greens, adding aesthetic value to the fertility of the land.

According to this web site, this is a tradition which has been practised in the Mediterranean region for millennia. The olive trees shelter the vineyards somewhat against wind, but the most important is that as the wine harvest ends in September-October, the olive harvest begins. Thus, the farmer can let the same workers who have been harvesting grapes go on to harvest olives.

This land is rich in sandstone and pebbles, making the soil very suitable for growing grapevines and olive trees because the plants get enough nutrients from the soil and it’s able to absorb large amounts of rain. In addition, between the verdant hills of Argentario and the lagoon, the microclimate is perfect for a sound growth of the plants. They are protected against winds from the south-east because of the surrounding hills, while sea breezes from the north serve to give a well-balanced growth of the grapes.

17/09/2018
Azienda Vitivinicola Francesco Fiori di Usini

Usini è un piccolo paese della provincia di Sassari dove la luminosità e la spazialità si fondono e irradiano in tutte le direzioni investendo le case, i campi e le persone di una energia invisibile, ma palpabile e riscontrabile nella generosità degli abitanti che donano i loro prodotti a piene mani, senza aspettarsi niente in cambio dal visitatore.

La completezza della loro offerta, la spontaneità e l’intelligenza del loro dono è ineguagliabile, così come è impareggiabile la destrezza con cui eseguono le operazioni necessarie alla nascita, allo sviluppo, al raccolto e alla trasformazione dei frutti della loro terra.

Questa è la sensazione che si riceve attraverso il contatto con loro; entrando negli ambienti in cui effettuano con le proprie mani le varie fasi della produzione e della trasformazione e ascoltandoli: le loro informazioni sono precise, dettagliate e specifiche, ma allo stesso tempo così chiare e comprensibili anche per noi che ci avviciniamo per la prima volta a queste diversificate realtà produttive.

Abbiamo visitato la piccola cantina di Francesco Fiori, un giovane produttore di vino che, dopo varie esperienze professionali, in Sardegna e in Piemonte, ha deciso di tornare a casa e di riprendere in mano, coraggiosamente, l’attività che è stata del padre dei nonni e, dei lontanissimi antenati. Infatti, la tradizione della viticoltura in Sardegna affonda le sue radici nella preistoria.

Nei suoi vigneti Francesco coltiva il Cagnulari, un vitigno autoctono a bacca nera diffuso solo in Sardegna. Infatti, non si hanno notizie precise della presenza di questo vitigno in altre parti del Mediterraneo. Dal Cagnulari si ottiene un vino rosso scuro (o nero) corposo, un I.G.T. (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) dal gusto avvolgente:”Serra Juales”.

L’altro vitigno coltivato da Francesco è il Vermentino, che potrebbe anche essere considerato come una pianta autoctona, dato che si hanno notizie di una sua diffusione in Sardegna già nel medioevo.

Il sistema di coltivazione praticato da Francesco si avvicina sempre più al biologico integrale. Le piccole dimensioni del vigneto gli consentono il controllo diretto di tutte le fasi del ciclo produttivo: dalla preparazione del terreno, di natura mista argilloso-calcarea, all’impianto del vitigno porta innesto e al successivo innesto da cui si svilupperà una vite ad alberello.
Il controllo diretto e l’autogestione del produttore interessano tutte le fasi successive della trasformazione dell’uva.

Nelle varie fasi di preparazione del terreno è molto importante l’operazione del sovescio: si permette alle erbe spontanee di svilupparsi e di produrre i frutti (soprattutto leguminose e cereali che rilasciano elementi come azoto, potassio, etc.); quando questi giungono a maturazione, il terreno viene rivoltato con appositi attrezzi, e l’erba così sradicata viene lasciata tra le zolle dove decomponendosi rilascia gli elementi di arricchimento del suolo.
Un’altra operazione di fondamentale importanza, necessaria a garantire il perfetto sviluppo della vite è la “scalzatura”, anche questa effettuata manualmente.

Nel periodo compreso tra i mesi di gennaio e marzo, i ceppi sono in letargo, cioè non producono gemme, ed è il momento della prima potatura.

La seconda potatura chiamata “potatura verde” si effettua staccando a mano i germogli in eccesso che spuntano generalmente tra marzo e giugno.
Il diradamento dei germogli naturalmente incide sulla quantità dell’uva prodotta, ma ne migliora notevolmente la qualità.

Nella sua cantina , Francesco segue con la stessa precisione e passione cura le singole fasi di trasformazione del prodotto. Qui l’uva passa attraverso la pigiatrice dove gli acini dell’uva vengono schiacciati per farne fuoriuscie il succo. Successivamente, il prodotto verrà travasato in appositi contenitori dove, attraverso il susseguirsi delle varie operazioni di mostatura, sgrongatura e svinatura (operazioni che vengono eseguite ad intervalli di tempo differenti, a secondo il tipo di vino che si dovrà ottenere) sarà sottoposto anche alla decantazione (le impurità precipitano e vengono eliminate attraverso degli appositi filtri). Completati i vari travasi, nel mese di febbraio, il vino bianco può essere imbottigliato e conservato, mentre il vino rosso si potrà imbottigliare solo nel periodo compreso fra il mese di giugno e il mese di agosto. Mentre il vino bianco può essere commercializzato nel momento stesso in cui viene imbottigliato, il vino rosso può essere commercializzato a partire dal mese di dicembre, cioè a 4/5 mesi dall’imbottigliamento.

Visite alle aziende e redazione degli articoli realizzati in collaborazione con la scuola Terramare.

17/03/2010
Francesco Fiori wine farm

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Usini is a small village in the province of Sassari where the brightness and the space radiate in all directions filling the houses, the fields and the locals with an invisible energy, but palpable and noticeable in the generosity of the locals who willingly share their produce with visitors, while not expecting anything in return.

The completeness and spontaneity of their offers together with the skill with which they perform the necessary operations from birth via growth to harvest of their fruits is matchless. This is the impression we got from meeting them, entering their surroundings in which they carry out manually the various phases of turning grapes into wine. The way they describe their work is so precise, detailed and specific, while at the same time so clear and understandable even to us who hear about this for the first time in our lives.

We went to visit the wine cellar of Francesco Fiori, a young producer of wine, who after having worked in Sardinia and Piemonte, have decided to return to his birthplace and take up again the activity of his father and his grandfather together with his great grandfather and so on. In fact, the tradition of growing wine in Sardinia stretches back to prehistoric times.

Francesco is cultivating the Cagnulari grape, a native, Sardinian grape. Indeed, there are no indication of this type of grape occurring anywhere else near the Mediterranean. The Cagnulari grapes are used to produced a dark, full-bodied, red wine, an I.G.T. (Indicazione Geografica Protetta), which is called “Serra Juales”.

The other vine Francesco is cultivating is the Vermentino, which may be considered as a native since it has been known to be cultivated in Sardinia since the Middle Ages.

Francesco is always striving for a more organic production of his vines. The small extent of his vineyard allows him to control all phases of the productive cycle: from preparing the clayey-chalky soil to planting new vines to grafting new vines to old ones. Being the owner of the vineyard, he has also total control of all stages from the harvest via winemaking to storage of the wine.

He’s making extensive use of green manure in order to make the soil ready for planting of new vines. That is, he’s mainly planting legumes on any field not occupied by vines. When the legumes are mature, the field is is plowed, leaving the uprooted legumes to decompose below ground, enriching the soil mainly with nitrogen. He’s also weeding his fields manually such that the vines can have the nutrients of the soil for themselves.

Between January and March, the vines are lethargic, meaning that they aren’t producing any buds, the primary pruning takes place.

The second pruning called “green pruning” is performed manually by removing excess shoots between March and June. The removal of fresh shoots naturally lessens the quantity of grapes which grow to maturity, but it improves their quality significantly.

After having harvested the grapes, Francisco turns the grapes into wine with the same passion and care as he uses for the cultivation of the vines. In the wine cellar, the grapes are first squashed in order to get hold of the juice of the grapes. After having finished this operation, the juice is pumped into various containers where successive stages of fermentation and removal of fixed impurities happens. The white wine is ready for bottling in February, while the red one is only bottled between June and August. While the white wine can be sold just after having been bottled, the red wine has to be stored until December, that is 4-5 months after bottling before it can be sold.

17/03/2010
The Vini Mura farm
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The Vini Mura farm is located at Azzanido (meaning land next to the boundaries of the snow in Sardinian). The farm was set up in its present location in 1975 by Mr Filippo Mura, but his father started buying allotments near Olbia in the 50s in order to plant vineyards. However, due to increased tourism to Costa Smeralda, all their land was expropriated in order to build an airport in the 70s.

Fortunately, Filippo Mura was able to fulfill the dreams of his father by planting new vineyards at Azzanido. By continuing the work initiated by his father and always being open to innovation, he succeeded in expanding the farm and improving the vineyards by means of working diligently and passionately. He has also passed on his passion for wine to three of his children who are working at the farm and promoting their products. In particular, his youngest daughter Marianna, who is an oenologist, is selecting what types grapes should be grown at the farm and is also following the whole process from grapes to wine.

The oldest part of the vineyard is getting pruned yearly in January and February when the vines are lethargic, meaning that they are not producing any buds. Incidentally, the oldest vines are also producing the best wine. Another part of the vineyard consists of vines which are only 2 years old and have to be supported in order to avoid falling down.

The fertile soil gives rise to grapes of diverse qualities, the black ones are used to produce the canonau (a native grape), while the white ones are used to produce the vermentino (originates probably from Corsica). Since the soil in Sardinia is acidic, the Sardinian wines are also slightly acidic.

Since the owners want to obtain a high quality wine, the grapes should be picked when there is an equilibrium between the level of acidity and the level of sugar in the grapes. The text above is some of the information willingly shared by Mr Mura. We were also invited to have a look at their wine cellar where we could see the wine press in addition to the big steel tanks where the must is stored for fermentation. During the fermentation the temperature may reach 20-30°C at which point the refrigerator starts operating, precipitating impurities in the must. This is the first step of the settling of impurities residing in the must. After 2 days the must is transferred to another tank, a process which is repeated regularly. Simultaneously, yeast is added in order to let the enzymes turn the sugars into alcohol. Finally, after a number of transfers, the wine is stored in wooden barrels or bottled for sale.

This wine farm produces the following wines:
- Canonau
- Baja e Cortes
- various types of vermentino called Sienda and Cherremi
14/03/2010