Amazing Way To Spend a Rainy Day

Sometimes the winter weather here makes wanting to go and do things harder.  Not because of snow or ice but because of rain.  Yesterday was just such a day, rainy and windy but, with the encouragement of peer pressure. We braved the wet with the Buells and the Goldstiens and went in search of wine.

Since none of us have a car large enough to accommodate all of us we drove in two cars, one for the boys and one for the girls and we set off to the hills North of us.  This wasn't exactly a blind trip.  Kim and Rick Buell had been to these areas several times so were our tour guides.

Our first stop was Cantina Solapaca that we had been told had "wine pumps".  These are not small table top or even bar sized pumps, instead they are gas station size pumps.

The wind was blowing so hard it made getting wine a bit harder.

From Left to Right:   Me, Nikki Goldstien and Kim Buell

So after tasting and making our purchases which included our gas pump wine and miscellaneous bottles we went to lunch just around the corner from the shop at a tratoria named La Torretta (litterally the turret).  Lunch consisted of some wonderful antipasti; cannelloni beans on brusschetta with olive oil, broccolini that was finished with vinegar and oil, olives, prosciutto, salami and other assorted meats, peccorino cheese that had little hot peppers in it and of course bread.

Main course for our afternoon repast was pasta.  Half of us got a hand rolled pasta with tomato sauce and half of us got linguine with mushroom sauce.  Both were very good along with the vino della casa (house wine).

We were now ready for more adventure.  Rick had suggested at lunch that we go over to their favorite winery in the area.  We were taking a chance that they would not be open as it was Sunday but we decided it was worth it even just to have the location in our respective Garmens for future reference.

View of the valley from restaurant

Ruined building among the vines

The winery is in the middle of the Taurasi region and is owned by Antonio Caggiano who is not only a master of wine but an incredibly talented artist.  When we first arrived we thought we would leave with only the coordinates to this beautiful winery and would have to return another day but just as we were getting ready to leave Antonio himself pulled up in his car.  He graciously asked us in and we had the most wonderful private tour and tasting that you could imagine.

Antonio is charming, witty and incredibly generous with his time and knowledge of wine and life.
We enjoyed a marvelous tour of the cellars and the maze of niches that held not only wine but amazing art created by everything from retired barrels to the vines themselves along with furniture, paintings and photographs.  There is even a small museum with artifacts pertaining to making wine such as old corkers, and stem separators and pesticide canisters.

An Adirondack style chair made from a retired barrel

The main tasting area.  Most of the furniture is made from retired barrels

I like to call this the wine sanctuary.  The wine is resting and becoming a thing of beauty

Wine aging in the bottle behind gate

Wine barrels with sculpture on the left and grapevine on right that looks curiously human.

Nativity scene made from olive wood with grapevines making up the manger

 Then it was time to taste.  I have done a lot of tastings mainly in the US but some here in Italy as well but I have never experienced one that showed the amount of respect and love as this one.

It begins with the glasses.  After opening a bottle of Salae Domini, Antonio pours a small amount into one of the seven glasses, then he swirls the wine in the glass coating most of the interior and pours the wine into the next glass and repeats the proceedure for each glass.  This priming technique is said to wash away odors or impurities before tasting.  Next a tasting amount is poured into each glass, then we look at the gorgeous color of the wine, then we swirl and look again an the rivulets (legs) of the wine running languidly down the inside of the glass, we swirl again and smell the heady perfume and then, I think this was my favorite, we listen to the wine.  This is done by striking two glasses together an then holding your glass to your ear to hear the song the wine and the glass make.  Last, but certainly not least, we taste.  The wine is magnificent.

Antonio generously let us try two bottles of his wine and also shared a great many photos from around the world that he has taken.  Antonio is a not only a master of wine but a wonderful artist along with being charming and witty.  Although Antonio speaks only a little English and our Italian is extremely limited we found no communication barrier at all.

Thank you to the Goldstiens and the Buells for making our Rainy Day adventure possible and thank you to Antonio for welcoming us to your winery. This is living in Italy at its best!

Our wonderful host Antonio with Dave and I.

Robert Burns' Birthday Dinner

We had the opportunity to start our New Year out right by attending our first but hopefully not our last, Robert Burns' birthday dinner. 

This was something that neither Dave or I had heard of but after seeing a poster for the event through the NATO base we decided it was something we had to do. 

For those of you who don't know the significance of Robert Burns the short version is that he is widely thought to be the National poet of Scotland and wrote many poems and songs including Auld Lange Syne and A Red, Red Rose.

The dinners are held all over the world to celebrate this rather boisterous fellow.  The evening is filled with poems, music, haggis and whisky.  We even learned to dance a reel. 

It was a wonderful evening. one that memories are made from.