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Did You Know There is a Prosecco Wine Road

Want to try a day on the Prosecco Wine Road? Yes, indeed there is one! The road begins at Valdobbiadene and ends around Conegliano in the Veneto region, just northwest of Venice. We visited two with a lunch stop inbetween, and dinner in Asolo. A perfect day, so here goes!

Start your day at Bisol (www.bisol.it), one of Italy’s premier vintners of Prosecco. Send them an email in advance and ask for a tour with Claire. She’ll show you how not only Prosecco but Champagne are made (they make both on site), and then you can have a tasting of still Prosecco (interesting, but you can understand why filling the grapes with bubbles makes total sense) followed by a few from different “terroirs” on their estate. The combination of altitude, soil, and wind from the sea forms a wine from the same grape with a different soul for each. What we learned:

Next, lunch. Take the road to Follina and have a leisurely lunch at Ristorante La Corte (Tel. 0438971761). We loved the Gargahelli pasta (hand made, shaped like penne rigate, but with egg and more delicate) and a smoked (affumato) ricotta, and also the spaghetti with tomato and basil. With lunch, we tried Vigne Matte Prosecco (they bring a bottle to the table, but you only pay for what you drink) and when we saw the signs to that winery (http://www.vignematte.it/) on the road next, we stopped in.

So, from Follino, turn south on a side road and head towards Farro to find Vigne Matte. It’s a good next step from Bisol, as they are a new winery, but already winning awards and are based on the side of a hill with a stunning view. Perfect for weddings and late afternoons.

Afterwards, based on a hot tip from Deirdre Cizon, we headed to Asolo and Hosteria Ca Derton (www.caderton.com). First, in Asolo, there is a wonderful outdoor art exhibit called Incanto with merry go-round horses, oversized laundry, empty chairs, gargantuan flower pots….yes, you have to be there.

Then, as promised, we found Nino and Antonietta, owners of Hosteria Ca Derton (Nino was walking with his grandson prior to opening the restaurant) and had an amazing meal in what might seem to be an unassuming city. First, an amuse bouche °sweet salad” of watermelon and cherry tomato with basil oil. Then, a wonderful “primo” of gnocchi with tomato sauce placed in a crisp Parmesan round, that could have passed for a trompe d’oeuil fruit salad. (Who needs the new “foam” restaurants when you can have Nino’s real food?). Then, both the roasted pork and shrimp with pasta nero canneloni (thanks to squid ink) filled with bream were full of flavor and a taste we might have otherwise have labelled gamey had we been at home. At perfect end to a perfetto day!

Here’s What We Loved

Our July Insider’s Tour of Tuscany has just concluded. Our guests are on their way home, and we’re headed to NYC for this year’s Fancy Food Show.

So what’s there to love in Italy this time of year? We were fully prepared for hot weather and heavy crowds, but found little of either. Here are our top 5 favorite things to do, and we’ll provide more details in upcoming newsletters:

It’s Catching On, and You Can Make It!

Saying it’ll be a cold day in July before you’ll try grilling pizza on your deck? Pictured above is Wendy Shelly and family doing just that! Inveterate organizer and neigborhood party planner Wendy has made grilled pizza a staple, and this weekend is a perfect time to try it!

Recipes abound; here’s one from the epicurious.com website (great resource for recipes from Gourmet, Bon Appetit, etc. with ratings and tips from readers).

For toppings? Wendy’s been using our Chateau de Fromage fresh chevre ($7.49) and Oliviers and Co basil pesto ($9.99). Perfect combo! Other ideas? Make a two-or-three flavored pizza for the different palates in your household. Try Tomato/Basil pesto ($9.49), Artichoke-Lemon Pesto ($7.99), maybe even a little Summer Truffle Paste ($16.49) with the chevre base. Italians do sweet pizzas with Nutella. For a Texas twist, try Chocolate Habanero Fudge ($9.99) It’s fun and a little bit of summer magic!

One Cool Summer

Wine in the news this week: First, New York Times reviewer Eric Asimov and panelists review one of our favorites from Italy’s Piemonte region, Barbera. (Click here to get to the Dining page, then click on Multimedia to get to the interactive tasting feature.) Asimov makes an interesting point: that winemakers fail when they try to “elevate” a truly good table wine into something it’s not, resulting in over-oaky, out- of-balance quaffs.

Then, local “Italian Wine Guy” Alfonso Cevola’s blog this week reviews the “Super-Tuscans”. Even locals such as Cesare Nadalini, who brings us our Tutta Toscana olive oil, will tell you that “Super-Tuscan” is more or less a marketing term, rather than a wine region. These wines fell afoul of the official “DOCG” certification because of their nontraditional taste and technique, and have evolved into some of the most interesting new wines in Italy. These guys play with Syrah and Sauvignon as often as Sangiovese, and Alfonso gives us his “Best of Show” top six. If you want to know where to get the wines, just respond to Alfonso’s blog and he’ll point the way! Saluti!

Tasting, Slurping, and Motion at the LA EVOO Competition

We told you about this in 2005, and it’s back in the news! As a recent New York Times article points out, Not only is “real” olive oil provide the good cholesterol that unblocks arteries, not to mention its antioxidant and cancer- fighting properties, it also has anti- inflammatory effects similar to those caused by ibuprofen.

The same article chronicles the recent Los Angeles olive oil competition, where professional olive oil tasters inhaled, swizzled, and slurped their way through this season’s offerings. By increasing the oxygen flow past the olive oil, more of the taste flows to our senses. Banana, artichoke, you name it! Look for the results June 16!

Above, our dear friend Pietro develops his own tasting technique to sample the “nuovo olio” Amici olive oil ($33.99) first pressed during one of our November olive picking trips. When olives are first picked, they are rushed to the “frantoio”, or olive press. The highlight is tasting the new oil fresh pressed with a huge round of Tuscan bread rubbed with garlic, drizzled with oil, then sea- salted. Stay tuned next fall as we ship some of the new oil back just in time for the holidays! As Pete would say (if his mouth weren’t full!) Buon appetito!