Category: Places to Visit

We were on vacation in northern Italy and one of our stops was Verona.  It’s known for Romeo and Juliet and yes, you can visit that famous balcony and have dinner in Romeo’s house.  Verona is a lovely little town that gives visitors a chance to see the Roman, medieval and Renaissance worlds.  And it’s about a 20-minute drive from Valpolicella.

A generation or two ago, a lot of wine from Valpolicella was thin, acid and cheap.  It was red, hard to pronounce and it paired well with spaghetti and meatballs.  Steve’s father, who knew nothing about wine, favored Valpolicella because it’s what Hemingway’s characters drank in the The Sun Also Rises. Little did Dad know that the same region made Amarone, one of Italy’s vinicultural wonders.

Happily, it is easy to tour around the Valpolicella wine growing regions and the wineries welcome visitors.  A visit can have its peculiarities, though.  We pulled into the courtyard of one winery only to meet the winemaker, who spoke no English.   He figured we wanted to taste his wines so he invited us into his house where his daughter, who was studying English in school, poured us some wines at the kitchen table.

At another winery, once again the winemaker spoke no English and he had no daughter to help him.  All he could say, at the top of his lungs, was AM-A-RON-E.  We drank up, giggled a bit, and went on our way.

If you get off the highway in the village of San Pietro in Cariano, one of the first wineries you’ll see is Brunelli.  While not a Napa palace, it will look familiar to American visitors: a little bar, a lot of bottles and someone behind the bar pouring wine.  In this fortunate case, the pourer was Alberto Brunelli, winemaker and son of the founder.  He took the time to explain what Valpolicella wines are all about, with some excellent tastes to enhance the lecture.  Here’s what he said, in capsule form:

The primary grapes are Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella, unique to the area.  The wine pressed at harvest (usually in August) is Valpolicella Classico or Classico Superiore.  It’s not at all bad these days, but it’s basically what Steve’s Dad was drinking.  The best of the grapes are set on drying racks and left for four months.  Of course, they shrivel and the remaining liquid is extremely concentrated.  These get pressed and become Amarone which must, by law, be aged in casks for a minimum of three years.  The skins are retained and some of the Classico is poured over them to make a Ripasso (re-passed).  The second vinification results in a more alcoholic, deep and rounded wine.

The Brunelli  Winery

At a top-end, rather Napafied winery called Zyme, we tasted a significant number of traditional and not-at-all traditional Valpolicella wines.  Our guide that day, seeing that we were truly interested in learning about Valpolicella wines, suggested we call her cousin’s winery to make an appointment for a visit.  The next day we asked our hotel to make the call and we drove off. The winery was called Quintarelli Giuseppe; we drove for hours trying to find it.  Finally, just before noon, we located it and pulled into their yard.  A pleasant young man greeted us and asked what we wanted, as they were closing for lunch.  We apologized and said that our hotel had called for an appointment but evidently they never had.  Crestfallen, we were about to leave when the nice young man said, “Oh, well, you’re here.  I’ll show you around.”  And so we got a personal tour and tasting from Francesco Grigoli, winemaker and grandson of the founder.  We were treated like family, meeting his mother along the way to the tasting room, where we discovered that we had happened on the premier Valpolicella winery, whose Amarones sell for $350 or more in the US.  And what wines!  Their Classico is really a Ripasso and their Amarone is, in Steve’s words “a religious experience”.

 

Francesco Grigoli showing Lucie the cask

On the way out, we asked Francesco if he could recommend somewhere for lunch.  He said most places were closed that day, but he did know one was open because his mother was dining there that day.  He made a call and all we could recognize in the flow of Italian was “due Americani”.  He then showed us a little white dot on the horizon and told us to drive there.  “How will we find the restaurant?” we asked.  “Don’t worry”, he said, “The only things in that village are the church and the restaurant”.

We arrived and were led to a table in the wine cellar.  Shortly afterwards, Francesco’s mother arrived with some industry people and greeted us like family.  The meal was one of the best we had eaten in Italy and the overall Valpolicella experience was a wine taster’s dream.

We were vacationing in Tuscany and of course we were taking in the cathedrals, the art, the piazzas.  And we engaged in a lot of wine tasting.  There are three wines that for which Tuscany is famous: Brunello from the area around Montalcino, Vino Nobile from the vineyards bordering Montepulciano, and Chianti.  The first two are near one another, southeast of Siena.  The best Chianti comes from the hills between Florence and Siena, the famous Chianti Classico.  The wine is comprised of 80% Sangiovese and some other grapes and is made throughout Tuscany.  Only the wines from the central region are Classico and bear the black cock identifier and a DOCG designation.

Now to be honest, Steve had always thought of Chianti in terms of straw-covered bottles, melting candles and thin, highly acidic beverages in the glass.  Travelling broadens your horizons…and tastes.  That is the greatest joy of visiting wine-growing regions: discovering a whole new world of enjoyment that you never before realized was there.

Piazza Matteotti during the Wine Expo in Greve in Chianti

There are three principal villages associated with Chianti Classico: Gaiole, Castellina and Greve.  They form a triangle in the center of the region and all the other villages associated with winemaking (like Panzano or Volpaia) are near one of the three.  The views are magnificent, the food appealing and the roads, well, are a bit of a challenge.  But even if you get a little lost, there will usually be a sign a few kilometers away that will put you back on track.

On just such a roundabout journey, we pulled into Greve on the main road and as we were looking for parking, caught a glimpse of a piazza with a lot of umbrellas off to our left.  Once parked, we wandered towards the umbrellas and, lo and behold, we had stumbled upon the annual Wine Expo!  The Piazza Matteotti had dozens of booths, one large kiosk and numerous caffès around the exterior.  The caffès are there all year but the rest only spring up one long weekend in September, after the harvest, and we were lucky enough to have caught just the right day.

You go to the ticket counter (biglietteria) and ten euros buys you a wine glass, a little pouch you can wear around your neck to hold the glass and a ticket that entitles you to taste seven tastes.  In this case, a “taste” means trying the wines of seven producers.  Each one with a booth on the square has at least one Chianto Classico, a Chianti Classico Riserva, a Super Tuscan and many have olive oils to try as well.  That’s a lot of tasting!  We learned that in general, Lucie prefers the youth and freshness of a Classico and Steve goes for the depth of a Riserva.

In the big kiosk, producers who don’t feel like staffing a booth have some of their best wines available, including some Vin Santo, the dessert wines of Tuscany.  Many in the kiosks are the better known wineries of Chianti, like Felsina and Fondoti.

In the individual booths, no one seems to intent on stamping your ticket but in the kiosk they’re more rigorous about it.  Not to worry, another ten euros will buy you another ticket.  But all those sips in a concentrated period of time can add up.  It’s a better idea to be content with seven.  In fact, Lucie was driving that day and gave her last two ticket stamps to Steve, just to be on the safe side.

The day was quite a learning experience.  For one thing, we now know that there’s a whole lot of fine wine in Chianti.  We didn’t see even one straw-covered bottle.  Having the opportunity to taste many different vineyards’ wines side by side, we definitely came away with some favorites.  And rubbing shoulders with the Italians while we tasted certainly added to the pleasure.

The Wine Expo is held every year in September.  You can learn more at http://www.greve-in-chianti.com/en/2010_wine_festival.htm#.VcuuTsuFPDc

Well, maybe not in Québec City, but just outside, only minutes away. So that counts.

The locale is the Ile d’Orléans, only 15 minutes’ drive from the center of the city, reached by a bridge over the St. Lawrence River. As it happens, we have a home in Québec City, where Lucie is from. Ile d’Orléans is an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River, just downstream from Québec City. It is 21 miles long and five miles wide at its broadest point. A lot of French-speaking Canada originated here. It is primarily farm land, the fruit and vegetable basket of Québec City. Now the farms include vineyards.

The climate as far north as Ile d’Orléans might lead you to believe that it is impossible to discover winemaking there, but if the fifty United States can each boast at least one winery, why not the province of Québec (of which Québec City is the capital)? Of course, the grapes that grow so well in warmer climes don’t do well there, so the local winemakers use such grapes as Frontenac, St. Croix, Maréchal Foch, Vandal, Hibernal and Vidal. These have been specially developed to withstand short summers and harsh winters, many by agriculturists at the University of Minnesota. (Take that, UC Davis!)

In 1535 the French explorer, Jacques Cartier, set foot on the island and because of the abundance of wild grapes growing, he called it Ile de Bacchus. At least to the tastes of those of us who are used to the grapes of Bordeaux, the Rhône and Italy, the wines here aren’t great. To be honest they cannot be compared, because of different grapes, climates and terroir. It’s amazing that they still can grow wine grapes there at all!   The grand exception to that warning is, not surprisingly, the ice wines from the island, many made from Vidal grapes. In tasting terms, these dessert wines make the trip worthwhile. One of our favorite wineries there is Vignoble du Mitan; we enjoyed their red wine Le Rigolet but really love L’insulaire, their late harvest wine. But truly, these delightful wines are not the only reason to make the trip.

If you get a day with ample sunshine, you will cross that bridge to find charming villages with the narrow-steepled churches that are the signature architecture of Québec. There are numerous fruit stands and a very popular chocolate and ice cream shop in Ste. Pétronille, five minutes from the bridge. You will have matchless views of the St. Lawrence River, Québec City and just on the other shore, the Chutes Montmorency, a waterfall 98 feet higher than Niagara Falls. You can pack a picnic and enjoy it at many of the wineries or you can have lunch at one of the many inns and restaurants that dot the island. Two of our favorites are Auberge La Goéliche (just beyond the chocolatier in the village of Ste. Pétronille) and the ancient Moulin de St. Laurent in the village of St. Laurent. The food is good in both places but the atmosphere is better.

The vineyards of Ste. Petronille with the Montmorency Falls and the Laurentide Mountains in the background

There are five wineries you can visit: Domaine de la source à Marguerite, Vignoble du Mitan, Le Vignoble de Sainte-Pétronille, Vignoble de l’Isle de Bacchus and Cassis Monna et filles. Cassis Monna makes fruit wines and a creditable crème de cassis; the others make table and dessert wines. Each winery has its own personality and history and its own charm. Many sell other agricultural products, often derived from maple syrup and the vegetables that Ile d’Orléans supplies to the city folks. We also enjoy stopping for a beer at the Pub Le Mitan, a microbrewery, to get phenomenal views of the river and the cliffs beyond.

We, as a born Québécoise and as an adopted one, urge you to visit Québec City, the closest you can get to France without crossing an ocean … and without the French themselves (that’s Lucie talking here). Take in the history, the cafés, the cultural festivals, the joie de vivre. And leave a little time for some wine discoveries on the Ile d’Orléans.