{"id":837,"date":"2017-12-31T17:50:17","date_gmt":"2017-12-31T17:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=837"},"modified":"2017-12-31T17:50:17","modified_gmt":"2017-12-31T17:50:17","slug":"an-unexpected-tour-of-terralsole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=837","title":{"rendered":"An Unexpected Tour of Terralsole"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few nights before we began a trip to Tuscany, we opened a bottle of Italian wine that we had bought from a favorite wine web site.\u00a0 At that point all we knew was that it was a Brunello,\u00a0 had a beautiful label and that it was called Terralsole (\u201cLand toward the Sun\u201d).\u00a0 Tasting it, we were very impressed and were glad we had more in the cellar.<\/p>\n

Montalcino, in Tuscany, is famed for the wine first made in the castelli<\/em> around the town: Brunello, made from 100% Sangiovese grapes.\u00a0 The road system is radial around Montalcino; whichever direction you go you will find vineyards and wineries.\u00a0 However, each direction also brings you to different terroirs, so the wines from each exhibit distinct characteristics and personalities.\u00a0 As we drove down a road to the southeast of the city, we saw a sign that told us we had just passed the entrance to Terralsole.\u00a0 One U-turn and five minutes later, we pulled up to the winery.\u00a0 And no one was there.\u00a0 Maybe, we thought, we were at the wrong building.\u00a0 There was a nice looking structure at the top of a small hill, maybe that was it.<\/p>\n

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Terralsole\u00a0 vineyard and winery.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Terralsole.<\/em><\/p>\n

So Steve was delegated to climb up and see if anyone was at home, while Lucie stayed with the car.\u00a0 After he shouted a few \u201cHello\u2019s\u201d, a young girl about six years old came out to see who was there.\u00a0 Steve asked, \u201cIs your mommy or daddy at home\u201d, speaking slowly in hopes that she had a little English.\u00a0 She shouted back into the house, \u201cMommy, there\u2019s somebody here about some wine\u201d.\u00a0 Steve told her that she spoke perfect English and she replied, as only a six-year old can, \u201cAnd I speak perfect Italian, too.\u201d\u00a0 Such was our introduction to the Bollag family, proprietors and winemakers of Terralsole (www.terralsole.com\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Mom turned out to be Athena Tergis Bollag, a violinist, who had an appointment and was anxious to get away.\u00a0 But graciously she told us that a) tastings were by appointment only b) there was no one able to serve us and c) maybe her husband, Mario, would accommodate us.\u00a0 We were led back down the hill and met Mario Bollag, who proceeded to lead us on a tour of the property and the winery.<\/p>\n

Mario then led us up to his office-atelier above the winery floor.\u00a0 There he showed us sculptures and paintings, including the original used for the label of the wine we had drunk in New York.\u00a0 It seems that Mario was also an artist and had in his earlier life been to Haiti, where he fell in love with the arts community there.\u00a0 So he would sketch what he wanted for a label, send it to one of his Haitian friends who made a painting of it, which was then used for wine bottles.\u00a0 Everyone benefited.<\/p>\n

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A\u00a0Terralsole label.<\/em><\/p>\n

We learned that Terralsole comes from vineyards in two sectors of the Brunello region, which gives Terralsole\u2019s Brunellos the taste we had liked so much. \u00a0Mario opened something unusual, a Syrah that we tasted together.\u00a0 It\u2019s marketed as a Super Tuscan, but really has more of a French character.\u00a0 We never did taste a Brunello there, although we bought some to take home with us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few nights before we began a trip to Tuscany, we opened a bottle of Italian wine that we had bought from a favorite wine web site.\u00a0 At that point all we knew was that it was a Brunello,\u00a0 had a beautiful label and that it was called Terralsole (\u201cLand toward the Sun\u201d).\u00a0 Tasting it, … Continue reading An Unexpected Tour of Terralsole<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions\/840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}