Veraison  - invaiatura in Italian – is with us. The grapes change colour one at a time, depending on how much sun they are receiving and on how close they are to the vinestocks. This moment marks the switch from fruit growth to fruit ripening and brings us one step closer to harvest.

The first two photos illustrate the difference between 2009 and 2010 growing season, most evident at Le Due Porte vineyards where our grapes have scarcely started veraison and the grapes are green and hard as bullets. The ripening seems to be more than a week behind schedule, if it is appropriate to apply such concepts to nature. We had originally thought it would be even later since a cold, rainy and snowy winter delayed budburst and fruit set. However a hot and dry July compensated and accelerated the fruit maturation and the grapes are currently in good health.

Our lowest vineyard, La Vigna del Capa, has deep purple bunches thanks to a different exposition and a drop of over 200 metres in altitude. We have already started to drop fruit here in order to increase the quality of the bunches that remain on the vine. La Vigna Vecchia, higher and south-east facing, is poised between the other two vineyards, with a few green grapes in each cluster.

We will continue to prune in the next 7 weeks or so as we approach harvest and the grapes will benefit from the increasing thermal excursion between day and night temperature, essential for developing aromatics and structure.

We received the idoneità – the final approval of our 2006 Brunello – and can proceed with our plans to bottle this vintage soon.

I have just ordered the corks. We use natural unbleached cork grown in Italy.  Bleached corks have peroxides in contact with the wine that can reduce the SO2 content, thus weakening the structure of the wine. Natural cork is harvested from the bark of cork oaks. The process does not harm the trees but it does provide some of the world’s best paid agricultural jobs.

We have been working with a company called Quimar for the last 15 years. The business was started by Matteo Tamponi in 1905 and is in Sardinia. Their Tuscan agent, Marcello Tamponi, usually brings me a wheel of wonderful Sardinian pecorino cheese when he deliver the corks, an added bonus to a mutually satisfying collaboration. Quimar were actually the first cork producer in Italy to obtain the ISO 14001 environmental certification (more details on their website  www.quimar.it). They make a total of 20 million natural pieces per year and would describe themselves as a “piccolo di qualità”. In Montalcino they also work with Val di Cava.

The cork is a terrifically important part of the packaging since we want to avoid the problems of cork taint for our customers. Each cork costs nearly as much as an espresso. We consider this a good investment, particularly since our Brunellos are destined to benefit from long cellar ageing.

We open a lot of bottles on site and are in close contact with most of our private clients so I can say from personal experience that our experience of cork taint is almost non-existent. This is partly to do with Quimar’s production controls in an external laboratory so as to detect cork taint before the corks are made. They guarantee a tolerance of maximum 1%.  Cork taint, caused by the compound TCA, is formed by a reaction between a penicillium mould in the crevices of the cork and the chlorine-containing chemicals used in most sterilising processes. Quimar use a particular sterilising process that uses gamma rays rather than chemicals, thus further reducing the incidence of TCA.

Time for some eco-preaching.

Natural cork embodies sustainability. It creates a commercial incentive for the sustainable stewardship of the Mediterranean cork oak forests, which trap carbon emissions just as rainforest do, while providing one of the world’s richest ecosystems.  The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has estimated that up to three quarters of the Mediterranean’s cork forests could be lost within 10 years if the trend for plastic stoppers and screw tops continues. These forests provide the habitat for a huge number of endangered and protected species including the Iberian lynx. Read more here

Screw-caps produce nearly 24 times as much greenhouse gases, plastic stoppers nearly ten times as much. For more facts and statistics about the marvels of cork, do consult www.100percentcork.org

As well as being biodegradable, natural cork can also be recycled. Lucky Americans can donate their corks to be turned into shoe-soles… To find a location near you http://recork.org/get-involved/locations/ I must admit I long for something like this to start in Europe. Of course the craft possibilities for corks are endless; from napkin rings, frames, key-chains and birdhouses. Diedra Craig at www.corkeycreations.com uses either recycled corks (and she accepts donations) or factory seconds that would otherwise be thrown out, for her beautiful pieces. My favourite are the place-holders; they almost made me wish I wasn’t already married so I could have them at my wedding….  

In the old days, when we had a restaurant, the cost and prestige of a wine went hand in hand with the bottle weight. One could practically tell from an empty bottle’s weight what its price point would have been.

These days are over.  As part of our move towards sustainability we have opted for a lighter bottle from 2006 vintage onwards. I have been researching and checking what’s available and we are now ready to place our first order.

Our new bottle weighs nearly 200 grams less than the last one. That’s nearly a third less.

There is no doubt that it still counts as a heavy bottle, weighing in at 550 gr… but this change will nevertheless reduce the carbon footprint of our wines significantly.

The “new” bottle is a Bordolese bottle.  The length of the bottle neck and height of the bottle is unaffected. As far as regards the protection and safekeeping of our wines during their long potential cellar aging and their safety during transit nothing has been compromised.

It is produced by the prestigious French firm, St.Gobain… but in their Italian factories (phew!) so we haven’t cancelled the positive effects of the light bottle by having to import from another country.

For more information regarding the business of light bottles, here are some great links:

http://www.drvino.com/2007/10/30/calculating-the-carbon-footprint-of-wine-my-research-findings/

http://www.wrap.org.uk/downloads/GlassRight_Wine_lightweighing_-_web_version.0ec074f9.5381.pdf

http://www.decanter.com/news/182202.html

A couple of Sundays ago decisions were made about the 2006 vintage.

Paolo Vagaggini, our winemaker, hosted us at the lab and then for a follow-up at his beautiful home in Siena. The day started with men in white coats and syringes full of wine and finished with white linen table-cloths and home-cooked Osso Buco.

What could there have been to decide?

All Brunello is (and must be) 100% Sangiovese so there is no blending of varietals involved. However Il Palazzone has three different vineyards that are all picked and vinified separately, before ageing in barrels of different size and age. Each vineyard is in a different area of Montalcino (with consequential variety in terroir, altitude, exposition.. you name it) so each yield is significantly different.

Moreover 2006 was a superlative vintage and during the last four years of aging (and tasting) we became increasingly sure that we would release a Riserva. We only make Riservas when we are sure that the vintage will be considerably improved by a further wood aging. Our “normal” Brunelo already spends over four years in wood (twice the current DOCG obligation) so additional time means the wine in question must have the “stoffa” to be a truly great vintage.

We have made Riservas in 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2004.

The Tasting Day was dedicated to deciding what would go into the “regolare” vintage 2006 and what would stay on in wood to become our Riserva…

A hard job but someone’s got to do it.

And now I know that we will be making 8433 bottles of 2006 Brunello, due to be released in March 2011, 100 Magnums and 5 Double Mags. We are leaving the equivalent of just over 2.000 bottles in wood to become Riserva 2006 (release date February 2012).

I have now requested the final check from the Chamber of Commerce and Unione Italiana Vini. Our 2006 will be subjected to a laboratory analysis and then to a purely organoleptic tasting by an anonymous board of experts. “La Commissione” will not know which estates they are tasting, nor will I know the exact day that our wines will be under examination. We should receive the “idoneita” – the official confirmation that our wine is validated Brunello – in a couple of weeks which means that we can bottle, safe in the knowledge that our wine has passed all the authenticity tests. After six or so months of bottle aging we will be ready to send it out into the world – though be warned, 2006 is definitely a keeper and destined for great evolution in the cellar.

I was thrilled to post as a guest this week on http://www.turismo.intoscana.it/allthingstuscany/tuscanycious 

Here is the article, thanks Oriana!

Own an olive tree in Tuscany : medieval meets marketing at Il Palazzone

My husband, Marco, an indigenous Montalcinoman of his context, and I have been running the Il Palazzone estate together since 2007. Marco is a medievalist when it comes to agriculture and, when faced with a choice between old-fashioned labour intensive methods and modern technology, he will always plump for the former. We decided to make a top quality oil, picking very early and by hand. Harvesting before the olives fully mature — as early as October  — results in a much  smaller yield of much higher quality oil. The day’s harvest is taken to the award-winning Frantoio Franci press within hours of being picked.

Our yield in 2009 was under 9kg of olive oil for every 100kg of olives picked. In two words: economic hara-kiri.

As we filtered and bottled our first harvest of certified IGP Toscana oil (2008) it became clear that our oil required a particular marketing approach. We didn’t make enough to justify attending shows or doing a campaign of samples – and yet we couldn’t rely on visitors to the property buying up 700 bottles a year… Our production costs are ridiculously high – and oil, unlike wine (the estate produces Brunello di Montalcino) does not improve with the passing of time.

We needed to find people who would understand and appreciate our decisions regarding the quality of our oil, and in return, offer them the opportunity to be part of the process and benefit in the results.

And one sleepless night, Club100 took shape.

Members of Club100 “own” an olive tree for a year.

A local artist paints ceramic plaques which are hung on the trees so owners literally have their name on their own tree. They receive a certificate with GPS coordinates – and of course they have visiting rights. Throughout the year we send photographs and harvest reports and, most importantly, members receive three 500 ml bottles of fresh wonderful oil within weeks of bottling. Many of our members are from overseas and, once they have tried the delights of  “olio novo” they can’t imagine how they coped with the year-old oils that are usually available to them.

I know that our members enjoy their slice of Tuscany, and think of Il Palazzone when they dress a salad or drizzle on bread – and this gives me enormous pleasure. It also means that we can carry on making our oil in the best possible way, cutting no corners when it comes to quality.

“Nearly all members have been on the property, either before or since becoming members and when I walk through the grove with my children it is like walking amongst friends.”

Membership costs 100 Euros plus shipping charges.

For information regarding Club100, please contact laura@ilpalazzone.com

It’s been a long haul; kilos of paper, entire days of queuing, metres of red tape, more hoops and hurdles than I care to recall, but at long last the plans for our new cellar have been approved. This means that we will be breaking ground in the next few months and with an enormous dollop of good fortune we may be vinifying and aging on site in 2011. Barrel tastings ahoy!

 The planning permission has been particularly difficult to obtain because we are close enough to Montalcino town to be considered within the town walls which means that we are subject to all of the restrictions regarding changes to the urban environment. We have had to have geological surveys on the land since part of the cellar will be underground. The town council has also just changed a lot of the cards on the table but the trials and tribulations of the last 14 months (yes, 14 months!) can be set aside while we ready ourselves for the new stresses and worries of having a building site on the property, cleverly planned to coincide with the arrival of our third child.

The new building has been conceived to blend beautifully into the landscape, combining simple elegance with functionality and the best of modern technology.

Montalcino architect Marco Pignattai designed the new cellar in close co-operation with our winemaker, Paolo Vagaggini. “I was inspired by country churches” he says “simple shapes, sloping roofs and perfect integration with the surroundings.”  It will have solar panels and be self sufficient in terms of energy production with both photovoltaic modules to convert sunlight into electricity and solar thermal collectors to heat water. The whole structure has been planned and insulated to be as energy efficient as possible.

Bring it on!

Ps. I had originally thought of writing this piece of joyous tidings as a kind of birth notice, with the weight of the paperwork involved and detailing the elephantine gestation period of this project. I have been undone by detail since I have now discovered that the only animal that nearly has a 14 month gestation period is the zebra… not such a good metaphor!

http://www.yourveterinaryclinic.com/page14/gestation-period.html

Montalcino, for those who have visited, is CITTA’ DEL MIELE (amongst other things) and we are about to embark on our own honey adventure. At the modest cost of 85 Euros per family, last night our first five families were delivered to the estate. In each family there are over forty thousand members, each with its own queen. The queen lays circa 2.000 eggs a day…

Marco chose a perfect spot for the hives. It is on a small terrace on a slope, overlooking the valley which will give the bees full range and a wide choice of plants. It is sheltered from north winds, esconced between the woods and two of our vineyards. The dry-stone wall behind the hives will offer them protection and it should be nice and warm for them. We do not use any pesticides on our vineyards so they are far from any harmful crops.

Hubert Ciacci, one of Montalcino’s most famous bee-keepers, has agreed to follow Marco in this new experience. We are terrifically lucky to have his advice and supervision and he was there last night when the families were installed in their new homes. Hubert’s family have been making honey for three generations. He also has a Brunello estate, Villa I Cipressi, with three and a half hectares of vineyards, more or less the same size as Il Palazzone. http://www.villacipressi.it

We expect each family to produce eventually 30-50 kg of honey every year. We have acacia, chestnut trees and innumerable fruit trees on the property as well as all the wildflowers in the woods. Our/their first honey will be from nectar from wherever they choose to go: miele millefiori.

I doubt we will be doing a bee sponsorship programme (like our olive tree ownership project Club 100) but I am already thinking about the label….

The evenings are balmy, the vineyards are starred with fireflies at night, tourists are showing their legs and Montalcino is shedding its ornery off-season identity and hosting a series of great events.

On 18th and 19th June there is the first edition of the Montalcino Music Circus, two evenings of blues set up on a stage in Piazza Padella (Saucepan Square, where Vineria Le Potazzine has outdoor tables and serves food…. might be worth booking on 0577846054. There is also seating at the Il Leccio Bar Enoteca. Tel. 0577 846084). The evening is free and there will be two stands serving food, beer and wine. The first night is Lou and the Blues http://www.louleonardi.it/ and the second is M.I.B. (Men in Blues) an 11 piece blues band headed by Seargent Pizzo.

And there’s more… 19-21 June is another first edition – Festa Europea della Musica! Concerts of every possible genre (classical, opera, baroque, rock, jazz, flamenco..) from 11.30 am to midnight in four different areas of Montalcino. The programme is on :  http://www.carrozze.it/montalcino_festa_della_musica/index.html

From 9th to 15th July Montalcino is hosting the 4th edition of Musica Reale, an international Chamber Music Festival. Details of the program can be found here : www.musica-reale.com/festival-2010  World-famous musicians from Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra will be playing in Montalcino’s 18th century Teatro Degli Astrusi. Tickets are on sale at the door from 17.30 or via Montalcino’s tourist office. There is an apertif at 18.15 and the concerts start at 19.00. Season tickets are available. For information contact Peter Sokole at info@musica-reale.com.

From 14th-24th July there is the 13th edition of Jazz and Wine. These concerts are held in the fortress and start at 21.45. Information can be found via the Proloco (the Tourist Office, tel. 0577 849331). If it seems at all chilly, take a blanket! 

On Sunday 20th June and Sunday 18th July Montalcino holds an organic farmer’s market (plus other bits and bobs) in the main square . This isn’t worth planning a holiday around but there are some lovely honeys and goats cheeses available.

And as if this wasn’t enough there are foraging lessons every Thursday, Saturday and Sunday… information below.

The olive trees have what the locals call “la trama” – the flowers that will later develop into the tree’s fruit  (er… olives!).

A new couple have come to Camigliano, a “frazione” just 9 km from Montalcino. The village has all of forty inhabitants so the arrival of Lara and Patrizio and their two daughters has made a big difference to a small community.

Best of all they have come to re-open the historic “Osteria del Galletto”. This little restaurant has existed under several different managements in the last five years, but now the style of the food seems to have returned to that of the original owners who for thirty years served delicious pinci and scottiglia to “intenditori” who were prepared to overlook the ferocious daily family fights that could be heard from the kitchen.

The Osteria is open for lunch and dinner. Telephone 0577 839052.

Olga and Mireno would be proud of Lara and Patrizio and their honest local fare.