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Seven years ago, experienced
Italian winemakers Luca Vitali and Marco Poggiolini
along with Canadian winery owner, Charlie Pilliterri, established Croce di
Bibbiano. Their goal was
simple…to produce traditional Chianti with heritage grape varieties and
craft premium Super Tuscan wines styled for the modern wine drinker.
This dynamic mix of heritage and
modern is vibrant at Bibbiano. A
property once owned by Franciscan monks, Marco and his father Gilberto Poggiolini
and father-in-law, Mario Del Turco,
renovated the monastery ruins into the operations of the winery, cellar
and tasting room. Along with the winery, seven agrotourism apartments
welcomes tourists to stay on the premise to experience life at a winery. At Bibbiano, winemaking is done
by hand. Within an hour of my
arrival, I was offered a pair of clippers and invited to join the family
members in the vineyard. They
have been harvesting grapes for the past 16 days. “Buon giorno Signora
Canadese.” – translation: “Hello lady from Canada” “Quali citta ha visitato in
Italia fino adesso?” – “Where have you visited in Italy so
far?” “Le piace bere vino? “– “Do you like to
drink wine?” These rapid fire questions were
asked in Italian by my new language teachers. Although I did not
understand every word, I quietly practiced repeating the new vocabulary
while I picked the grapes. Uva = grapes
The winemaking process for white
wines is slightly different to the red wine making process..
To make white wine, after the grapes have been de-stemmed, the
grapes and juice are directed into a crusher turnstyle machine.
Inside the crusher, an inflatable bladder gently presses the grapes
against the outer wall as the honey coloured juice waterfalls into a large
collecting pan. The process takes about four hours as the crusher
continuously rotates, inflating and deflating the bladder to ensure that
all of the juice is removed. From the pan, the white grape juice is pumped
into a stainless steel tank where it will stay to ferment into wine.
In the red winemaking process, the grapes are de-stemmed, the skins are gently broken, the “must” (a winemaking term for juice seeds, skins and pulp) is pumped directly into a stainless steel tank. The weight of the skins is lighter than the juice. Twice a day, the juice is pumped through a large hose from the bottom of the tank up to the top of the tank to keep the skins and juice in contact as the wine ferments. This routine is called “lees stirring”, or the Italians refer to it as “Rimontaggio”. Each time the stirring is performed, more pigment from the skins is extracted, resulting in a darker red colour in the juice. “Five days ago, the must was a bland apple juice colour, now that it has been in contact with the skins for over five days, look at the regal purple it has become,” explains Luca. ”This is the beginning of a gorgeous Chianti.”
The grape harvest at Bibbiano is
finally finished on the 18th day.
Managing the grape yield has its chaotic moments.
“The Vidal grapes are producing too much juice”, exclaims Luca
with a hint of stress in his voice. “We
are going to run out of space in the tanks”.
No spreadhsheets or measuring tools were used to come to this
conclusion, just years of experience and Luca eyeballing the situation.
He calls to me. “Bella,
how much volume is left in that tank?”
“Cinquantotto litri (58
liters)”, I yell back. Quickly, Luca bolts into action,
thinking out loud, (there were new Italian phrases that I learned at this
instance!) as he quickly plans for his next move.
True to their goal to create traditional Tuscan wines, Luca reminds
me that Chianti used to be blended with a small proportion of white grape
juice in with the red wine. Within minutes, Croce di Bibbiano re-introduced this heritage
style by adding the overflow of the Vidal juice to the Chianti tank.
“Tutte le cose vecchie tornano di moda. (Translation - All things
old are new again)”, smiles Luca with a tone of relief in his voice.
“I always wanted to make a heritage Chianti. I just did not think that
it would happen today”. Even at the end of a hectic day,
there is a faint sound as the last of the white grape juice trickles out
of the crusher and the aroma of fermenting wine wafts throughout the
winery. On my final day at Bibbiano,
Marco greets me in the morning with an espresso, “Buon giorno bella.
We need your help with bottling today. This is my favorite part of
winemaking.”, Marco explains. “All of our hard work gets bottled and enjoyed by people
around the world.” After
calibrating the bottling machine to rhythmically, fill, cork, foil and
label each bottle, the last stop on the bottling line is the wrapping of
the official Italian DOC appellation serial number sticker on the
bottle’s neck crafting another piece of Italian art from Mother Nature.
It seems fitting that my last job during my Italian lessons and winemaking
classes was to bottle and prepare a shipment of Bibbiano’s Tuscio
Chianti bound for the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). Throughout the two weeks that I
spent at Bibbiano helping with every step of the harvest and winemaking
process, I am amazed by the number of fingerprints that are involved into
making each bottle of wine; from managing the growth of the vines and
fruit throughout the spring and summer, to picking to crushing to blending
to bottling to packing. Although
a winery is a romantic setting, making wine it is definitely hard work.
My hands-on experience during the harvests gave me a greater
appreciation of wine. As the Italians say “Salute e buon appetito!” Planning
on visiting Tuscany?
Staying in an agrotourism apartment at a winery or farmhouse is a
unique experience. Prices
vary on style of accommodation and time of year. Photographs
of Croce di Bibbiano and the self catered apartments can be seen at www.crocedibibbiano.it
You
are invited to "Treasures
from Tuscany" ------------If you would like to re-publish this article or would like The Savvy Grapes to write in your publication, contact Debbie directly. Cheers! |
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