Italia Day 3-moving to Verona

We drove from Barolo to Monferrato where we visited Gabrielle Lago and Mikela Bava who make Lago Bava wines.

This is a new winery and we don’t carry any of their wines yet. It was quite a treat to see how they their wines are made and to get to taste them. Gabrielle is the winemaker, and he really pushes the limits when it comes to wine making and takes a lot of chances. He is a winemaker who comes from a generation of great winemakers. He is also a member of the European Grand Jury, which is a prestigious wine tasting panel.

Their first vine was planted in 1491. Their philosophy is to use 100% traditional varietals of the region of Monferrato . The traditional varietals include grignalino(has a smokey flavor), barbera, freisa, and albarossa. Albarossa is a red hybrid of barbera and nebbiolo, which was developed in 1936. The white varietals are Sauvignon Blanc and chardonnay.

They use whole cluster fermentation, and they don’t remove anything before fermenting. After fermentation Gabrielle introduces a technique he learned when he traveled the world that he enjoyed working with.

In Monferrato every town has a beautiful villa. At the turn of the century all the people left the country side to go to the city to make more money. Although in Langhe and Alba there were textile factories, and the people would work in the textile factories during the day and work in the vineyards in the evening. So Langhe and Alba were kept in a more prestine way because they were kept up, but Monferrato was completely abandoned.

The main soil type in Monferrato and in Gabrielle’s vineyards is limestone.

Entire villages in Monferrato were built with a type of stone and no plaster and have stayed up for years.

Gabrielle uses a system that is used in Burgundy just for white wines called Batonage. Gabrielle puts the wine in the barrel with leaves and soil and any sediment because he believes that it is part of the wine and it matches the wine to the vineyards. Usually while the wine is in the barrels the sediment falls to the bottom of the barrel. Gabrielle then “stirs” it to stir the sediment back into the wine to give it character. He does this every 2 weeks for 18 months but is aiming for 24 months.

Interesting tidbit: Gabrielle takes the barrel outside in the winter to perform batonage. He does this because it is so cold outside and that helps to keep the wines characteristics from changing.

Because the nature of the wine is to be in touch with oxygen the entire time, this creates a problem when bottling the wine because Gabrielle never takes the wine out of the barrel. It is so important to let the wine breath once the bottle is open to bring it back to the way the wine was when it was in the barrel. Gabrielle only takes the wine out of the barrel when he is blending wines together.

We tasted multiple barrel samples along with multiple bottle samples to compare and contrast tastes and to see how the wines evolve once they are bottled.

Because Gabrielle puts everything into the barrel including soil and leaves, he starts with about 6-8 Liters of lees. When the wine is finished he ends up with only 1 Liter of lees. This shows you how much of the wine incorporates the vineyards. It becomes part of the wine.

After we tasted multiple wines, and I even got to try the Albarossa I told you about, I was ready to head to our next stop.

Gabrielle and Mikela were so nice to put out some Italian salami and breadsticks to have while we were tasting. Italian breadsticks are the best! Seriously…not like breadsticks we have here…so doughy and crispy and just a little bit salty. MMM

The group departed from Cantine Castello Uviglie and headed west to Soave, which is located in the Veneto, to meet with Sisto Tessari. Sisto is the winemaker and one of the owners of La Cappucina.

This is a beautiful family run winery in Soave, and Sisto was so informative about his vineyards and his process of making wine. Sisto is the 4th generation wine maker for La Cappucina so this family has been making wine for many years.

We took the tour of his vineyards and winery, which was much bigger then I had expected for a family winery. The name La Cappucina came from the church that is on the estate, which originally came from the Monks many years ago.
The main white grape used in Soave is Garganega. Sisto uses pergola veronese for his Garganega vines. This is a type of training system that allows more air and more sun to get to the grapes. He informed us that they are in the process of moving to a vertical training system, and soon all the vineyards will be vertical.

All the grapes used for the wines at La Cappucina are grown by the family. They do not buy any grapes from anyone else.

The wine we are most familiar with that La Cappucina makes is their Soave. This is made from 100% garganega grapes and is a crisp dry white wine with lots of complexity. It has some fruit, but just has a nice richness to it. It almost has a slight almond taste, which is really interesting. The soil adds a mineral characteristic to the wine after it ages. This is because lava rocks are found underneath the soil.

Garganega is very fragrant, but after aging it starts to incorporate a mineral quality, which comes from the lava rocks.

Interesting tidbit: La Cappucina is USDA certified organic

As we were walking around the winery Sisto showed us the baskets he uses to dry the grapes for his sweet dessert wines. This was the first time I have seen how they dry grapes for wine so I thought this was very interesting.

We also got to see his cellar, which was beautiful. It was too dark to get really good pics, but take my word for it, it was very lovely. Sisto uses French oak barrels to give the wines elegance and balance that only French oak can give them.

We got to see the small church that is part of his estate as well. It was so quaint and smelled of lavender from lavender placed all around it. The church is on the label of some of their wines too because it has such a big significance of the estate. Once we finished the tour it was time to taste.

Sisto set up our tasting table with mouth watering cheeses, breads, juicy peaches and figs, nuts, and a few vegetables. Something about the hospitality in Italy is remarkable. I was so hot and ready for a nice refreshing glass of Soave by this point. And boy did it taste good!

We tasted through all his wines, and I liked each of them more then the last. We are most familiar with the Soave, and La Madego so I enjoyed getting to know the others as well.

Once the tasting was finished Sisto and Manu took us into the town of Verona. I could hardly contain myself I was so excited to see Verona. It was EXACTLY as I imagined. Old, artistic, and right out of a page in Romeo and Juliet. We walked around the city learning about different buildings and museums, and watched the sunset over the river. The city is really beautiful, and I just loved watching it get more and more crowded as it grew darker.

We had dinner at a restaurant called Giulietta e Romeo-fitting right?

We got a table in the back and all sat together. This was such a fun dinner for me-I didn’t stop laughing once. I got to know a silly side of Sisto-he is so funny.

We all started with an appetizer of Polenta with gorgonzola, polenta with sautéed mushrooms, and polenta with salame. This is when I realized polenta was a popular staple food for northern Italy and we would be eating it a lot in the next few days.

We were able to pick a first and second course off a list. I can’t make decisions as it is, and I love to try new things, so it was very hard to choose something. I finally went with the pumpkin ravioli for my first course, and beef carpaccio for my second course. I was told these were very popular dishes for the restaurant.

I was not steered wrong. These were two of the most memorable meals I had in Italy, believe it or not. I have wanted to try pumpkin ravioli for a while now and holy COW it was soo good. So sweet and creamy inside. I drizzled a little olive oil on the carpaccio along with some squeezed lemon, pepper, and salt. Very lovely. I also tasted horse and donkey meat for the first time. Very weird to eat it, but just tastes like any other kind of meat.

We finished the meal of course with espresso, but also with an awesome dessert. The name in itself was great. Le Teta de Giulietta. This was a small mound of hazelnut ice cream with a chocolate sauce on top. Nutella anyone? Ugh I love dessert in Italy!

Speaking of nutella-side note-yesterday on our way to the Lodali restaurant, Walter stopped by the Nutella factory so we could take a picture.

I told you this was the hazelnut capital of the world!

After dinner we needed to walk around so we finished our tour of Verona and the last stop was up on a hill overlooking the entire city. It was really breathtaking. I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn’t a dream.

Everyday just keeps getting better. Can’t wait to tell you about my fourth day in Italy. See ya tomorrow!

Tagged as: hazelnut, La Cappucina, Lago Vaba, Nutella, Polenta, Verona