It takes two (or more) to make a pair.
Story and Images by Robert S. Scott
A chard of aged Pecorino cheese is dabbed with a dollop of homemade apricot jam. What seems like an odd combination is perfection when tasted with a sip of Sagrantino di Montefalco wine against a backdrop of pristine vineyards, heavy with fruit awaiting the next harvest. My wife, Mary, and I have been seeking the ultimate pairing since our arrival in Umbria a few days earlier. Have we found it?
This search started with an e-mail to the Villa Pambuffetti in the Commune of Montefalco, an ancient walled town known as the “Balcony of Umbria” for its elevated placement overlooking the verdant valley stretching toward Lake Trasimeno and Tuscany to the west. That e-mail resulted in my receiving a commission to create a portfolio for the Villa Pambuffetti of artwork that would capture the Umbrian experience and illustrate the ambience of the villa, the town of Montefalco, and the surrounding countryside.
To be able to create art that would reflect that experience, I would need to know more about Umbria and the Commune of Montefalco. I began researching the history, the art, the cuisine, and regional events. To my delight, I discovered that the annual wine week, Settimana Enologica, was slated in Montefalco during our stay. Perfect! Mary and I have a passion for art, wine, and cuisine.
Research about the festival, the indigenous grapes, and local wine producers kept yielding the term “Sagrantino.” My wine cooler holds a good number of Italian varietal reds, but I was unfamiliar with the Sagrantino grape. The upcoming festival, I learned, would be dedicated to the latest release of Sagrantino-based wines. I continued to research and to uncover fascinating facts.
Sagrantino di Montefalco, a dense, dark wine of great power and structure, is revered throughout Umbria yet little known throughout most of the wine-drinking world. Italian wine professionals consider Sagrantino di Montefalco to be a wine of great stature and potential, equal to the better-known wines of neighboring Tuscany. The Sagrantino grape also is blended with Sangiovese to make Montefalco Rosso, a more immediately approachable red wine. In addition, the grapes can be dried on racks before being pressed. This process, which is similar to the production of Amarone in the Veneto region, produces a sweet dessert wine of high alcohol content named Passito.
And so it evolved that the Villa Pambuffetti commission combined with the opportunity to attend a festival devoted to an intriguing wine grape. I started thinking about the possibility of developing a theme for my artwork revolving around the pairing of wine and art — and, of course, local cuisine.
Mary and I travel to Italy and, after a few days in Naples, we drive to Montefalco. In a span of about four hours, the salty sea air turns crisp, with the clean smell of pinewoods. Villa Pambuffetti is set in the middle of a lovely park. It features a gourmet restaurant, notable cooking school, and a staff sommelier. Alfresco dining is offered on a lovely veranda; the rooms are comfortable; the baths are modern; and the water, hot. To find such an oasis of style and hospitality in the midst of the rural setting of Montefalco exceeds our expectations.
We settle in quickly and head out to walk through the walled town of Montefalco. Via Ringhiera Umbra, the narrow, main street, climbs up — past historic buildings, restaurants, shops offering salami and local ham, textile stores, enotecas selling Sagrantino wines, and coffeehouses with sweet pastries and gelato. Even narrower walkways drift off the street and disappear around a corner. Later, we would explore.
Before long, we arrive at the Piazza del Comune, the town square where festival events will be held. The piazza holds some opportunities for sketching, and I make a mental note. By now, we have worked up an appetite and decide to return to Villa Pambuffetti for dinner.
The cool, evening air is perfect for alfresco dining, and a sparkling aperitif arrives as we sit down. The sommelier tells us to call him “Mario.” He suggests, decants, and serves us a bottle of Montefalco Rosso from Rocca di Fabbri, a well-known local producer. It is our first taste of a Sagrantino-based wine from Montefalco. We are impressed.
Dinner is a delight, and, before retiring to our room, we make arrangements to join another couple for the next day’s cooking class.
It seems we have just closed our eyes, when we awake in our “Tower Room” to the early morning panorama of mist rising from the valley floor. The view is breathtaking, and I record the event with a series of photographs.
After a breakfast of sweet breads, Umbrian ham, deep-yellow yoked eggs, cappuccino, and espresso, we descend into the basement kitchen of the Villa Pambuffetti for the three-hour cooking class. The session is hard work, very educational, and rewarding, as we get to lunch on our efforts with some fine Umbrian wines.
So far, the scenery, food, and wine have measured up to our expectations. The afternoon is spent exploring Montefalco with our newfound friends from cooking class. Down one of the remembered side streets, we find a local restaurant that beckons our return for dinner. We later congratulate ourselves for the excellent choice. The first plate — primi piatti — is Risotto al Sagrantino [see recipe below]. It’s a local version of Italy’s famous rice dish that takes on a deep reddish-purple hue when infused with Sagrantino wine. Delicious. The risotto is followed by veal, pork, and lamb, and shared desserts of tiramisu and crème caramel. The evening’s wine is a Montefalco Rosso from Ruggeri.
The next morning, the light is so perfect that I grab my cameras to document the villa grounds, the surrounding landscape, and the tree-lined walk to Montefalco. Inside the walls, Piazza del Comune is quiet. A lone woman and her dog walk slowly by as I take photos of an umbrella-covered vegetable stand next to an enoteca.
Since I had the good fortune to set several meetings with Sagrantino wine, I hurry back to the villa. I don’t want to be late for the meetings, the first of which is with representatives from Cecchi. According to my research, producers of Sagrantino wines have, for many years, been small independent winemakers and cooperatives in and around Montefalco. Over the past several years, there has been a movement into the area by larger wineries and conglomerates to buy up the estates around Montefalco and to introduce new techniques to the Sagrantino production.
Much to our surprise, the winery representative is Andrea Cecchi himself, along with assistant Giulia Dirindelli. We strike up an immediate, friendly relationship and set off for lunch at one of Cecchi’s favorite restaurants in Bevagna, a town a few miles away.
Bevagna is a historic, textile-producing river town comfortably set on the valley floor. It is flat compared to the inclines of the hill town of Montefalco. The restaurant and enoteca, Bottega di Piazza Onofri, is very hip, with a decidedly contemporary feel. Cool jazz by Miles Davis is drifting through the air as platters of antipasto are served and Cecchi wines are opened.
We taste three of Cecchi’s Tuscan wines — all excellent — with the antipasto and pasta courses. Strangozzi, the local, hand-cut pasta is served with a spicy, amatriciana sauce. Cecchi explains, “We love Italian grapes and the variations in the lands they come from. Because of that, we purchased land in this area in 1998. The relationship between grape and land is vital for the production of top wines, and Sagrantino has the potential for excellence.” That relationship is a very real pairing, I think.
We finish lunch and Cecchi insists we go back to Montefalco for a vertical tasting of Uno, Cecchi’s 100 percent Sagrantino di Montefalco. Uno is dry on the palate, with a strong structural body derived from 16 months of aging in small oak barrels. We taste 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, and the newly released 2003. Cecchi notes that 2002 was “a difficult year. We did not release that vintage and only reserved a thousand bottles for our library.”
The younger wines have a strong tannin load in the mouth. As we progress to older vintages, the tannin takes on a velvety softness and hints of blackberries, plums, vanilla, leather, and coffee come to the forefront.
That night, Settimana Enologica conducts its opening gourmet dinner with guest chef Marco Bistarelli from Ristorante il Postale in Città di Castello. He has created a menu specifically to pair with Sagrantino-based wines. We have been invited to sit with Cecchi at the mayor’s table.
Dinner begins with duck breast, figs, and foie gras, followed by a ravioli of potatoes and mushrooms with a spicy sauce made from an ox-tail reduction. They are perfect with the Montefalco Rosso from Antonelli. Next comes slow-roasted pork paired with the intensity of the just-released 2003 Sagrantino di Montefalco. Dessert features roasted plums and gelato with a reduction of Passito (the indigenous sweet wine made from dried Sagrantino grapes).
The next morning, I return to Piazza del Comune to sketch the Palazzo Comunale and the Teatro S. Filippo Neri buildings. A passerby asks if my drawings are for sale. I thank him, but decline. These are visual notes for studio paintings to be made later.
Wine Week is off to a fast start. Montefalco is abuzz with Sagrantino producers, farmers, aficionados, artists, filmmakers, and a mix of curious tourists. The exhibition and tasting hall next to an ancient church on the main street of Montefalco is packed. More than 30 local producers are showing off their just-released 2003 vintage of Sagrantino di Montefalco, as well as Montefalco Rosso, Grechetto, and Passito.
The day is spent tasting from the plentiful selections until our senses are overloaded, and we walk back to the villa for a light dinner with no wine. Mauro, Alessandra Pambuffetti’s husband, comes by and insists that we meet his winemaker friend Giampaolo Tabarrini. Giampaolo arrives — young, bright, and excited about giving a new life to his grandfather’s winery. He will pick us up the next morning for a tour.
We arrive at the winery, which is built with the latest technologies. It even has a computerized weather station that can signal critical changes affecting vineyard activity and adjust sensors to keep the aging room at a specific temperature.
We taste barrel samples from several vintages ... impressive. Papa Tabarrini joins us. He bears a weathered, golden tan from spending most of his time with the grapes, and he speaks no English. We go upstairs for a vertical tasting of 1998 to 2003 Sagrantino di Montefalco.
Again, the older the wine, the softer and more complex it is on the palate. There is a consistency to the vintages, yet each is different — a reflection of Giampaolo’s ability to understand the weather and its effect on the annual yield of the vines. Papa really likes the 2000; Mary, the 1998. Me, I like them all.
Suddenly, Papa bolts from the room and returns with a special Pecorino cheese made by a local shepherd and aged in a wrapping of lard and ashes. Giampaolo opens a jar of his mother’s apricot jam. We dab it on the cheese and take a bite, followed by a sip of Sagrantino. The magic of the moment is marvelous. This could be the ultimate pairing.
In a world filled with complexity, sometimes the simple things become the benchmark against which to measure life’s experiences.
RISOTTO AL SAGRANTINO
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup minced onion or shallots
- 1 cup arborio rice
- 1-1/2 cups Sagrantino di Montefalco (or other red wine such as Cabernet)
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper
Bring stock to a simmer in a saucepan; have a large ladle on hand. Heat
oil and 1 tablespoon butter in another heavy saucepan. Add onions or
shallots and cook until soft. Add the rice and toast while stirring. Add 1/2
of the red wine and let alcohol evaporate. With ladle, add hot stock to
cover rice and stir mixture until the rice absorbs the liquid. Add more hot
stock and stir. Repeat this process until the rice has absorbed all the
stock and has become creamy. Add remaining wine and continue stirring. Take
off of heat. Add 1 tablespoon butter and the Parmesan cheese. Salt and
pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
Yield: 4 to 6 servings.
MORE INFORMATION
Settimana Enologica
The Sagrantino Wine Week is held the third week of September in the
Commune di Montefalco (PG) Umbria, Italy. For more information, visit the
following:
www.english.montefalcodoc.it/
http://english.stradadelsagrantino.it/
Villa Pambuffetti
info@villapambuffetti.it
www.villapambuffetti.com