by whitney on October 10, 2009
My favorite book as a child was The Secret Garden. My mother and I would read it every night and we would try out our best British accents and everything. I would completely escape into a different world of petticoats, wildflowers, ancient stone walls and ivy covered doors… I have a point, we will get there shortly.
On my last day in Terracina, Andrea brought me to a vineyard he said would be like no other vineyard I have ever seen and will ever see. We drove up into the Circeo mountains through Stone Valley to a town stopped in time some 50 years ago. Campo Soriano is only 11 km from the city center of Terracina but feels like an eternity away (they only got electricity about 20 years ago.) Here in this town is the vineyard. The Secret Vineyard. Or, rather, My Secret Vineyard. I would like to think.
Vines were growing around stones and along the curvature of the natural land. Large stones remained intact within the rows of vines. Evidence of midnight visits from roaming porcupines lay untouched. The earth was soft and bouncy almost, but rich due to the constant working of the soil to maintain even distribution of water content throughout. Looming overhead all the while is the centerpiece of the vineyard; the largest stone in the entire valley, remaining from the ice age.
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by whitney on October 9, 2009
golden globes, plump sun-kissed orbs
a sea of wild flowers
and bumbling bees
intoxicated by the sweet nectar
of moscato.
OK, OK… I got a little carried away. And I am not much of an ode writer. But seriously, the moscato vineyards of Terracina are the most beautiful I have ever seen. Albeit, I haven’t visited most of the world’s wine growing regions, but I would bet these are high on some figurative list of vineyard beauty. The soil. the vines, the grapes, the surrounding gardens and olive groves, the view….the list goes on. I was lucky to be able to spend a few days with Andrea Pandolfo of Sant’Andrea, the man who never stops working. Literally. But, he brought me along to view his 2 prized moscato vineyards. Moscato is one of the most widely planted grapes in Italy, but it is almost always made into a sweet, frizzante wine with low alcohol (a la Moscato d’Asti). But Andrea is creating a fantastic DRY, still Moscato di Terracina. Terracina is located about an hour south of Rome on the coast. It is surrounded by clusters of small towns and farmland dedicated almost solely to agriculture and, you guessed it, grapes!
The first vineyard we visited, growing only moscato, was in an area called La Fiora. Vigaro and his wife work the land and tend to the grapes every day. They also have a garden (with pomegranates, artichokes and cactus fruit/fichi d’india) and an olive grove within the vineyard. They greeted us at the property’s gate and we followed them as they wandered through the 60 year old vines selecting grapes. Not for harvest this time, but for eating at home. Oh how I desperately wish this was where I got my “table grapes” for daily snacking.
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