As you all know, I was in Italy this past fall. Traveling, drinking wine, traveling, drinking more wine. Eating. The usual. A few weeks during my epic journey I was lucky enough to be joined by one of my best friends, Christina. We are two drama school pals that have both ended up in this crazy world of wine. She is (too) far away in London so whenever I travel to Europe, we always try to meet up. And wine drinking is always involved, of course. Add to that a Flip video camera- and I think you can see where this is going. I made this little “outtakes” video back in September and think it’s about time it made its BHMF debut. We had originally hoped to make a kind of homage to 3 Sheets… the female Zane Lampreys! When watching the footage all the “unplanned” and blooper clips were WAY more interesting than anything else we recorded. Lesson learned: nobody wants to hear you talk about wine. Seeing you get drunk- that’s the ticket.
Our last stop of the day was Benito Ferrara at the tip top of Tufo, just north of Avellino. We were greeted by Gabriella Ferrara, her husband Sergio, their daughter Lucia and a friend (who spoke english and could translate the tricky parts). Their home sits atop the cellar and tanks and the vineyard starts just to the right of the house down the road. To say this is a drastic difference from the Mastroberardino experience is an understatement.
Gabriella shows us some of the Greco di Tufo grapes.
The burning of the olive tree brush. This is a sight and smell I have come to love and see often.
The family took us into the cellar for the tasting. We tried their current Greco di Tufo and their Cru Greco. Sergio was trying to explain the soil under the land in Tufo and gave up only to step out and return with a hunk of sulfur. We then understood that this is what imparts that minerality and uniqueness, if you will, to the grapes.
They were also so kind to have prepared a huge spread of formaggi (cheese) and salumi (cured meats) to nibble on. This is the generosity and kindness you find all over Italy in the small hidden towns of vineyards and olive groves. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; you can taste the love in these wines and the happiness.
Lucia and Gabriella with Christina
We couldn’t stay too long as evening was fast approaching and I was more than anxious to hit the road before the darkness further impaired our ability to get home. But, we ended up making it back safe and sound with the sunset to our left as we cruised along the Amalfi coast with full bellies and a warm heart.
