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July 2, 2025 52 mins
Located in Umbria near Lazio, Orvieto has a history in winemaking dating to the Etruscans. In the 13th century Orvieto was a refuge for five Popes and the wines were favored among the papal court. Sales of Orvieto wines partially financed the building of the Orvieto Cathedral. Orvieto DOC, est. 1971, produces blended white wines, mainly Grechetto and Procanico (Trebbiano Toscana). Orvietano Rosso DOC, est. 1998, produces blended reds. Melanie and David recap their visit to Orvieto and wineries.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:12):
No liability, explicit or.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
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Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hello and welcome to the Connected Table Live. We're your hosts,
Melanie Young and David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple.
We love traveling the world to introduce you to the
people and places and wines and foods that we try
and explore and discover, and we are going to do
it again today, right.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yes, we are. Melanie, you can.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
First of all, you can listen to our show live
every Wednesday two pm Eastern and you can listen to
us on about sixty five podcast channels, so we hope
you do that, Share and follow us at the Connected Table. Today,
we're going to take you to Umbria, the Green heart
of Italy and specifically to an area that Dave and

(01:24):
I really had not spent much time visiting other than
maybe an afternoon tour of its world famous Romo. We're
talking about Orvieto. We had the great opportunity to spend
I think it was five days immersing ourselves in Orviedo
and its wines. Thank you to the Consortio for Orvieto

(01:45):
for helping us arrange this trip. We learned a lot
and there are a lot of takeaways, but let's start
with location.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, Orviedo is about an hour and a half north
of Rome, so it's in Umbria, which is the one
landlocked province in the butt of Italy. So in the
peninsula of Italy, there are a couple up north that
go into the Alps et cetera, but in the boot

(02:12):
of Italy, Umbria is the only one, so it's landlocked.
It is rolling hills, mountains, so it doesn't because it
touches the Apennines as well, which is the spine of
Italy as they call it. And it's just a beautiful,
beautiful area.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
It's also a very strategic area. And I'm going to
explain three big reasons. One it's Ormando is borders Blazzio,
what's in Lazio, Rome, the center of the Vatican, and
so Orvieto turned out to be a big summer refuge
for five popes in Middle Ages. This is an area

(02:47):
that dates back to the Etruscans. It also is where
they hid out.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Actually, it was actually a place of refuge during wartime, yeah,
for the popes at that time, in the twelve hundreds
and thirteen hundreds, because the obviously there were a lot
of sieges and turmoil that happened during that time as
well in the Middle Ages, and so when it hit
the fan, the popes would take off and either go
to one time they went to Avenue and they lived

(03:12):
there for a while, yeah, in France, but for a
lot of times five of them actually went to Umbria
to Orvieto. And one of the reasons that great cathedral
in Orvieto, which is so beautiful, was built, was to
help with this process.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
And a few more things. So we're talking about the
thirteenth century. So Orbedo is strategically located between Rome and Florence.
That's a major trade route and also a major route
for pilgrimages. You're talking about a CC which is also
in Umbria. So yes, the five popes Uben the fourth,
Gregory ten, Martin fourth, and Nicholas four and Bonifacci eighth

(03:49):
in case you're into that, all seeked refuge there. But
there's another strategic region Orbedo sits high atop an outcropping
of two ful rock and volcanic stone. What we learned
and it was a big surprise for us because of
the strategic location, which is great for the wines, that
this is a volcanic region although we saw an area volcano,

(04:11):
but there were volcanoes at one time and Europe's largest crater,
Lake Volsena, which is still there. That lake effect and
those volcanic residual tufa in rock is what creates some
of the most exciting tearwise in Italy to make a diverse,
you know, styles of wine. And we had the great

(04:34):
opportunity to attend the presentation at the Conservatiu offices led
by Nicola Barberani, whose family is making beautiful wines there
to I better understand the four tearwas that define or
Vienna wines And it was a blind tasting. I thought
it was really interesting of course. Yeah, so what are

(04:54):
we talking about. Well, first of all, we're talking about
a region that's still predominantly known for its white wines
or doc Orvito classico doc and Orvieta superiority, which is
specific guidelines of when that why may be released in
alcohol levels. Overall, though, what was exciting about the white
wines are that they are crisp, refreshing, predominantly made of

(05:19):
I believe sixty percent grigetto, and then the secondary grape
is Trebiana Tuscana, which they call Brikanica here and there
may be some other wines. They were wonderful, but very
different based on where they were grown, right.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Yeah, And people who think they think they remember the
name Grigetto, because Orvieto is also close to the southeastern
section of Tuscany, you may know that grape from being
grown in that region of Tuscany as.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Well, exactly, and also in Latzoo. I mean, Orvieto is
like strategically located between Lazio and Tuscany. Some of the
wineries were visited were very short drived to Tuscany.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
I know, it's interesting people of the area of Orieto
consider themselves to be part of Tuscia. Tuscia which is
a non political region comprised of parts of Umbria, Lazio
and Tuscany, because it's really a corner of Umbria, even
though Orviedo is technically in Umbria, but that whole, the

(06:19):
region that makes wine is really one of the only
cross border wine making regions in Italy.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, it's really unique and so just we like to
start with that sense of play. So picture a beautiful
medieval city sitting atop outcropping of rock, so it's very fortified,
and what's really interesting is below the city is a
network of underground caves. Orviedo is second only to Naples

(06:46):
for its size of a network of underground caves. We
did a great tour with Orviedo underground. These caves were
used in medieval times for everything including making wine tools.
We sell pigeonaires. They apparently gens were big commodities.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
And still are there. There were almost every restaurant that
we ate in andy Or there was pigeon on the menu.
So it's a it's a dish that's still prevalent and
was very much farmed. As I guess you could say,
back in the old days in these caves that are
underneath and there's twelve hundred caves underneath Orvieto. You wonder
how it can stand up. But they obviously made the

(07:22):
network of caves quite successfully because it's still going at them.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, and some of them are now converted into toolsd active,
active businesses or homes or restaurants, and they're in the caves.
It's also where people hit out during the war. They
served as bomb shelters. But it's there's a you must
go if you go do an Orviedo underground tour because
it's really quite remarkable and important because these caves, you know,

(07:48):
are caves where wine was made and we could you
could see old wine making tools at that time. You
can also walk around, which we did the entire walkway
of Orviato. It took us about two hours and they
but you can see how it's a fortified city. And
as David mentioned, the orvia To Cathedral, which is truly majestic.

(08:11):
It was we did a guide to tour and you
must because there's a very sacred relic in there that is,
you know, very important in Catholicism. But the Orvianno Cathedral
was partially funded by revenue from sales of Orvieda wines.
The papal court loved Orvianna wines. They were in favor,
much like in France and Avion with the Chateauneuf de Pop.

(08:34):
These are the Chateau neuf de pop wines of Italy,
the Orvieda wines, and they had very robust cells. And
as we said, that's what paid partially paid for the
funding of this majestic cathedral which you must tour.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
And the wine making history goes back, as Melanie mentioned,
to Etriscan times, and there's artifacts that have been discovered
all over the Mediterranean of wine having been shipped in
Emphora and clay with an Orviedo seal on it, two
different regions around the Mediterranean. So it was a very
well known wine, not just in Orviedo, but around southern

(09:09):
Europe as well.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
So you know, you're talking about a wine that was
in favor for millennium and was an important part of
trade and really had a defined moment. And then for
a while you didn't hear about Rabada wines. And we
learned that there has been an Orviedo Wine Revolution. Even

(09:30):
though it's one of the oldest wine producing regions dating
in the Tressens. The DOC, the Controlled Designation of Orviedo,
was established in nineteen seventy one. It's actually one of
the oldest docs in Umbria and since the past forty
some odd years they've been really focusing on upgrades and
modernization and trying to make terrowah driven lower alcohol, which

(09:56):
is interesting wines that are of today, that are express
of their region. And as we noted, Nicolo Barbarani gave
us a really great opportunity to try the wines as
a blind tasting, and these are the whites. We'll get
into the red Stortly it's predominantly still a white wine region.
We tasted wine for the four soils, which are alluvial

(10:18):
and clay, sandy, clay and limestone and volcanic, and we
were reminded over and over again that this entire area
was covered by the sea at some point, and when
we visited several of the wineries we saw elements of that.
We saw oyster shells that they have found in the soils,
and snail shells, I guess big giant snail shells and

(10:42):
other elements. Thank you. That was really cool to me,
very interesting, you know, because we're inland.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
See you don't think of it, and Tuscany is that
way too. If you go to the southern regions in Tuscany,
you'll find a lot there's a lot of there's a
lot of volcanic soil and a lot of it really
the same soil that you find in Umbria, but they
have a lot of that sea sediment as well, which
really helps kind of deliver minerality, shall we say to
the wines.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah, the wines have a lot of minerality depending on
where they were, you know, the soils. Some of them
had more tropical floral notes jasmine. We saw a lot
of only under being grown. I could taste that in
some of the wines. Then, you know, in like the
more volcanic area, you're going to get stonier, more austere
wines with lots of minerality. A great range. But I

(11:33):
would say, all in all, what impressed me was that
they had great aromas and flavors. They're crisp and dry,
and I love the fact that all of them are
under most are under fourteen percent alcohol. We tasted one
that was like nine and a half percent. On average
it was eleven to twelve. So these are terrific wines.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
You know that. I find that really a feet of
great wine making too, because considering the fact there's global warming.
We all know that climate change, etc. And people are
We were told countless times while we were in Umbria,
and we went to two regions in Umbria this trip
all over that people are now picking their grapes earlier
to make sure that they have lower alcohol percentages in

(12:13):
their wines, because otherwise they just get too hot and
they want to maintain that balance and drinkability. So now
they're picking earlier and earlier. So it's, you know, it's
kind of a battle between the science of wine making
and climate chain to make sure that they can still
do what they do, and they're doing a great job
of that. In Orvieto, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
We talked to one producer and so to Barbie and
he's starting harvest in July. He makes we'll get into
the wines that really terrific sparkling wines. But throughout this
particular trip, during an exceptional heat wave we experienced, the
temperatures were reaching one hundred degrees. Our question was, how

(12:56):
is that affecting your harvest and also your fear of gossip,
vacation and everybody's moving up harvests. And I also noticed
that many producers are on vacation in July now so
that they can come back and deal with the earlier harvests.
It's a common issue in many places. We want to
touch on two other categories of the wines that are important.

(13:17):
As we said, white wines are predominant with sixty percent,
and it's a blend of sixty percent griketto and about
forty percent and excuse me, sixty percent grit ketto and
Trebiana Tuscana and forty percent can be other grapes. There
is also this is unique something called Muffa nobili which

(13:39):
means noble rot and Orvieto doc is the only region
in Italy that produces these noble rot wines, much like
Souturn due to the wonderful lake effect in the river,
because you've got the Tiber River going through and the lake.
These are wines, as we said, that are made from
botritis grapes. They have a minimum alcohol level sixteen. They're

(14:02):
sweet wines and quite wonderful made and limited quantity very
tasted like them.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
And I'm going to add to that it's consistently make
because there are other regions that can get patritis in
their grapes, but it's not a consistency.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
And I is it and is it a this is
part of the doc. Well it's MUFA means right right.
I had to look it up. But beautiful wines and
that was kind of an aha discovery as well. There
are red wines made the Orvietano Rousso DOOC is a
newer doc established in nineteen ninety eight. Like Orviedo whites,

(14:40):
these are blended wines, something that you also pointed out
during our trip, David, as you talked about how what
sets these wines apart is that they're blended.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
I couldn't agree more. And I did say that. I
said that actually to the producers who were you know,
some of the producers were queerying us. You know, we're
kind of we're not new to the game, but we're
kind of new to get into the modern game and
export our wines, and so they were asking us questions
like what normally happens? Shall we say? You know, what
do you what do you think would be a key

(15:08):
selling point, and I said, the fact that you're making blends. Yeah,
when you go to Italy, all you hear about is
try my Pino Griggio, Try my Vermentino, try my Sanjiavesi.
But you're actually producing wine that are blends by trade
and by definition, or Viedo wines are a blend. You
can only put sixty percent maximum of a certain grape,
which is grit ketto into those wines, so you have

(15:31):
to blend other grapes into it. So you're creating blends
from the start, which is really the art of wine making,
right Melanie. Yeah, And so these that's the defining thing
for me. The orvita wines are not only are they
really good in my opinion, but they're creating a style
of wine by creating these blends. And the blends are
all they're utilizing different grapes to do it, but they're

(15:53):
doing a really good job of it, and that's and
that's a key feature for them.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
It is a key feature. I mean, the only other
region we've been to where it's predominant blended was in
the Lucasi area. Those are field blends, but these are
the orbit that O doc has very strict Dishabelani guide
blends about the blends where the Luca case wines and
Pisani wines were kind of like whatever.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
They were, like the California yeah whatever you want concept
he created.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
These are very strict guidelines for quality control. Not that
the Lucas was a great quality, but this it's just
you must follow the rules. So Orbitano Rosso docs are
also blended reds, much smaller sub zone mainly Uh. It's
like almost ten different ronalds, so I will get into them.

(16:40):
But the main wins are Aliotico, Cabani Front, Caberni, Sauvignon,
La Roslo, mari Low of course, Sancho Yeah, Sangiovesi, Monte Pulciano, uh,
and Pino Noir. Those are the main ones. And it's
like a seventy thirty, so seventy can be the dominant
reds and thirty percent of others. I think the wines

(17:01):
we tasted of the few or send you a Vese
a dominant or Montepulciano dominant, although we did taste a
fantastic mar Low, which we'll get into right. So just
a little quick note. The Orviodo DOC was established in
nineteen seventy one. As I said, it was one of

(17:22):
the oldest docs in Umbria. So they are trying really
hard to highlight the quality of DOC wines. And there's
a Classico, so there's Orviodo DOC. There's Orviedo Classico d C,
which is a specific sub zone. There's Orviedo Superior DOC.

(17:44):
The wines have to be released after March one and
they have a slightly elevated alcohol. And then there's Orvietano WILSODOC.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
Which is the red designation for the red one.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
We got this great map. I wish I could have
everybody see it with the explains the wonderful different regions
by the soils, and it was really educational. I was
grateful for that because I like maps and I like
blind tastings that really test your palate. However, we also
got to meet with producers as well, and we visited
what five producers, We visited a.

Speaker 3 (18:15):
Bunch of producers. We also had dinner with a couple others,
and really it was a It was a lovely five
day trip for us. And so let's get into talking
about some of the producers. Show want to start with
I think we should start with the first one that
we went to, which was Our Glay. Yeah, and A
R G I L l A E. R Gla is
the name of the winery. It's started in the early

(18:38):
two thousands.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
It is owned by the da Cosimo family and Julia
di Cosimo is the really the proprietor. She's the only
one in the family that actually is part of the
winery and makes decisions and works at the winery day
to day. The rest of the family, most of them
live in Tuscany and have a spirits company, and they
make spirits and things like as well, so they use

(19:01):
great products to make other things other than wine. So
it was kind of a natural fit to eventually start
Our Glay themselves and Julia takeover and create the wines.
They're fabulous wines. I met Julia first in New York
City and a wine tasting lunch that I did for
Orvianto Wines and Umbrian wines in general in October twenty

(19:25):
twenty three, and we kept in touch. So we went
there first and it was a wonderful, wonderful tasting. They
make some great wines. They make a lot of whites,
and they make a couple of rets.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
So let's point out two wines that Inach will do.
And there's two. One we had which they're very proud of,
the Signorello Bianco Superiori. It's named after a very famous artist,
Luca Sigiorrelli, who is a Renaissance painter and you can
see some of his work in the Orviedo Cathedral. Very

(19:59):
famous and he's considered the father of Colorismo. This is
a classic griketto. It's actually a griketto Verdello Savigan blanc
sur name blend, so kind of interesting and different, very aromatic,
and there's also a little bit of malvasia in it,
which gives it that little sweet kick in that and that.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
No go ahead and I can't remember that. I can't remember.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
So it's called Sigorello Bianco Superiority. And we tasted the
twenty twenty fours. The other one that I think is
important to note when we did the tour is that
they are now experimenting with amphora and if they are
first one is called Primo done foras A twenty twenty
two and they're making it in terra cotta and Fora.
She started the project, Julia, and is experimenting with it,

(20:51):
and it's a blend of griketto and Caniola bianco, which
is there's another name for it, don't ask me, and
malvasia it is. I noted a lot of sipidity and
elderflower and musk melon in a very interesting because I
think it was the only Amphora wine we taste it
in this trip. And these wines are available in the

(21:12):
United States.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
They are the uh it's drew Peggio is the name
for Conneolo bianco. That's the local name for it.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
Okay, I'm glad you like arpeggio, but started buse I
wasn't sure if my notes were accurate.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
That is drew peggie peggio, which is cool. Call is
a red grape that's grown pretty widely in that area
and also in Tuscany as well. And but Canelo bianco
obviously is a is an offshoot of that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
What I love when we travel is we get the
it's known as this here, but over here we call
it a triviana tuscano, but it's burkanda go over here.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
You know, they made they our gila. Julia and her
team make a number of different grietto based or Vieto. Yeahs,
and they're really they're really all lovely. Some are a
little bit some are a little bit more spend light,
kind of everyday drinkers, and then others are obviously a
little bit more have a little bit more weight to
them because they either spend time in oak or they

(22:09):
spend time in atpora, spend time on the skin, spend
time on the leaves, et cetera. The Primo Denfora was
very nice. One of the ones that I liked the
most was the Panata Orvieto doc superiore, which was the
vintage we tasted was twenty twenty two, and this is
a seventy percent cricketo blend and about fifteen percent of
that is fermented in Oak as well, so they kind

(22:32):
of play around a little bit with the wine making
on that one, and it's really just a delightful one.
We actually had it out at dinner in a couple
of restaurants too, because we enjoyed it so much and
just couldn't get enough of it, to be honest, we
really loved it.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
Now they make a red argilla. It's called Sinuoso twenty
twenty three. It's an igt rosso it's not made in
the Orvi a ton of doc. It's a blend of Merlow,
Cabernet and montepulciano percent each sinuous. Sinuoso means smoth and
smooth and sinuous, which this one was. I thought it
was a really musky little musk and cherry currants and violet.

(23:05):
It was very nice, and that monte adds to me
a musky nose and flavor to everything.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
Yeah, Montepoliano is you know, you don't get montepulciano much
east of where we were or west of where we were,
because it's mostly grown in a brutu in the Marque,
but you get a lot. You get some of it
in Umbria as well.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Isn't bordered by a brussto.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
Yeah, yeah, so you get you get it further east,
but not further west. And it's an interesting grape to me.
I think it has a little bit of a rusticity
to it as very which I don't mind.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
I don't mind it it to me it's musky.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Depends on what you're doing, but yeah, this was a
very nice one. Yeah. Yeah, Sino. So they also make
a rose. They don't make the rose from local fruit
though they actually make that rose, their rose in the Maremma,
and it's because Julia really wanted to make a rose
and she felt that she didn't quite have the tools
to do that with the grapes that she had growing

(24:03):
in Orvieto, so she decided to kind of outsource the
vineyard for it. They rent the vineyard in the Marima
and they make the wine over there and then they
bring it back and sell it. It's called rose. It's
a nice one rose to. It's a very nice wine.
I enjoyed a lot.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Yeah, it too. It's a grenache to Rob Lendz, So
you're going to get that.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
Yeah, it's a it's a it's kind of a provo
salt style rose, so porch powder. Great stuff, but you
know sometimes you just want that.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Anyway, great terrific wine.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
So let's move on to the next one. The next
winery that we visited was Dick Andano de Barbie and
Enzo Barbie was our was our host and the owner
of the winery and his family actually is from Uh
has been producing wine in Orvieto since the nineteen seventies
and their first vintage after they planted wines was in
nineteen seventy eight, beautiful piece of property, kind of along

(24:57):
a ridge with vines down both sides, and they also
have some beautiful underground caves there as well, really nice wines.
And the family actually came from Brescia, which is in
northern Italy.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
He's related to the Chinilli Colombini family.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
Yeah, and so we had a delightful afternoon on his
terrace and porch by the pool overlooking the valley and
the lake and tasted through some of his wines, and
I just loved all of them. They're very big on
sparkling wine.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Looking for them on our matched to point of people
by camp.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
They're very big on sparkling wine. And he was the
one that told us he was picking his fruit in July.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
He is now that because we're going to have him
on the show, but we're trying to work around harvest.
They're actually, now let's.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
Clarified, it's not all their fruit, just starting to pick
their fruit in July start so they can get the
right a city to make sure that they've got make
sure that they too much sugar in the fruit.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
But here's the fact. They were the first producer or
Vienno doc to make sparkling wine. They make twelve thousand
bottles of Mendado Classico. So this is a an important
sparkling wine producer in Orvieto. And yeah, and the cause
of that, they've got to working on the gently navigating
the harvest in the weather to make that happen. And

(26:13):
you're right, sweeping views a lot everyone or you went
you had sweeping views.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
That's true.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
It looks pretty amazing. I mean, you're telling me a
great area. Let's talk about some of the wines here.
I'll star. I love the pa dosage Meatoto Classico twenty
twenty zero zero yeah zero, that's the name of it,
z e r o zero oh zero. Yeah, so its
zero dosage.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
So it's great. Yeah, it's a brute net tour. Yeah,
very nice.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
One shardon ap no more fifty to fifty well aged.
I just thought it was terrific. And of course twelve
point five abb we were told by oh the villa
front a court of people that more people want zero
dosage sparkling wines, and so echoed that. Yes, he said,
that's definitely the truth.

Speaker 3 (26:59):
And you know, for this wine, it's not a it's
not a it's not a light no sugar style wine.
They age it forty five months on the LEAs. It's
forty percent shorten, sixty percent pino and no war and
nicely for us. And I know you love this twelve
point five percent home. Yeah, I love not high.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Abv very nice wines and versatile with a range of foods.
I just think those zero dosage wines go with so
many things.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
And it's grown in a kind of a sandy clay
mix and it's got a tremendous beautiful minerality and salinity
to it. I just love this one.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
What else did we try to be liked?

Speaker 3 (27:36):
There?

Speaker 2 (27:36):
There was some beautiful wines. And by the way, they
have a villa you can rent I always ask about that.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
Well, I think we we'd be remissive. We didn't talk
about their two Orvieto absolute wines. They have a Classico
and they have a Classico Superior, and they're quite different
from each other. The first is the Orvieto Classico DC,
which is called Fermento fr A, M, M, E and
T O and it's it's a lovely wine made from

(28:02):
grichetto Vermontino, sauvignon blanc and Pracanico West Percandicgo.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
Treviiana, Tuscana, and they were changing that everywhere we went.
They would wed like, just call it Pecanico. It'd be different.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
Well, I think they should because there's because there's definitely
a bunch of tes. There's definitely a bunch of Trevianos
out there.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yeah, so why I'd say Perkanico. I thought that was
interesting because I had the Vermonino. I love Vermonino and
savion blanc, so it really added a lot of white pepper.
This is where the oleander was all over the place
that the said in there lemon grass and thyme beautiful.
It's in stainless and I like that wine a lot.
And then then there was the mari Antico Classico Superiority,

(28:48):
which is fifty five percent crocketto twenty percent Vermontino, twenty
percent chartenay, five percent percanago and that was ninety five
percent stainless and then five percent oak on LEAs. So
that was a completely different style wine. What were your
impression it was?

Speaker 3 (29:03):
I thought it was it was definitely an elevated elevated
viscosity to it and richness to it. I thought it
was a really great gastronomic wine. You know, whereas the
Fermento would be a great everyday lunch style wine. This
you could sit down and have a roast chicken with
if you wanted to.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah, really really nice. And as you mentioned, so the
winery is on the northeast edge of Urbia. I was looking.
It's hard to see on this map, uh, And he
said to us, well, I don't know. You know, he
was a really nice guy. I he said that they're
a leader in the sparkling wines, and many people when

(29:43):
I told them we were going to Erva there they said,
make sure go you go to Donana to Barbie for
that reason.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
So it was a great They're very well known for them,
and it's interesting there there there. He was actually disgorging
some sparkling wine when we showed up, and and it
was they do it down in the cave. And there's
a cave that's probably two hundred three hundred meters deep
into the side of the hill that you walk into
and then it just goes straight back into the hill

(30:11):
and it's lined with riddling racks filled with bottles of champagne.
That's that's aging on the leaves, and it's just.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
These caves are so unique to this area. It's it's incredible.
And yeah, in the distance you see the Apennines. I
mean it's it's really quite remarkable.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
Right. So they do a couple of reds too, which
I was which I was pretty happy about. The Tito
B A T T I T O is an Umbria
rosso I G T. It's a Cabernet based or sorry,
a Sanjaves based wine that's blended with Cabernet sauvignond that
is and mer Low. And this is this was the

(30:48):
lighter of the two. It had nicest, it had a
good acidity to us, nice violent light. Yeah, more of
an everyday kind of one. And then they had the
A D twelve twelve, which was an Umbria rosso as well.
I GT I GT. They both are, but this was
seventy percent.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
That was a surprise, a surprise for me.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
And then the balance was Cavern Merlow, very interesting one
for me.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yeah, much more rich and medium tannins and you get
the spice of BlackBerry and dark cherry. And we love Sarrah.
You know, I'd like to see more people drinking Sirah,
I really would. Uh. Next winery Barbarani, we referenced Nicol
Barbarani earlier in this show, the family owned state in
the Classical region, overlooking Lake Kubara. Again out there astoundingly beautiful,

(31:42):
and you see this lake which is man Maate and
like Bolsana, which is shaped by a volcanic crater. It
was established in nineteen sixty one by Giuseppe Barbarani. They
have an oteca literally right across from the urba to cathedral.
We met him there. These are so also has said
inmentary rock, limestone and fossil particles. We saw a lot

(32:03):
of the particles there. Let's talk about those wines. There
are a few that we adored. I'll start Luigi and Giovanna.
Which is their orvieto classico superior. David, you've got your
notes up, miners, I'm still pulling.

Speaker 3 (32:18):
Go Yeah. Well, they do a couple of orvieto classicos.
One is classico normale as I like to call it.
The other's classico superior. The Castagnolo was the orvieto classico.
And we like this because it's only eleven point five
percent of the fall, so it's low alcohol, which is,
as we said, something they're striving to work to do

(32:39):
in this region to keep their wines from getting too
hot as as things change. This was a sixty percent gricketo,
forty percent trebiano blend and just delightful floral jasmine notes,
apple and peach. Really just a nice, light, crisp, everyday
white wine that I'd be happy to have in my fridge.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
Yeah. And the next one was the Luigi i Giovanna,
which is an ode to the family, to the parent,
and it's a orvieto classico superiore. Again, this is eighty
percent ketto and twenty percent trebiano, but this one is
an oak on the leaves for eighteen months, so it's

(33:22):
a much richer, more viscous, lovely wine. And what's nice
about it. We talked about patritis earlier the move and Nobule.
This has grapes that are affected by betritis.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Partially in it.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yeah, so you get that little bit of you get
that richness from the patritis portions which blends into the wine.
Beautiful wine again, twelve percent alcohol, so light by today's standards,
great mineral driven herby lots of salinity, beautiful, beautiful complexity.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
Love this wine.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
I just love this one. We had a couple of
bottles of that out our road as well.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yeah, when we were dining out, just bad wine.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
Yeah, just a lovely one. And then there were a
couple others that they made. One Vinoso, which is an
Umbria igt, which was one hundred percent cricketto They couldn't
call it Orvieto classico or Orvieto superior or duck wine
because it is one hundred percent of one particular grape,
so it's it's not a blend. And this was really interesting.
It's an orange wine, so it spent three years on

(34:26):
the skins, doing skin contacts and was really interesting to me.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, I like that one.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
I liked all the wines, very complex. And then they
made a couple of reds as well, Forresco, which was
a eighty percent sanga Asi and then ten percent each
of Cabernet, Samno and Merlou you know.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
And we're talking about blended wines.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
So this was this was the kind of everyday red,
nice and light, good accidity to a good freshness to it.
Another one that they made was called Pole then, which
was again not a blend. One Sangavesi Grosso grapes. Now
Sanja Vesi Grosso is the clone of Sangavesi that they
make it, that they grow in Mantolchino, which is what

(35:12):
brunello is made from. So this is a big, powerful
style of Sanjavesi wine. Lots of ripe, cherry notes and
a beautiful wine. I think it's their flagship red, don't
you it is.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
It gets a lot of high marks by the the
Hoye peloi hoo.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
So these vines were planted thirty five years ago, so
it's got good. The vines have good age to it,
and it spends eighteen months in large oak casts. Just
a lovely one, really a beautiful one. And then the
Calchaya Mufa Noble was there but triedis affected late harvest wine,
which is fifty percent getto and fifty beautiful wine. Again,

(35:52):
just a beautiful one.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
Yeah, it sells out. I mean it was sold down
at the end of Techa because we're looking for it.
But if you can get your hands on Chaya or Viena,
you see the Glasico Superior Mufa Nobly, get some really
beautiful wines.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yeah. So that winery again is Barbarani. I don't have
in my notes who their importer is though in the
United States. But now we're going to move on to
a very well known name in the Italian wine world,
Familia Culturella, Yes, of that Culturella Fame Accardo Coltolla, and

(36:28):
they're in Montechio and it's woman run the daughter runs
at Dominica I think is her name.

Speaker 3 (36:35):
We actually on our show a number of years ago.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, yeah, for the introduction of their just amazing Montiani Verilua,
which we tasted it gorgeous, but we tasted through several wines. Okay,
let's just talk about we've been talking about wineries that
are in areas surrounded by cliffs and caves and views.
This is a big winery. This is like going to

(36:58):
an embassy. I mean, this is like there's flags everywhere
in a giant parking lot. But it's not. It's it's
a big place. It's there. It's their flagship winery. We
learn and and there's just a lot of beautiful artwork
and tasting rooms and you just know you're just in
Castello Coderella in a winery.

Speaker 3 (37:21):
Right yea. And the wines, of course, we're top notch.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
And one point five million follows, so we're talking about
a lot of wine produced. So interestingly, they don't produce
an orviedo doc. So this is kind of like the
ringer in the group. But I'm glad we went because
it's such a well known, thankfully woman run winery. It
kind of everyone say, go, so what The first one

(37:47):
we take was a Verdelucci, which is a vermentino one
hundred percent, so not blended, and it was ten point
five percent.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
Well, this was an experimental, experimental wine, and it's something
that they had decided they wanted to try to make
something that was a wine that had low ABV that
could stand up to other wines that maybe have one
or two percent more out its.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
Like Vermentina light. Yeah, it was good, though it's good
for Vermantina light. The other one.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Reminded me of like having a nice vino verde or
something like, yeah, about ten percent alcohol.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
That's about right. Five percent easy to cough, but kind
of interesting. And the Vertoluce twenty twenty four. Also, these
are all igt because they're not doc only thirteen five percent,
sixty percent pino bianco and I love this thirty percent
semon and ten percent grikatto, So you've got that aromatic
with a touch of creamy waxiness, floral bright, really interesting wine.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
I thought, yeah, very nice.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Hm.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
And thirteen percent alcohol is obviously a lot more than
the other.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
Virlin it's still average for that, yeah, average, not ten percent,
but it was beautiful one.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
Yeah, and then they do a couple other biancos. They
do a Lazio bianco which we tried, which was which
was interesting because, as we mentioned earlier in the show,
Orvieto borders on the province of Lazzio and and the
Orvieto doc straddles the border and goes into both sides

(39:22):
of Lazio and Umbria, so it's obviously easy for them
to make Lazio ones as well. A couple of the
winers over there that do that as well.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
Yeah, I have. It's onto, yeah, r O s c E,
which is which relate to greco to tufo.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
But I've never heard that. I've never heard of the
grape before, I know.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
So, you know, like Italy has like hundreds of great
my notes, twelve point five percent abv mango vichy, salty,
you know, kind of salty in the back palette, slightly
creamy because it goes undergoes mellow and barrel aged it's
as an aritomatic waver and if I liked it, I

(40:02):
liked it.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
And then they also make a couple of reds, and
of course they made that beautiful Montiano red which is there,
which is their top of the line red wine. It's
one hundred percent more low. We'll get to that in
the minute, but first let's talk about the Trentani, Yeah,
which is a fifty SANGIVESI fifty low blend. It is

(40:25):
has minimal oaks, so it's much it's on the fruitier,
more fruit driven side, shall we say, uh, and not
a lot of oak. So a nice everyday red, a
good coffing wine, as I like to say, yeah, and
just a delightful wine. And there's also the Marciliano, which
was a Cabernet sauvignon caberne franc blend. Yes, lovely as well. Again,

(40:52):
the cabanate frock kind of adds a softness to it,
and he softens out the Caberne sauvignon, which can tend
to be a little bit on the hannox side, So
this kind of brings brings that level down a little bit, right,
and just a nice approachable wine, nice chocolate notes in
that the covered cherries just delicious. Yeah. And then of
course there's the Mantiano, which is which we know in

(41:14):
love and it's one hundred percent low is their flagship wine.
It's just a beautiful, beautiful wine and they take they
really spare no expense in making this wine.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
It's a beautiful wine. I have strawberry, raspberry, currants and
smooth and silky, just like you're perfect Marlow right.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
Aged and it's aged in French oak berrique, which is
the two hundred and twenty five liter barrel, the barrel
that you that most people recognize when they walk into
the winery.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
And seventy five percent of that is new. So there's
a lot of a lot of expense that goes into
making this wine as well. Yeah, to keep turning over
those barrels absolutely to create this wine. And it's just
a lovely wine.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
Really, it was a very real world class one.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yeah, really wonderful. And then one last winery visit and
I'm watching her time vitalonga which means long life, and
we did a lot of vitalonga to a long life
toast with this family. It is in it's a producer
of rosso or Viatano Doc. Again, David, I thought we

(42:15):
were driving forever to get to this winery. We just
drove and drove and drove down like dirt roads. Turns
out there's a restaurant there and an agro Theisma, which
you kind of want to do because you're going to
like PLoP after you eat and drink. But it's only
ten kilometers from the Tuscan border. It's a Merab Marro Merab.
I can't pronounce it merab Boghlia family. We met with

(42:36):
father and son. It's thirty hectors, but they're pronouncing right
Mara Merab. I'm having trouble with that one today. The father,
grandfather Luigi, worked in Florence, had property, started to make
wine for friends, much like many of these great family stories.
He was making wine for friends. It was just like
come by, fill up your demi John and decided he

(42:58):
really want to focus on red wines and started planning
reds in nineteen ninety nine. The winery open in two
thousand and five. It's the second winery to open an
Orbitano Rosso Doc. They have an old well vineyard that
still has the old married vines which we saw those
in Umbria. We saw those a Montefalco as well. What

(43:20):
was interesting is here's where we saw all that unusual
collection of.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
Shells, yes, in a display case.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
Yeah, it was quite remarkable. In the distance you see
the Antenori estate that we didn't visit the castello, but
no to do that because it's quite grand, quite beautiful,
quite ground, yes, Caul.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
And we also tasted the Antinori wines as well.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
Yeah, castello, it makes a beautiful one beautiful ones. Pietro
is the winemaker and it's run by the fourth generation.
We tasted some terrifical wines there, David, Why don't you.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
Well, they focus on they focus on on red grapes mostly,
but they do make a couple of whites and they
grow pinogriggio and they grow shardenay. And we tasted a
lovely chordenay that they made that spent three months in oak. Yes,
it didn't have a name, so it's just shortening to
longa and it was just really quite nice, Crisp. It

(44:16):
said three months in oak. So it wasn't fairly fermented. Yeah,
it wasn't barrel fermented. It wasn't you know, didn't go
through email, so it was a lighter crisper style. I
really enjoyed it completely. Then they make a rose out
of cabernet and mer low, which was also nice, again
because it's a rose and it's red grape.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
They picked this early and twelve point five percent maybe
picked in.

Speaker 3 (44:39):
Mid August to make the rose, whereas they hang the
fruit on the vine much longer for the It's a.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
Light garnet color, lots of orange and strawberry. I thought
it was gastronomic. And what did they serve with It's
just about dye. They served it with truffle parmegan flaw
and the shaved truffles. Okay, this winery, in addition to
having vineyards and olivels, is surrounded by for us and
inside the dirt and the ground are truffles. This, by

(45:04):
the way, another selling point of why you want to
go to Orvieno. It is truffle country. I think we
had truffles on everything it and.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
They and there's no shortage. I'll be honest with you.
We had there was truffles at every meal that we
had if we wanted it, and we did well.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
I just loved it. That was a good dish.

Speaker 3 (45:21):
Summer truffles fresh. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
Yeah, so theough Bit along with Rosso twenty two doc
Roso Orritano is sixty percent Sangiovese Cabernet sauvignon, aged one
year in French Barique, right, and it has the label
had the Orbedo cathedral on it. Yes, from a local artist.

(45:44):
That was kind of nice and they served it.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
Actually they have they have a label series which is
all which is all famous art. So yeah, you can
find Bartacelli's Venus on one label which is in the
Afiti Gallery in Florence, and then you can also find
other obviously well known artists on some of the labels
that they do. It's a neat project. It's not all
at the same time. They do one per year for

(46:08):
this particular wine. But yeah, it was a nice project
to see and the wine was good. What I liked
about this what I liked about the Vita Longo winery
is when we went down into the cellar they were
there were Persian rugs and Asian and Oriental rugs all
over the floor and he was like, well, we just
sold all the old barrels, so now we're waiting for
the new ones to come in. And we had to

(46:29):
decorate somehow they do events.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
Yeah, they serve that wine with well, for me at
tag the Itally with did roast pork and roast cherry
sauce for you and for me a wonderful tag the
Itally with cherry tomatoes cooked and chili and garlic and parmesan,
and it was so delicious food. They're terrific. I'd go
back and just try that restaurant.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
Yeah, and there's as it's built into the winery, and
they also have, as you said, they have an agriturisma
that you can stay at. It's got six rooms and
they book it by the week during the seas, but
you can also then book it by the night in
the office.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
And then the last wine the cool pH I see
U l e twenty twenty two. It's the name of
the village where they are is actually f I see
U l l e. Yeah, and it's seventy Cabernet Sauvignon
thirty sandia VESI.

Speaker 3 (47:21):
Nope, Yeah, that's right, and it spent fifteen months in
oak right again all French choke. And interestingly, if you're
interested in the oak types that they use are Elier,
Nevere and Trancais, which are the forest, the forests that
the oak barrels come from, or that the wood for
the oak barrels.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
I like this swine a lot I had cow, dark
blueberries and walnuts. It's just really yummy. I just loved it.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
Did we talk about the tarat de confini No, no,
So that's the one that was interesting to me. I
mean they all were, but what was interesting was that
this wine that ta di confine rosso I g t
and taro de confine means borderland in Italian, which I
kind of liked. I kind of want to use borderland somehow.
But this one was eighty percent Montiplciano. Yeah, and again

(48:08):
we were talking about the fact that this doesn't really
come west from a Bruto too often, but when it does,
it doesn't get much farther than Orvieto and into Umbryo.
So montepulciano. And then twenty percent or low Yeah, lovely one.
And so this said this had that it was very
interesting of how they make it because they dry them

(48:30):
are low fruit, kind of like they would be making
a pasito wine or making a repasso style wine or
a wine from up in Valpoloicella. They dry that, they
dry them are low portion, not the montepulciano portion. So
they make this and they bring it down to seventy

(48:51):
percent juice, so they dry it. They dry it about
thirty percent of the moisture out of the fruit before
they then press it off. And it was a very
interesting wine for me.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
Yeah, I mean the labor involved in that. You just
think about that. Now. We don't have a lot of
time to talk about the dinner. We had a lovely
dinner with I think five other producers because there's just
only so much time, and we'll go back and visit
them all, of course. But we dined at several restaurants

(49:22):
in Orviedo and the one I'm looking at my notes,
I'm scrolling, guys, but this is the way I have
to do it, Capitano del Popolo, woman chef Valentino santan Nikio.
We met with about four or five producers there, including
Antenori's wines, which are terrific and I'm just reaching my notes.

(49:43):
Their son, Giovanna della Stala doc was beautiful. We tasted
from Battisti dol Moranti and Orvioo Classico Superiori. This was
so sweet. They all brought little tasting notes for us
to new Valette, the or that'so Classico DC Superior, and

(50:04):
this one is Cardetto or Vieto Classico. We had these
paired with a meal. They were all terrific. We had
a nice discussion with the producers about what orviote is today,
what modern style or via is, and what they want
to be perceived as. It was a very interesting give
and take given that we're all dealing the entire industry
is dealing with, you know, decreased decreased assumption, consumption. But

(50:28):
what's the selling point for these orvienta wines is that
white wines are on a rise. People are reaching for crisp,
dry white wines. They're lower in alcohol, they're food friendly.

Speaker 3 (50:40):
And.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
They just need to be tried and tasted to get
out there.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
They're really lovely ones and they're unique in my opinion
because they are blood. Yeah, and blending is their blending
is their life blood.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
And blending is you know that takes a lot of skill.
I mean you can think about that. That really takes
a lot of skill. So I hopefully you like this overview.
It's easy to get to orviodo, go to Rome, take
a train and.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
Take a train up to Orviado. It'll take about an hour.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
Right, It's very easy, so easy to get to. Some
people just go for the day, which we had in
the past, but we would go and stay longer. There's
a lot of restaurants, a lot of artists and shops,
very known for ceramics in Orviedo. And in addition to
the Orviedo Underground, you've got that beautiful Duomo and then
you have this very famous well which we went all

(51:30):
the way down two hundred and twenty four steps. That
was doug for a pope because they wanted to make
sure they had water. And you can do that tour
as well. So anyway, we hope that this was interesting.
We'll be writing it up on Theconnected table dot com
you can learn more and we'll be talking to some
of the producers in the upcoming months.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
That's the show, so.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
We want to thank you for joining us. We want
to thank the Console Show for Orviedo for working with
us to create a beautiful itinerary. Thank all the producers
and check out all our show on your favorite podcast channel,
the Connected Table TV talk for Media TV and please
follow us and comment on Instagram at the Connected Table,
we want you to explore and always stay insatiably curious.

(52:14):
Thank you,
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