Ciao Tutti!
This weekend at Piazza Italian Market, we will taste a customer favorite, the Vernaccia di San Gimignano ($14.50, 13.5% ABV) from the Fontaleoni winery in Toscana and imported to the US from DeGrazia Imports, Italy’s fabled exporter of exceptional wines. Toscana’s geography, of the Apennines to the north, the Metalliferous Mountains and Mt. Amiata to the south, protects its fabled, vast and gently rolling hills to provide idyllic conditions for winemaking. In 1993, Vernaccia di San Gimignano obtained its DOCG status.
The Fontaleoni story began in 1059 when sharecropper Giovanni Troiani traded Le Marche’s austere countryside for the rolling hills of Toscana and purchased this estate in San Gimignano, the medieval town surrounded by 13th-century walls and made famous for its iconic towers and its UNESCO World Heritage Site designation.
Of the original 72 towers, only 14 remain and the tallest tower is 54 meters high. The towers were residences for the wealthy (the height of the tower signified the power of its residents) or military fortresses.
Troiani’s son and grandchildren now manage the estate with grandson Matteo, the agronomist and granddaughter Simona, who has a degree in languages. The vineyards cover thirty hectares with breathtaking views of the towers in the distance. An underground cellar was built in 2001 whose modern and sophisticated equipment is crucial for the vinification of the Vernaccia grape’s very fragile skin and delicate nature.
Made from 100% Vernaccia grapes, the wine’s notes of straw and fresh green apple keeps this customer and many others coming back for more. If you have not yet tasted this delicious white wine, come join me on Friday from noon to 5:45 or Saturday from noon to 4:45.
Cin Cin!
Jenn
Piazza Italian Market is located in the Talbot Town Shopping Center, 218 N Washington St, suite 23, in Easton, MD.
Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil and ink.
