Huon Hooke with Piero and Francesca Tartagni. Anne Healey
Everyone knows of Tignanello, Sassicaia, Chianti Classico and Brunello di Montalcino, however what in regards to the less-famous appellations of Tuscany?
Piero Tartagni put in additional than 30 years because the winemaker and supervisor of the vineyard Fattoria Colle Verde close to Lucca in Tuscany earlier than he retired two years in the past.
The vineyard was purchased by a German household and Piero consulted to them for a number of years. He and his spouse Francesca nonetheless reside a couple of minutes’ drive from the vineyard, each addresses situated up slender, winding hillside roads that terrify visiting Australians.
Piero is a type of nice ‘personages’ solely discovered within the wine enterprise: a personality and an eccentric.
I don’t assume the Colle Verde wines have ever been out there in Australia—which is a pity– even supposing retired wine choose, winery proprietor and common distinguished wine man Dr Ray Healey befriended the Tartagnis a number of a long time in the past, and even helped Piero with recommendation.
Piero is a type of nice ‘personages’ solely discovered within the wine enterprise: a personality and a person, with a shock of white tousled hair that’s by no means brushed and rarely lower; a cigarette usually between his lips, a tall rangy man whose obvious bodily health—it’s tempting to invest—owes itself to the fixed strolling up and down steep hills checking grapes in vineyards.
The appellation (IGT) at Colle Verde is Costa Toscana, the principle grape varieties are sangiovese for reds and trebbiano for whites. Supplementary varieties are canaiolo nero and ciliegiolo in pink; grechetto, malvasia and chardonnay in whites. There’s additionally cabernet franc: the flagship wine of Colle Verde is a pure cabernet franc titled Sinopia. That is 60 Euros however the common Colle Verde wines, the Terre di Matraja IGT Rosso and Bianco, are 15 and 14 Euros respectively.
Piero is a person at peace together with his world however one senses a slight irritation that Costa Toscana wines usually are not well-known like a few of their Tuscan cousins, wines resembling Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino and the so-called ‘tremendous Tuscans’. Maybe the area has by no means had a high-profile winemaker like an Angelo Gaja, Piero Antinori or Incisa della Rochetta to wave the flag for them.
Piero is a person at peace together with his world however one senses a slight irritation that Costa Toscana wines usually are not well-known like a few of their Tuscan cousins.
Piero appears completely satisfied in his little piece of paradise. Each morning he drives just a few kilometres all the way down to the closest village, Marlia, and has breakfast at a café with the identical group of pals. One suspects that breakfast is little greater than a robust espresso and cigarette, but it surely’s a pleasant ritual for a person in his retirement years.
A brief however very steep climb up the hill from Piero’s home is the village of Matraja, with its sonorous church bell that strikes each hour and half-hour. From wherever within the its neighborhood you’ll be able to look out over the distant metropolis of Lucca far under, an historical walled Roman metropolis with a lot to suggest it to the vacationer, together with many tremendous church buildings. There’s even the ‘miraculously preserved’ full corpse of a neighborhood saint, Santa Zita, lifeless for greater than 700 years, on show within the San Frediano Basilica. For a much less macabre expertise, climb the 199 steps up the church’s splendid bell tower.
However in case you do go to Lucca, don’t miss these Colle Verde wines.
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