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The wines of Umbria
Umbria is an earth rich in traditions,
culture and art, where the environment, well preserved and livable it allows a high quality of the life. This
privileged situation yes it also finds again in the products of the
agriculture that are countersigned for simplicity, genuineness and quality.
Among the products more appreciated of the agricultural production Umbra it
is the wine. In this region, that is found to 100 meters on the level of
the sea, of which only the 30 percent of the territory overcomes the 500
meters of altitude and where the precipitations abound in the winter months
and the summers they are particularly sunny, a favorable
climatic situation exists for the production. The great variety of the microclimis gives diversification in the production. It
doesn't need to neglect the long tradition on the way of cultivating the
grapevine of which the manufacturing umbris are
depositaries; the Museum of the Wine of Torgiano
is the testimony of it. The high quality of the product is confirmed by the
fact that in her “small” Umbria they count him well eleven
wines DOC and two DOCGs.
Montefalco
Sagrantino Docg
To south of Perugia, in the commune of Montefalco
and part of the territory of the communes of Bevagna,
Gualdo Cattaneo, Castel Ritaldi and Giano of Umbria, we find the zone of production of
white and red wines of particular merit. Already Plinio
the Old one in the Naturalis Historia
speaks of the vine “Itriola” typical of these zones
“sour Itriola Umbriae Mevanatique agro peculiaris est”, now unknown but perhaps progenitor of the Sagrantino. The origin of this vine is still uncertain;
some researchers suppose that had cared from the Saracens that in their
raids they pushed him up to these zones, others they sustain that has been
introduced by the Franciscan monks of return from Spain. The name
makes to suppose one use of his in the ecclesiastical liturgy from which
the name that seems to recall the root “sacer” -
sacred. They produce two versions: one dry and a passito.
The Dry one is gotten by the vinificazione in
purity of grapes Sagrantino; is submitted to an
aging than at least 30 months of which 12 in wood strokes. The Passito gotten by the vinificazione
in purity of grapes Sagrantino that, hardly
cultured, you/they are selected and deposed to fade on special wood hurdles
in airy environments. In the first days of the following year to the
harvest the vinificazione happens, with long
maceration type traditional.
Torgiano Rosso Riserva Docg
The zone of production of the wine Torgiano is
inclusive in the territory of the commune, principal characteristic is
given from the hills that they don't overcome the 300 mt.
of height, the ground is constituted by sandy and
calcareous clays on a base tufacea. We found only
initially two types of wine, a White and the other Red; today the
production has been widened and understands a series of wines, from vines
"vinificati" nearly in purity and a
sparkling wine. The vines in the antiquity were cultivated “married” to the
tree according to the tradition etrusca and
Roman. The production was so well protected that the 1426 Torgiano Statutes contained severe sanctions for those
people who had ruined other people's vineyards. The Torgiano
Rosso Reserves has been the first one to get the
DOCG in 1990, as already in 1968 had gotten, first in Umbria, the DOC. Veronelli puts it among the first 32 wines of the
world. In the town the Museum Of the Wine can be visited; important harvest
that illustrates the history of the techniques of the wine-growing and the vinificazione in Umbria; objects etruschi,
Romans and more recent as pitchers, vases, bronzes etruschi,
amphoras vinarie and
Roman glasses decorate the rooms of Building Graziani
Baglioni. A valuable collection of maioliche that goes from the medioevo
up to our days exists. It completes the collection a library of the wine
with texts from the ‘500 of which notable importance dresses again the part
devoted to the use of the wine in the pharmacy.
Orvieto and
Orvieto Classico
The wine of Orvieto is certainly one of the most
famous whites and appreciated to the world by the great experts. The Etruschis already produced it allowing to ferment it, quite a lot months it were needed, in the
wine cellars of tufo of the zone. In the Middle
Ages and in the Renaissance it was one of the wines preferred by the papal
court so much to be denominated papaliter;
Gregorio XVI wanted its body to have washed with this wine before the
burial. Great importance has covered in the building of the Cathedral, the
workers pretended a free quantity of it, but the most interesting fact is
that to expressly find it in demand in the contracts. In that fact with
Luca Signorelli to fresco the Chapel of St. Brizio over the 575 dukedoms was anticipated also the
delivery of 12 burdens of wine (around thousand liters).
Item that the fabrica is obligata
to give them, for the time that he works continuous, dui quartenghe of wheat a month and twelve burdens of must
for every year to the vendebia incomensando to the vendebia proxima that will come. You narrates that Garibaldi,
before leaving the I bring of Talamone
for Sicily, it toasted to
the good result of the enterprise with this wine. The Orvieto
is drawn from more grapes (they thresh Tuscan, verdello,
grechetto, drupeggio)
and they exist of it more versions among which the agreeable one is the
most known. This appreciated wine is born thanks to the grapes attached by
the noble mold the ashy Botrytis. The fog of the
mornings in autumn ago yes that on the clusters you are formed this
particular mold that nourishes him some contained
water in the grapes and that the pore of the peel it dilates without
breaking her/it, provoking an evaporation when the
clusters are heated by the sun. The musts that are gotten they are very
sugary, rich of glycerine with concentration of all the aromatic
components. Grapes are picked up very late, watching out to get the suit to
verify him some phenomenon. The fermentation very slowly happens in enough
small strokes in the caves of tufo. In them wine
preserves him for 3 or 4 years and the barrels you/they are filled every
week.
The oil extravergine of olive
The first ones to cultivate the ulivo in Italy
were the Etruschis; already in the The century b.C. it was among
the most remarkable agricultural productions of the region, so much that
active “I bring some oil” it was Otricoli set in
an ancient handle of the Tevere, then buried him
to divert some river. From there the oil it reached the capital. To
testimony of the high quality of the oil umbro,
and of the wide use that did, many finds as the doliis
remain (typical Roman containers) and edges of big ziri,
found in proximity of Roman villas in the zone between the Tevere and the Black one. Near Trevi
has come to the light a whole crusher, built in stone sandstone, endowed
with an enormous dolio buried for a best
maintenance of the oil. To Orvieto, and precisely
in the hollow n° 536, find in depth a crusher: denominated “mill of Saint Chiara”, that seems has been squeezing olives for the
time of the Etruschis up to the century XVII. The
barbaric invasions determine the abandonment of the cultivation of the
plant and its wildness. In the Middle Ages the cultivation took back him
with the obligation to plant a certain number of “fetterses”
and to graft the same of it. In the ‘500 in many essays the production
umbra praises him. The bolognese public Leandro Alberti in 1577 a
Description of the whole Italy et pertinent
islands to it from which a quotation on Spoleto: “Veggonsi
to every side of the street Flaminia for this
beautiful lowland orchards [...]. non less Et scorgesi
big crowd of almond tree, et oil you, where in the time of the verno big number de thrushes are seized, that go down
from the mountains to look for for them food...” [...]
quivi plentifully find s big wine, oil, almonds
et other fruits.”
Typical Salumi
The teachers that work the pig are called for a long time “norcini” because of their zone of origin: Norcia. Here they are produced an ample range of
typical meats, among which the more famous product surely and appreciated
it is the Ham Typical of Norcia. This appreciated
meat was already produced from the Greek and from the Romans as it is
deduced in the” De king rustic”, of Mark Porcio Catone, where best man the technique for the production
of the ham, still in use in some zones of Central Italy.
Cheeses and
milk products
The pastures of the Piangrande
and the Pian Piccolo, of the Plain one of Castelluccio, of the Basin of Norcia, in the Eugubino and in the zone of Gualdo, introduces him with the
characteristics that had to the time of the Romans today. Up to around 30
years ago the bovine milk produced by the farmers was directly sold to the
single families; with the typical aluminum cans
they passed house for house and they hardly offered him/it milked. Ovine
milk was used for producing ricottas and cheeses that served, both for the
family and for the sale in the fairs.
Truffle
The first testimonies of the truffle as produced edible we learn her from
the Bible. Galeno, physician of the The-II sec.
AD it warned against the excessive use of this fruit that induced, in his
opinion, in a state of “voluptuousness”; Giovenale
sustained that it was better to stay without wheat that without truffle. Umbria produces three
types of it: the appreciated black, the summer scorzone
and the white. The black hypocrite has matured since November in March, his various greatness from that of a walnut until to
reach that of an orange; to mostly exalt the taste goes, slightly heated
with oil extravergine and a po
of garlic. The white hypocrite, rarer and appreciated, has reached
maturation since October in December; it uses cut to thin fettine, and, unlike that black, must not have heated. The
summer hypocrite or scorzone, being less
appreciated, is used for truffled products, what
the oil, the alimentary pastas, the creams, the paté,
the cheeses and the liqueurs.
The lentil of
Castelluccio of Norcia
On a surface of around 20 kmqs. in the highland
of Castelluccio of Norcia
it is cultivated the lentil that seems to be the most ancient cultivated
legume; on the base of finds fossils, have been shown that it was already
in use in 7000 to. C. Famoso is the episode of
the Bible (Genesis XXV) in which Esaù revenges to
his brother the right of primogeniture for a dish of lentils (also in the
superior Basilica of St. Francis). for a long time
appreciated and consumed is considered of good auspice to eat her during
the supper of New Year's eve. The cultivation is biological for a long time
and is effected to hand.
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