Teobaldo Capellano I had no idea that the Capellano family used to be enormous property owners in Barolo, but successively lost their land over several generations. Today they have only three hectares, with a considerable portion planted in ungrafted root stock. The wines have incredible finesse and I could have spent the entire day just smelling their beautiful aromas. This is clean wine making, but traditional Barolo in the best sentse There's no petit verdot, no extracted color, ancient botti, but a purity of aromatics and flavor. There's even acidity. This is not old-fashioned or rustic wine making, but a well thought out commitment to natural wine making in a modern and reasonsed sence. The cellar is clean and well organized and the vines are scrupuously maintained. With just over three hectares, Capellan can treat his vineyard as a private garden. For instance, he does not have a style of pruning -- Teobaldo believes that you make a decision vine by vine. This type of work is only possible on this level of micro-management. Capellano is insanely charming and our Seattle distributor congratulated us for finding a vigneron even more eccentric than I am. While this might be the case, I don't expect to join me as an avid blogger. I also learned today that in the area no one speaks about hectares to measure area surface but still speaks about "giornatas." A giornata was the amount of land a cow needed to graze per day and this remains the until for financial transactions, wine organization and viticultural small talk. Other regions, like Burgundy, have similar terms. In Burgundy you talk about an "ouvrees," which is how much land one person could work per day. It is revealing that the measurement here is still cow grazing, because it is only in the past thirty years that wine became central to this area. Capellano said that years ago you had cows which you sold as livestock and some vines on the side that never made anyone much money but which supplied the family and friends with their daily consumption. What a change! Tomorrow, we're off to a series of interesting vineyards. I ate a fabulous dinner tonight where none of the wine came wrapped in aluminum wrapping. It is past 1 am and I hope I can still wake up tomorrow. I've heard rumors that my 19-year-old son is currently working in a vineyarad somewhere in Gavi and I'm hoping to run into him. Touring through Italy is much different than touring in France. Here, you can stay at restaurants, even in the countryside, until ungodly hours. In France, they would toss you out and tell you that with the "charges sociale" and the 35 hour work week they can't afford to stay open late. Maybe they're doing their patrons a favor. Good night.
'giornata' is the spelling
Thank you. |