May 13, 2018
We were up early and had a quick breakfast. We hit the road for our first stop in Tuscany, which was about a 40 minute drive south of Podere La Villa. We arrived at the prestigious estate of Castello dei Rampolla under beautiful sunny skies dotted with white clouds.
The Napoli family have owned the Castello dei Rampolla Estate since 1739. At the time of his death in 1991, Alceo di Napoli’s wine Sammarco was experiencing continuous notoriety and criticism for using Cabernet Sauvignon in the Chianti Classico region. His children Luca and Maurzia di Napoli took over continuing their father’s work. In honor of him, they created a wine named d’Alceo, which has joined Masseto, Messorio, Sassicaia and Solaia becoming one of the great wines of Italy. The winery was the first in the region to become organic and biodynamic in the mid-90's
We were met by Maurzia and Luca the moment we arrived. They were genuinely thrilled to see Darrell as it had been a very long time since their last meeting. They walked us around the estate grounds and then took us into the winery and cellar.
After our tour of the winery and cellar, it was time for a tasting. Just like at the Antinori dinner, a bottle of 1981 Sammarco was opened in honor of Shaun's birthday. Along with Antinori, Castello dei Rampolla was among the first to experiment with Cabernet Sauvignon in the region. The first vintage of Sammarco was in 1980 and until 2003 it was made up of only Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese usually a 60/40 blend. We sat and savored the wine under partially sunny skies with puffy white clouds passing by. It was quite a magnificent experience!
As we moved into the afternoon, it was time to make the 20 minute drive to our next destination. We thanked our hosts and made our way to Isole e Olena.
Darrell met Isole e Olena owner, Paolo di Marchi, in the 1970's and they have been good friends since. Paolo is very highly respected by many of the wine producers in Tuscany. He is considered by them to be the dean of Chianti. Paolo was born in the village of Lessona in the Piedmonte region, where his family had been living for generations. In 1955, his father, purchased 300 hectares of land in the western part of Chianti Classico. The land he purchased wwas actually two neighboring hamlets named ‘Isole’ and ‘Olena’. The family combined them to form one, giving birth to the name ‘Isole e Olena’. Paolo is also very, very humble and a true Renaissance man. Even though he and his wines are known internationally, he still won't adopt a website!
Paolo greeted us as soon as we got out of the car. We began by a walk around the grounds followed by a tour of the main winery and cellar.
After the tour, Paolo took us the the covered veranda at the back of the main house for lunch. Paolo's wife made us an absolutely delicious lunch of sauteed chicken with Cipollini onions, Italian style ratatouille, served with rustic bread. For the wines, we were served Paolo's 2013 Grand Selezione Chianti Classico, 2015 Cepparello 100% Sangiovese, and his 2016 Chardonnay Toscana Collezione Privata, which was spectacular! For dessert we had lightly sweetened garden strawberries with a locally made butter cookie.
After lunch, we went into Paolo's Vin Santo production building which is unique in that to be an "open air" building in order to allow for the process of drying the grapes into raisins, the windows are all open by use of brick triangles which form the supports for the windows and allow for good air flow. The raisin drying racks were all neatly propped against the walls waiting their turn for the next harvest. Paolo makes one of the best examples of Vin Santo in all of Tuscany!
We hopped into our car and followed Paolo to a nearby property he acquired, which he will resurrect. He already has a vineyard there and has plans to renovate the building.
It was now well into the afternoon and the time came for us to head east to our next destination. We thanked Paolo for his wonderful hospitality and gave our farewells. We drove our way to the A11 Autostrade. After a solid hour on the road, we stopped at an AutoGrill on the A11 which actually straddled the whole freeway. It was about half way in between Florence and Lucca. It's amazing what one can buy at a freeway stop in Italy.
After another hour on the road, we were getting very close to the Cinque Terre and were just passing the town of Carrara. The clouds that were obscuring the scenery for the past 50km began to clear. A look out the right side of the car looked like a big spring snow storm had passed. No, that's not snow! It's Carrara marble. We were passing the famed Apuan Alps with it's 650 known white marble quarrys, which have been a source of the highly sought white stone sine Roman times. It was amazing how much the mountains looked like they were snow covered.
We were still close to 2 hours away from Serravalle Scrivia, but driving along the coast of the Ligurian Sea made for spectular views. We arrived at Villa La Bollina Resort Hotel and Restaurant around 4pm. The Hotel is run by Darrell's cousin Gianni Belforte and his son Christian, whom we stayed with during our last visit to the area in 2014. After checking in and freshening up, we were treated to a fabulous tasting menu of the hotel's cuisine and some pretty incredible wines.
We were all completely satiated but the delicious meal. After a long day of touring and travel, a good night's sleep came so very easy.