Roadtrip with my dad: Fattoria Fibbiano

May 5, 2014October 14, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / 2 Comments

As you probably read in my blogpost about Fattoria Fibbiano’s winetasting I had a while ago at restaurant Pazzo (my blogpost) that what astonished / intrigued me is the fact they only use original Tuscan grapes like Sangiovese, Canaiolo , Colombana, Colorino and Malvasia , so no Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon gets used…. So you can imagine why I definitely wanted to visit this vineyard?! During the wine tasting with Matteo I already thought he was speaking with lots of passion about their wines, but his brother Nicola (who I met during this trip) who makes the wines even surpasses this level of passion and also transmits this passion to the ones he talks to 🙂 (in this case my dad, our 2 partners in crime joining us on this trip and me).

You know what makes Italy, Italy? The hospitality! No matter whom you visit or how long, they’ll always bring out their best food and drinks to make you feel welcome… AND I let them 😉 😉 no really I just love it. At Fattoria Fibbiano this wasn’t any different as we immediately felt very welcome!!

Even though Fattoria Fibbiano only exists for 20 years they have already achieved a lot if you ask me. I think their biggest strength is the fact it is a family business and every member of the family has its particular task Matteo (the oldest brother) does the sales all over the world, Nicola makes the wine, Giuseppe (the father) helps out Nicola and the wives (lovely ladies I must add!)take care of the Agriturismo (6 apartments) and will try to make your stay most enjoyable. Maybe before I continue talking about the vineyard I should indicate where it is located. Fattoria Fibbiano is in Terricciola a little village 40km from Pisa.

I must admit I found it a pity I couldn’t sleep at their agriturismo as it looked really nice (the great weather also chipped in)… but nevertheless I felt home and btw I’ll be back anyway in the future 😉 (Don’t get me wrong I also like the place we ended up sleeping)

Something I didn’t mention yet is that Fattoria Fibbiano is that for making the wines only treat their soils with organic, non-chemical substances. Something that also surprised me was that most of the work on the vineyard is still done manually with the most important reason to keep a good overview of everything that lives/happens in the vineyard… a machine can be quick and as good as it wants, but the human feel/ look is something that cannot be replaced if you want to make a high quality product. Nicola follows the progress from the vineyard daily from the moment it starts blooming until the actual grape picking. The difference between wanting to make quality wine from big quantity wine already starts with grape selection in the vineyards… with this I mean that the winemakers won’t leave all the grapes(bunches) on the branches, during the year they will be cutting away those bunches that are too much on a branch. This will give the remaining grapes the higher quality… basically if you would have 7 bunches or a branch, the branch will have to nourish all 7 bunches… if you cut away a few bunches, the remaining bunches will get nourished more/better = higher quality grape. Don’t worry I won’t get too technical. Something I can never get my head around when I’m visiting a places where there now are vineyards ( or desert) millions of years ago used to be sea (although maybe if the global warming continues one day I’ll get to see it again) and still up to today you can find shells in the soil… I’m saying this a where Fattoria Fibbiano’s vineyards are located it used to be sea and you still see shells laying around…

What I think makes wine making fun for the winemakers, is that they can experiment with it in the case of Fattoria Fibbiano they use different barrels, they use obviously wooden barrels, stainless steel tanks and cemented tanks. Depending on the type of wine they’ll be making they will leave the wine for a particular period in the mentioned types of barrels… but if you would leave the same wine other periods in different types of barrels the result will be totally different 🙂 great, right? Obviously when making wines there are some rules to take into account. It was to hear Nicola speak with so much passion on his vision on winemaking and what way he liked to make wine… One thing I’m sure of is that a winemaker needs lots of patience and know-how as it seems simple, but I’m sure it isn’t if you want to do it in a proper way. He was now even experimenting on making an own Rosé sparkling wine… hopefully I’ll be able to taste it one day

I’m not sure what it was, but I found their cellar very light and as they are only for 20 years the cellar also looks very new 🙂 … Visiting the cellar is all very nice, but to my opinion it was getting a bit dry … it was time for some tasting that got even better with a slice of homemade salami and a local cheese… or as we call it ‘la dolce vita’ 😉

I could describe all their wines, but I won’t as I think the only way to know how they taste is by tasting them 🙂 . How a wine tastes changes from where, when and for which occasion you drink it… I wouldn’t be able to indicate my favourite wine as they all have their specific taste and thing I like about them, although I must admit like the Fonte delle donne, l’Aspetto and Casalini a lot… The most ‘special’ wine (and I also mentioned it in my previous blogpost) is their rosé wine aka Sofia made 100% from the Sangiovese grape (that normally only gets used to make strong red wines like a Brunello di Montalcino, …) so if you want to impress friends with a special rosé… this is the one. What all Fattoria Fibbiano’s wines have in common is that they are easy to drink! This is also how the family describes their wines and it is also the product they want… their most complex wine would be the Ceppatella…. I know, it is probably due to the fact I’m greedy that I’m not able to choose a favourite one 🙂

As if all of this wasn’t hospitable enough, we were asked to join the family table for dinner prepared by the ladies of the house (who are we to refuse)… and they have outdone themselves (BTW, when staying at the Agriturismo if wanted you can also eat there… just FYI). Feast your eyes on the meal they had prepared for us (or the shortened version of it).

I had a wonderful day under the Tuscany sun and was ready to continue our trip! (but I’ll be back as our dear friend Arnold said 😉 but with my beautiful fiancée as I’m sure she’d love it here ). To be continued…..

Roadtrip with my dad

May 2, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

For years my dad and I make a yearly trip (long weekend) to Italy, usually around April, with wine as the ‘central theme’… or that is the excuse 🙂 . I know I don’t need an excuse to go on a little trip, but for some reason one feels less guilty when he has an excuse 🙂 What we basically do during these trips is eating, drinking, sleeping and enjoying life combined with an occasional vineyard visit. One of the world’s biggest wine fairs “Vinitaly” in Verona has also been the destination for a few times, but I do prefer visiting a few vineyards from friends in a particular area/ region in Italy. Normally it is my dad making all the arrangements, but this year it was my turn to organize the trip which brought us to the always beautiful Tuscany… No matter how many times you visit Tuscany it doesn’t wear off… The only thing that usually bothers me is the enormous amount of tourists!! FYI, I’m not a tourist, from the moment I cross the Italian boarder I’m an Italian (double nationality) 🙂 🙂

The main reason I picked Tuscany was because during 2 wine tastings in Belgium I met 2 guys whose wine I liked and their vineyards happen to be in Tuscany :-). The first guy is Lorenzo Zonin (my blogpost) who have vineyards all over Italy of which 3 (+ 1 personal from Lorenzo) vineyards in Tuscany and the other guy it Matteo Cantoni from Fattoria Fibbiano (my blogpost). What I did not realize when I was planning my trip that during this period Italy celebrated its National holiday during this period… but ok in the end all worked out anyhow (so no damage).

The initial plan was to sleep at the Agriturismo from Fattoria Fibbiano as it is close to lots of “must-visits” in Tuscany like Sangiminiano, Volterra, Siena, Lucca, Pisa, Firenze, San Miniato, Lari, Vinci, Calci… but due to the fact they are so popular and I waited too long to book we stayed at one of Fattoria Fibbiano’s friends (that are only 1 km away)Agriturismo Santo Pietro… so you see one excuse made room for another as I just have to return just to be able to sleep at Fattoria Fibbiano’s agriturismo 🙂 (ooooooh yeah). I have to admit that where I slept didn’t matter as long as I could see the people I wanted to see I’m happy! (in case you didn’t know it yet, I’m a people person) Another option would have been staying at Abbazia Monte Oliveto’s agriturismo (from Zonin)

Stay tuned to read more about our trip and the wonderful hospitality we got!

A real Tuscan treat

December 11, 2013October 14, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

What usually stops me from drinking Tuscan wines is the fact that even though there are lots of good wines in this region, there is also lots of rubbish… What people need to understand is that, it is not that because a wine or product is from a particular place it therefore always is wonderful… as it isn’t!! What makes a wine or product good is the care of a farmer, craftsman or viticulturist of course in combination with good soil, weather, etc… Luckily there are still craftsmen or winemakers left who want to make a good product or in the case of Tuscany winemakers wanting to make a ‘real Tuscany wine’ as Matteo Cantoni from Fattoria Fibbiano calls it.

I probably already mentioned it in previous posts, but more than ever cooks and winemakers are thinking as the French call it ‘terroir’. Meaning that they try to use local and even primitive products as much as possible to make their end product. At some point I’m glad it is turning this way as I’m of the opinion that when you for example go on holiday to Thailand, Spain or where ever, that you can eat, drink and try the local things instead of stuff from other countries (as good as they may be). So I’m a fan of this “new” wind.

That is what Matteo Cantoni meant with making ‘ real Tuscan wine’ as at Fattoria Fibbiano they only use authentic from origin Tuscany grapes. Instead of using Merlot or Carbernet grapes they use Sangiovese, Canaiolo , Colombana, Colorino and Malvasia from vines that are over 100 years old and playing with them to make some very nice combinations. What you should maybe also know is that Matteo together with his family (Brother, Parents, …) only took over the vineyard of Fattoria Fibbiano 20 years ago. Fattoria Fibbiano itself had already been used as vineyard over 100years 🙂 For people only doing this for such a short period of time they have done a really good job in bringing back the real Tuscany!! Fattoria Fibbiano is a rather small vineyard, they annually only produce 120.000 bottles of wines (all types together). So you can imagine getting hold of a bottle isn’t always as easy, but not an impossible mission.

When talking to Matteo Cantoni, he stressed out that his purpose of making wine is making drinkable wine… meaning the wine can drunk immediately with exception of their ‘Ceppatella’ (that can be compared with a good Brunello di Montalcino) that is at its in a few years and can be left in your cellar for easily 15 years (but if wanted it can already be drunk now, but best to first decant that it gets some air). Matteo said his Ceppatella from 2005 is now perfect to drink.

Besides the Ceppatella which is the tip of the iceberg from Fattoria Fibbiano’s gamma, we also got to taste their following wines:

Sofia: a rosé wine (yes rosé from Tuscany) made from 100% Sangiovese grape. Something I think is almost unseen in Tuscany wine making. As they always want to keep the Sangiovese for making strong red wine. A wine that gives rosé another dimension.

Fonte delle Donne: a white wine made with a combination of 50% Vermentino grapes and 50% Colombana. Resulting in a floral smelling wine with a rich taste to it 🙂
Le Pianette : probably the most special grape combination as they use 70% Sangiovese and 30%Colorino that back in the days got used for coloring the wine (because of the thick skin of the grape) and giving it a good smell… I couldn’t tell what the smell was, but it had a sharp and typical sangiovese aroma and taste.
L’Aspetto : a red wine and I think the star of the evening as price-quality this is a very good wine. It was a more complex wine than the previous one with a delicate wooden smell to it (very subtle smell) . About the taste, I know I’ll be cliche, but I tasted strawberries 🙂 and as I like that taste, I liked the wine… it is as simple as that 😉

I think I’l l be having some L’Aspetto and Ceppatella in my wine cellar veeeery soon 🙂

If you also feel like tasting or want to know where to buy the Fattoria Fibianno wines, please contact Rik de Jonghe who imports wines of Fattoria Fibianno on following email address: rik.de.jonghe@skynet.be

OR you can go to Tuscany (Fly to Pisa) and stay in Fattoria Fibbiano’s Agriturismo (a bit like a B&B) and give the wine that little bit extra aka la dolce vita Toscana ( oooooooh yeah)

Spinelli's Dolce Vita

My passion for life

Fattoria Fibbiano

Roadtrip with my dad: Fattoria Fibbiano

Roadtrip with my dad

A real Tuscan treat