Autumn in Umbria

Autumn in Umbria
by Lauren Deluca

My long-awaited trip to Italy finally happened this past October, and it brings me great pleasure to be able to share some of my experiences with you, my fellow wine-lovers! I spent two weeks visiting my mother in Umbria, considered the “green heart of Italy”. As the nickname suggests, the region lies smack in the middle of the country, and it is gorgeous. And in terms of greenness, Ireland’s got nothing on Umbria! I hope this “photo-travelogue” of sorts can convey just how magical it is there.

At the risk of sounding cliche, the countryside itself, like most of Europe in general, has something of another era about it; if you don’t look at the cars zipping along the highways you could swear you were taken back in time to medieval times. It’s overwhelmingly rural and possesses just what the Americans have always loved about Tuscany, except it’s not quite as well known. Dotting the landscape are what can best be described as little jewels of towns such as Montecastello di Vibio and Orvieto (one of the better known ones), among others. These are tiny towns of which all you’ll see in passing are churches, stacks of ancient homes, and perhaps the remnants of an old fortress or a castle. A lot of them look alike but they all seem to have their own unique little marks, like the church might have a dome rather than a steeple. I like to think of Umbria as a necklace with jewels on it, lovely but tucked away in a box in a drawer, as opposed to the necklace that is Tuscany: also lovely but showy and always on display.


I swear this isn’t a postcard!	Lush greenery

View from the top of a hill	View from the car

An Umbrian village	Legendary Todi

Remnants from another time	Don’t you just want to lie in the grass and roll down these hills?
My mother lives in Pian di Porto, a tiny town just at the bottom of Todi, the medieval hilltop town that has been a favorite of Americans since the 1980s (Americans have settled in Umbria in much the same way the British have done in Tuscany). She has just finished renovating from the inside out an old farmhouse that has been in her family for a several generations—a true labor of love for the past four years. She has a bit of vineyard land nearby and the vines are due to bear fruit in about two years: small amounts of chardonnay, merlot, and grechetto (a local white variety), among others.

Mom's house	Back of the house

Front of the house	Stairway to the top floor

View from a hallway	The original tower from around the 14th century that the rest of the house was built around

Mom's vineyard in Pian di Porto di Todi
I wasn’t able to travel around the country as I had hoped. For instance, I really wanted to see Milan (I’ve never been) as well as Turin and its surrounding wine country in the region of Piedmont. In the end I decided to make the most of sticking close to home, which suited me just fine. There are so many of these towns I mentioned throughout the region that it doesn’t require much to see them. You can just pick a direction, drive a few miles, and be there.
Torgiano One of these towns is Torgiano, at the top of my list of places to see. It’d been a recent dream of mine to visit the home of the world-famous Lungarotti estate. Vineyards, olive groves, a winery—you name it, they have it. It’s a haven for foodies and winos alike. Apart from the agricultural aspect, it’s great for those who just want to take in the postcard-pretty scenery. Giorgio Lungarotti was an enological pioneer in Italy in the 1960s, refusing to grow only trebbiano and sangiovese. Instead he did his own thing and planted French varietals to level the playing field and make his Umbrian wine a real player in the global wine scene. Truly a family affair, the Lungarotti Foundation includes a wine museum, an olive and oil museum, and a world-class luxury hotel and restaurant called Le Tre Vaselle (“the three vessels”). The two museums were the creations of Giorgio’s wife, Maria Grazia. Giorgio died in 1999 but the strength of the brand lives on, with his daughter Teresa Severini at the helm. The wine museum was fascinating. Maria Grazia converted a 17th century mansion and filled 20 rooms with all manner of majolica pottery, old amphorae, and Etruscan urns in addition to old wooden wine presses and winemaking illustrations used back in B.C. times. After the museum I and my friends Beth and Chris (who also traveled to Italy and stayed with us) stumbled into a Lungarotti tasting room where an American wine tour group had just come through. Staff members were clearing away dirty glasses, so we decided to have lunch rather than bother them. When we had finished we realized it was still siesta hour, so we walked around and took pictures for a while—catching glimpses of the acres of land under vine and feeling really good to be alive—before heading to the winery. Like most places in Italy and elsewhere, you have to have an appointment to expect a tour, so we had to pass on that. It would have been nice to see the winery, but we were content to go straight to the wine shop, which was an extension of the winery building and right below the administrative offices. I wandered through the offices, where I spotted a photograph of Teresa’s smiling face and other family snapshots. The shop was nicely equipped with a computer station (like the ones you find in bookstores) to reference the entire current product line of wines, balsamic vinegars, and olive oils for sale. We stayed at the shop for a while, carefully selecting what we would take home. I decided on a 1997 Rubesco, a sangiovese-canaiolo blend that is one of Lungarotti’s trademark reds. I also picked up a wine called Aurente, a chardonnay-grechetto blend aged in oak; Torre di Giano, a deliciously fresh blend of trebbiano and grechetto with yummy floral and lemony flavors; San Giorgio, a blend of sangiovese, canaiolo, and cabernet sauvignon; and 2 small bottles of Nocino, a molasses-brown walnut liqueur produced by macerating the still-green walnuts in pure alcohol for over a year alternating between stainless steel and oak. (Lungarotti grows walnuts too!)

Vineyards in Torgiano	Lungarotti winery

Breezeway at the winery	Advertising their wares

Museo del Vino in Torgiano (wine museum)
Terni Terni has a population of just over a whopping 100,000 and has been Umbria’s industrial center since Italian unification in 1861. It’s not the most attractive town, especially compared with the beauty of the countryside surrounding it, but it does have some lovely shops if a bit of retail therapy is on your agenda.

The relative hustle and bustle of Terni
Titignano The teeny-tiny medieval village of Titignano is nestled in the hills between Orvieto and Todi and surrounded by 2000 hectares (about 5000 acres) of woodland, vineyards, and olive groves. It dominates the valley below with an absolutely mesmerizing view of Lake Corbara.

This is practically the extent of Titignano!	View of Lake Corbara from the village
Montecastello di Vibio With a population is just under 2000, this is the home of Teatro della Concordia, known as the smallest theatre in the world. Built in 1808 under Napoleonic occupation, it is a fully functioning theater with a mere 99 seats. It was built so small to remain proportional to the size of the town. Types of performances offered include operettas, jazz, and dramatic works.

Ancient city wall	A typical street in Montecastello

“The smallest theater in the world”
Deruta Deruta, just south of Perugia and north of Todi, is known the world over for its ceramiche maiolica (Majolica pottery),an industry that has been central to the economy of the town from its earliest days in pre-Roman times. I’d bet money that I have the largest collection of Majolica in Atlanta in my home. Mom used to own a shop here in the states specializing in these such Italian imports and kept some of the inventory when it closed.

Main street with rows of Majolica pottery workshops
Spoleto Spoleto sits on the terraced slopes of the Apennines, at the end of a long, fertile valley. Now a town of about 38,000 people, Spoleto is known internationally as the host of the Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of the Two Worlds), which is held every summer. The festival, founded in 1958 by Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti, is perhaps the most important modern cultural event in Umbria, bringing together talented musicians, dancers, and visual artists from all over the world (www.spoletofestival.it). Some of you may have heard of its American counterpart, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival held annually in Charleston, SC that also celebrates the arts.

Steps leading to more homes in Spoleto	Romanesque-style Cathedral of Spoleto built at the end of the 12th century
Agriturismo San Rocco There is a type of hospitality known as agritourism whereby guests can stay on farms and potentially assist with various tasks. This phenomenon is especially popular in Italy and, as one would imagine, the farms typically include vineyards. One such spot is a property called San Rocco, a stone’s throw from Mom’s house in Due Santi, a tiny town whose name means “Two Saints.” Mom and I stopped by one evening just to see if they had a restaurant we could dine at during our visit, but the gentleman who greeted us informed us that the restaurant was a future project not yet undertaken. He introduced himself as the husband of the owner of the property and, after some excited inquiries on my part, guided us to the tiny winery in the backyard area. He offered us a taste of the batch of sangiovese being produced, and we immediately recognized the tart cherry character of the grape. It was so stalky and green, not yet having enjoyed the maturation period necessary to mellow out all the nuances of Umbria’s most commonly planted black grape variety. (To learn more, they have a lovely website: www.agriturismo-sanrocco.com).
Cantina Tudernum Practically next door to Mom’s house (dubbed “La Palazzetta”) is the Cantina Tudernum, which is the local cooperative winery to which Mom will eventually sell her grapes to be made into wine. Adjacent to the winery is a small shop in the lobby area, equipped with the cashier’s counter and a wooden table with several open bottles of the Cantina’s wines: among others, single-varietal merlot, cabernet sauvignon, grechetto, and chardonnay, and a Vinsanto-style dessert wine. Naturally, there is also the Cantina’s own olive oil, one of Umbria’s renowned agricultural products. I met with a Mr. Settimi at the Cantina (I never did catch his official title). I took notes while he explained that Mom’s vineyard enters into the Colli Martani DOC zone, encompassing an area from Todi up about 25 kilometers to a town called Bettona. In essence grape-growers pay their fee and become members of the Cantina. The Cantina then buys their various grape varieties during specific windows of time; for example, chardonnay grapes are only accepted at the end of August while grechetto grapes can only come in mid-September. Each grape is rated according to healthiness, and a system similar to Brix is used to measure the sugar content inside the grapes. What he was saying was so interesting to me that I was suddenly tempted to submit an application for employment there.

Grapes being dropped off at Cantina Tudernum
I don’t have to tell you I drank tons of wine during my trip, but most of it was just everyday mealtime wine made from the ubiquitous sangiovese for the reds and trebbiano for the whites. Daily runs to the Ipersidis supermarket down the street produced purchases of value-priced Italian wines from various places, such as a pinot nero from the Veneto and a table white from Assisi. I made it a point, however, to get my lips around a glass or two of one of Umbria’s stars: Sagrantino di Montefalco. Sagrantino is the name of the grape variety, and it produces tannic, inky reds that pack an unbelievable savory-sweet punch. While packing for the trip home I faced a Sophie’s Choice-style decision: with such a small carry-on suitcase, which bottles would I take with me? I ended up leaving the Lungarottis with Mom and brought only three, and imagine this: all three are dessert wines (what can I say, my sweet tooth extends to wine). They all remain unopened in my wine rack, and as I have been battling a cold all week, I refuse to taste them until my senses are operating at full capacity again. When I do, you’ll have the full report—so stay tuned for that! Happy tasting!