Montefiascone, Italy. Homegrown grapes!
View From Your Table
5 Responses to View From Your Table
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Brian says:
I forgot until after I devoured it to take a picture of my buttermilk fried chicken, mashed potatoes and garlic collards with a honey-thyme jus (appetizer was fried green tomatoes with goat cheeses a buffer between the tomato and fried part).
Does it count if I’m at a restaurant?
How is that for a crunchy-con reading, Benedict Option sympathizer, locavore, suburban driving reader , Rod?
If you’re ever in midtown Atlanta I highly recommend South City Kitchen.
P.S. I’m now having a desert of the largest glass of Maker’s Mark not poured by me!
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James says:
Roland, as the reader who submitted the photo, I’ll answer.
That’s the Aleatico grape; it is grown around the shores of Lake Bolsena (between Viterbo and Orvieto, where the Lazio, Umbria and Tuscany regions meet) to make a wonderful DOC after-dinner wine called “Aleatico di Gradoli”.
On the south shore of the lake is Montefiascone, my grandparents’ hometown. My cousins still live there and are big-time traditional foodies (no need to add “crunchy” to “con” in Italy; localism and conservatism are not at odds. In Italy, it’s the kids and trendy moderns who go to McDonald’s!).
They grow their own heirloom grapes, aleatico included. That’s my cousin Vittorio holding the bunch. He made a mean wild boar stew over pasta for dinner, which I barely had room for after stuffing myself with antipasto (local pecorino cheese, prosciutto crudo, crusty bread, homemade Montefiascone olive oil, etc.). The view from my table was nice, but I was too busy eating and drinking to notice!
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Patrick says:
This should be called “View From…Heylookatthesegrapes!”
Does anyone else see this feature turning into “View From Look At Me Me Me and the Awesome Stuff I’m Doing. Me Me Me.”
(Nothing against you, James. I’m just against this entire thing.)
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Roland de Chanson says:
James, thanks for that. It’s mouthwatering just thinking about it. To be able to make your own home made olive oil and wine has got to be the pinnacle of earthly pleasure. Well, perhaps I exaggerate, but still ….
Also, I must disagree with Patrick. I think this theme has possibilities. I am already on the lookout for Aleatico di Gradoli.
Homegrown grapes? Est! Est! Est! Or rather Sunt! Sunt! Sunt!
This gives me an incentive to post a picture of a bunch of my dandelions freshly gathered from my patch of well diversified sward. Unfortunately the yield is insufficient to produce more that a thimbleful of the delicious wine which Brian Kaller (Restoring Mayberry blog) avers can be made from vintage dandelions. Ever optimistic, I have applied for a DOCG for all thirty species of weeds I cultivate.
BTW, which grapes are those? I am personally acquainted only with their post-fermentation recension as I think it barbaric to ingest those little bulbous things before the divine alchemy has transubstantiated them into the nectar fit for the immortals. Viva il lievito!