Travels of THB: Day 19: Calabria, Day 4

Day 19: Calabria, Day 4

Quote of the Day: Do we have a plan?

When not passed out from too much wine and food, we're having a great trip! And, you won't find many pics of THB without a hat and DB with one

Weather: Warmish to hot mid-day and overcast and humid

THB and DB do a morning walk and discuss our dilemma: two a days are pushing us into the red zone. So, we decide to talk to Rosetta and Kathrine (proprietress of the Borgo ) about staying back this evening. Both very open to it; we emphasize we want to go “lite” and agree that Kathrine will surprise us and dinner is not to exceed salads and veggies.

Waiter at dinner last night propping THB up

Breakfast and blogging while the wifi is still relatively unused and usable for downloading pics to blogspot. The rest of the day is devoted to Cantina Librandi: winery, vineyards, vista, and lunch. One of the best winery tours we’ve taken, Katrin’s husband, Paolo, is one of the co-owners (with a brother and a cousin) of either the first or second largest winery in Calabria, 2 million bottles a year.

Our spot for the day

Grapes being manually processed

Paolo

Red juice overflowing

Our timing is great, we see the harvest and activity in the winery

Each vat holds about 63,000 bottles worth, and there a lot of tanks...a lot of tanks

They have a small wine library, most of the bottles were supplied by customers who had stored them away...this one looks like it barely survived a mudslide. THB and DB had some bottles go underwater on Trestle Glen, and saving the labels to know what we were drinking wasn't easy

After THB promised no more vat pics, here's the second of the day's post. These are truly minis, where they are testing various small samples of unique blends or varietals. Cute, no?

Much of the area was heavily influenced by Greek occupation back in the twilight zone

We go to prune (not done) and taste (done a lot) in this mandala of a vineyard. Every varietal is represented, sometimes changing every 5 vines.

Some stats: 60% DOC (gotta follow the rules of the region) and 40% IGT (you don’t follow all the DOC rules); their top wine by far is a rose, perfect for the warm weather in Calabria; they have 30 permanent employees to tend the large property; and they produce 75% of their own grapes and buy approximately 25% from other suppliers, some of which have a tight enough relationship with Librandi that Librandi’s agronomist is in charge of the supplier’s vineyards.

We visit a part of the property where they have all their various varietals growing in the shape of a mandala. Lots of picking and tasting off the vine; luscious, usually sweet with thick skins and small seeds as it is the picking season.

It's a little harder than picking ollallies, warm grapes fresh off the vine is helping take the edge off the heat

Some want the thrill of riding on the back and two want the shade of riding in the cab

DB and THB ride in the cab with Paolo and he gives us an understanding of the economics of hiring full-time employees (there’s basically no firing). Paolo refuses to hire migratory workers, feels they get ripped off by the contracting firms. Unions are very powerful, in fact his “field hands” are unionized and only get paid for days worked which is every day it doesn’t rain. The office staff gets paid for 14 months (extra pay in June and December), gets 3 paid weeks off and also almost impossible to fire. Nobody gets paid a lot by US standards, they do make enough to live comfortably in Calabria.

There's a story in this pic, as THB drops a cliff-hanger clue or two

The Mandala is pretty much center right, not easy to see at this elevation

THB is standing on the road. A few feet to his left the vines are dying and will be pulled

A few feet to THB's right, the exact same varietal in same planting structure going down the hill is thriving. The soil facing a different direction is more salty and clay like and the vines can't survive. They will try a different varietal and hope for best.

Manual picking on the slopes, heavy and hot work

Lunch is another lite lunch…yeah, right: 5 or 6 appetizers; 2 or 3 primo courses, 2 or three segundi courses, fruit, 2 desserts (it’s another b’day cake today), 5 wines, dessert wine, coffee. Very lite; about a quarter of the way through, then halfway through, then near the end (if only we could tell what “ the end” means when it comes to meals) we remind each other we made a great decision not to go out tonight.

Paolo's cousin is the chef today

The before pic: the table is empty. Won't last long in this state

The menu for today. Meititura is Italian for this were we stick a lot of courses aka Harvest

Kathrine (Paolo's spouse) is explaining the appetizers...she starts too early because several more come to the table

Gosh, THB migrates to the fried food...really good

No more pics of wine...except THB falls off the wagon for the bubbly spumanti

potatoes and peppers

Purslane (a weed) salad, excellent

Bus has wifi…except the computer shakes so bad THB get nauseous. We’re starting to find the simpatico members of the tour (yep, hard to believe THB can be discerning about anything when he’s drunk half his waking hours and overly food sated on top of the excess drink).

Two glasses of same wine from different bottles, and NO, THB is not tasting each bottle as it is poured

Eggplant

We have one member of tour who has/is Celiac. For this course he gets spicy scrambled eggs, very similar to what THB orders at Bette's on 4th street

Smoked ricotta pasta. Not to THB's taste, he leaves his pretty much untoucheed

Not so in the kitchen, it's a big hit!

Magliocco is one of two big varietals in this area

The other is Gaglioppo. Think Cab and Chard in napa

Cactus fig or prickly pear or tuna...tons of seeds, not a lot of flavor

Light ginger cake

Happy b'day to you, happy b'day to you, and terrific cream filled cake. THB doubles down on this dessert (desserts at lunch are rare, mostly fruit is usually served)

Yet another no pic pic. This Le Passule, a dessert wine, THB finishes his (so much for an alcohol free Wednesday, this is party on Thursday)

Almost our wedding year

More bottles like the Ippolito Riserva

When we return, there is a wedding going on at the Borgo with about 100 attendees. The DJ can be heard all over the property though all the action is at the pool. There is a moment of sparklers going off near the wedding cake (made by the bride and groom, they own a bakery) and that kicks off the dessert course. It’s nearing 7pm and the rest of the tour is gathering at the bus.

When we return, the wedding party is at the pool....OHHHHH NOOOOOO!

The fireworks indicate it is time to have dessert

The groom is holding up the wedding dress train

That's the cake just to right of the kid who wants the first piece (the cake is bigger than he is)

We have a very simple dinner: shredded ice berg lettuce, balls of cheese, olives and tomatoes salad, a few rolls, a shared glass of bubbly, and a plate of what we think is pecorino (enough for 3 nights).

Our dinner, the rest of the tour gets back at 11-ish....

Ready for bed before 9pm

Pics from here and there:

THB's arty shot of the day: there's a small fire burning on the right and smoke in the air

Lots of hill towns. When the area was settled, the natives stuck to the hills inland to avoid invaders (Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Vintners, Tomato sellers)