Wine of popes, writers and travellers  

                                              ©Mary Jane Cryan

         The vineyards  blanketing the  rolling hills in  Siena province  have become  the ultimate  icon of Italy and  a  lifestyle  to which many people  aspire.    Backing  this claim are the numerous postcard images, illustrated calendars  and autobiographical books  such as those by Montalcino wine producer Ferenc Màtè.

      Chianti was  the wine buzz word for our parents’ and grandparents’ generations, but the  straw covered flasks and chequered tablecloths have now given way  to the world class quality that justifies the astronomical prices reached by  Montalcino  labels at vintage wine shops and  wine auctions.  

     Over the  past decade  Brunello di Montalcino has become a wine of  almost mythical fame thanks to the  far-sighted promotion and marketing campaigns of its consortium members. If  wine was a mans’ game in the past,  the present day  thrust   is being engineered  by women proprietors and directors of the area’s premium wine  estates.

     The grapes of the Brunello variety mature at 5 years, age well up to 50 years and have a deep garnet red color which  only  improves with age.  Thanks to a  full bouquet and  harmonious body, the wines of Montalcino are  consistently of  fine quality. Perfect with  red meats and   game, they also make an excellent investment for those collectors who  can  resist opening and drinking their precious bottles.

     The vineyards, vicoli and piazze of Montalcino  have  seen a lot of history;  in the 1460s the  Tuscan poet, writer and refined bon vivant  who  later  became Pope Pius II , Aeneas Silvio  Piccolomini, mused that a table without wine is  like an organ without bellows, a woman without hair or  a family without children.  Piccolomini knew and understood wine, especially  that of Montalcino for  he was born in the  nearby  hamlet of  Corsignano. To honour his  humble birthplace he gave it a major “make over” changing its name to Pienza and transforming it into the ideal  Renaissance city  In 1462 he  likewise honoured  Montalcino, raising the city  to the status of Diocese.   

     Pius II Piccolomini travelled widely on diplomatic missions before becoming Pope and was an acute observer of countries and peoples. His voyage of  1435 to Scotland and England is recorded by Pinturicchio’s fresco in the Duomo of Siena.  Describing Scotland in his Commentaries  written after having ascended the throne of Peter, Piccolomini noted numerous faults of that faraway land: “the cities do not have walls... the horses are not groomed with iron brushes... nor do they have wine. “

      A century later another pope, Paul III Farnese, indulged his insatiable appetite for wine (and other pleasures) as he criss-crossed the Italian peninsula. At his side a faithful chronicler, his cellar master or bottigliere, Sante Lancerio who acted as a personal sommelier  procuring a seemingly endless supply of excellent wines for the papal table.  Lancerio also provided detailed descriptions of the body, aroma and other  characteristics of various wines giving us the first classification of Italian and foreign wine production upon which to base future  oenological studies .

Wine was considered  perfect for aristocratic gifts and bribes. Numerous diaries of the 15-18^th centuries mention the offering of  vini forestiere to visiting VIPs and barrels of prestige wines  and wheels of Parmesan cheese were regularly sent to England’s gourmet  king, Henry VIII .  

     Wine also played a part in the Italian Risorgimento. When English Foreign Minister Odo Russell paid his traditional New Year’s visit to Pope Pius IX on January 31^st  1860, he learned that  the Papacy was planning to enlist Irish volunteers as soldiers to help protect the church’s temporal power  from the encroaching unification troops of Garibaldi. The only thing holding them back was the fear that  the cheapness of wine in Italy might prove fatal to the Irish because of their notorious love of  drink.  

       Sophia Hawthorne , wife of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, was  perhaps the first female American wine writer. In her Notebook, published in 1869 she describes the donkeys  loaded with fruit and  little flat-sided barrels of wine, the wine hogsheads waiting to be cleansed and rinsed at  the fountains of Viterbo before being filled with the new wine and the men treading out the grapes in  great vats with their naked feet .

Unfortunately the Hawthornes did not get a chance to taste the velvety richness of  Montalcino’s wines for their itinerary bypassed  Siena. Their wine tastings consisted of the white Montefiascone  Est Est Est which Sophia described as “dissolved sweetened diamonds”  and  which came in small flasks for after the cork was removed the “tricksy spirit vanished speedily and the second glass lost its piercing efficacy. “

Mrs. Hawthorne, like most women, would have undoubtedly preferred  a glass of Brunello.  

 Photos courtesy of Candace Màtè  www.ferencmate.com