Looking for Ferenc Mate

After spending Saturday night in the town of Castiglione del Lago on the shores of Lago di Trasimeno, we left on Sunday morning intent on going to the town of Montalcino to look for Ferenc Mate's house. Mate is the author of two books on living in Italy, The Hills of Tuscany and A Vineyard in Tuscany: A Wine Lover's Dream (both available through Amazon link at left). The first is a memoir about his move to Italy with his artist wife and their integration into the local life. The latter details the renovation of his current home near Montalcino and his creation of a world class winery. Since it was a Sunday when many wineries were holding "open cellar" for tastings we thought his might be among them.

On the way we stumbled across another mostra auto-moto (car and motorcycle show) which I talked about in the last post.

Our rationale for starting in Montalcino was that we would probably find his books in a touristy gift store and I recalled that in the back of the second was information about the winery. We parked our car and strolled through the town, another classic Tuscan hill town. The other tourists and the local people just leaving Sunday mass meant the narrow medieval streets and jewel box piazzas were pleasantly lively. The earlier rain had stopped and we strolled around taking in the activity and marveling at the tidy buildings and between them slices of patchwork quilt countryside.

As it turned out we did not find Mate's books but the woman in the tourist information office was very helpful. She even gave us a map and brochure listing the open wineries. Mate's was not open but we decided to see if we could find it anyway. However, before leaving Montalcino we stopped for "elevenses." The coffee we had was soooooo good we asked one of the baristas where we could buy it. They had it for sale there so we bought a quarter kilo and she threw in some packets of decaf for free. Unfortunately it is not widely available and we might have to go to Florence to find more. It is Caffe Mokalux--yum, yum!


A slice of view from Montalcino


More of the view from Montalcino. Wouldn't you like to live in this house?

A picturesque "garden" in Montalcino

After we left Montalcino the vineyards were all around us. I liked this view so much I asked Dom to stop so I could take this picture.

Eventually we found what we think is the road to Mate's house. However, we drove up it and it deteriorated into a rutted track. This might be his way of keeping curious fans at bay. It worked with us so we turned around and headed back to the "main" road. Along the way we passed this vineyard that had different color rose bushes planted at the end of every row. The roses are susceptible to the same diseases as grapevines but the pests, etc. affect the roses earlier. Thus, they act as "the canary in the coalmine" fror the vineyard.

We decided to go home via Grossetto. As Castello Banfi was along the way we decided to stop there for lunch. There is a very nice restaurant there but we did not see it until after we had eaten in the tasting room. The entire complex is incredibly beautiful and it is well worth a stop. There is a tasting room, the restaurant and a small museum that mostly focuses on glass and wine bottles.

I would love to go back and try the restaurant because the antipasto plate in the tasting room was excellent--two types of salami, prosciutto, pecorino cheese, marinated artichokes, pickled onions and good bread. It was the perfect lunch along with our glasses of Banfi Super Tuscan wine. Dom had the Summus and I had the Excelsus. The latter was so tasty I bought a bottle to take home.

The museum was interesting. Here is Dom surveying an exhibit of different types of wine bottles.

This was one of my favorite things in the museum--three failed demijohns. They certainly make interesting sculpture.

There were also a large number of beautiful pieces of antique glass.

The museum was located in part of the castle that must once have been the olive press. This is an interesting set-up to take some of the labor out of turning the press screw.

Quite appropriately a statue of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and good times, presides over the garden at Castello Banfi.

Did you know that the Banfi label was actually started by an upstart Italian-American family from Long Island? Here I thought it was an old and honored Italian family doing what they had done for hundreds of years. Amazing what one learns in a winery tasting room.