Weekend of sun, rain, wine and flowers

Last Friday after picking Iris up from school we went to visit a friend of hers. In fact the aim was to take the present they had made on her birthday which was too small and the mother had to change. But since the weather was extraordinarily beautiful the kids were invited for a couple of hours' swim in the little pool our friends place in their garden every summer. While Iris and her friend were playing in the pool Sander got a 'pool' of his own as you can see in the picture :-)

After more than a week of sunny and hot weather yesterday it got dark in the middle of the day as if it was winter and it began raining.. raining as if it had never rained before, that the clouds were so anxious to pour down water enough for a whole month for the plants in our gardens and the fields... In just five minutes water was coming through all the windows and doors of our house! We were running around the house with my husband to close all the blinds and dry the floors. Yet, in the afternoon it was sunny and the streets were all dry.

This weekend all the wine producers in Italy had their cellars open to public. It was possible to visit the estates, see their cellars and taste their wine. Having a house right in the middle of vineyards we decided to visit the Poggio Casciano Estate, which is across the street to our house and the owner of all the vineyards around us. Clicking the link you can see the beauty of this estate. They have a classical cellar which is very stylish and well kept. This was my first time in a guided tour to a cellar and I learned that:

- though they harvest the grapes usually in September this year they are planning to do it one month earlier due to the early arrival of summer
- once the grapes are picked up by hand they are placed on a huge table and chosen grain by grain if they are to be used for the production of Brunello (one of my favorites; my first choice, however, is Nobile)
- the grapes are left in huge fermentation tanks for about 2-3 weeks
- in these tanks the temperature is kept constant using a layer of water between the metal tank and the grapes inside, which can be heated to the desired temperature
- there is constant current in these fermentation tanks in order to avoid the formation of a crust of the skin of grapes on the top since it is the skin that gives the color and most of its taste to the wine
- Sangiovese type of grapes don't have a skin that can give color, so some percentage of other types of grapes are added as 'colorant' to this kind of wine during fermentation
- after fermentation the wine is transfered to wooden barrels. It is the contact that the wine has with these barrels that gives the odor and taste of different fruit, tobacco etc taste that we get in our mouth when we drink the wine.
- the smaller the barrel the more contact wine has with it and the more concentrated the bouquet will be.

After our short visit to the wine cellar we went to Antella, where they had a little market of plants. I couldn't stop myself as usual and we came back home with 4 new flower pots. Our tour out lasted less than two hours but it was a refreshing change before starting another routine week...

This afternoon there is the End of the Year Show of Iris' class at her school. I will write about it tomorrow.