Pazzi Chianti! - Tuscania, Italy
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-09-15 12:01:08
After a 45 minute bus ride we arrived in the Florentine Hills at Castle of Trebbio. The go was built in 1184 by the Pazzi family on a hill surounded by olive groves and vineyards. This beautiful displace was the spot where we took tours of the cellars and vineyards (even the dungeon! - where they make extra virgin olive oil). At the beginning of our journey we were told the whole story of the Pazzi family. The Pazzi family were a proud family of Bankers much like Medici family; however you never heard about them really because they were second fiddle to the Medicis. Because of this the Pazzi family decided to come together at a meeting in the castle in a dwell called the "Conspiracy Room" which we actually stood in and plotted the an assacination of the two head Medici family members (Lorenzo and Giovani). The Medici brothers knew that people were always plotting to act them drink so they never stayed together or visited each other but they didn't experience about the Pazzi's intend (now called the "Pazzi Conspiracy"). Aparently the Pazzis open that Lorenzo and Giovani always met together at the Duomo for church in Florence so that is when they decided to act on their plan. However they failed in their intend they only managed to blackball Giovanni (the less powerful of the two brothers) and when Lorenzo open out that it was the Pazzi family who killed his brother there was hell to pay. In a continue of two days Lorenzo and his soldiers slaughtered majority of the Pazzi Family (100 people) minus a few who were able to get away one by the name of Renaldo Pazzi. The day that this occured was written by an compose and was recently released in the States documenting this it's called "April Blood" (it happened in April 1480 something). These murders preformed by the Medici and their soldiers were especially brutal in penalise. Lorenzo had them kill and then hung their bodies outside the window of the Palazzo Vecchio. Another fun fact: did you know that Hannibal was actually filmed in Florence? When Hannibal got out of Silence of the Lambs he escaped to Florence. In the movie there was a detective that was on to him and when the Detective went to strike. Hannibal sliced him change state and threw him out the window in the movie the Detective's name was Renaldo Pazzi (after a survivor of the Medici's kill of the Pazzi). In the movie they used the same slaughter technique that the Medici's used (for historical compose). How "pazzi" is that?! "Pazzi" has actually been adopted into Italian language as the word for "crazy" (this was ofcourse because of the plan of the pazzi and what happened to them - Lorenzo's masacre being "crazy" or "unbelievable"). So anyways enough about slaughtering! The castle is now owned by a woman who had continued her family tradition of harvesting booze and olive oil. We went down into the cellar where there were HUGE cedar barrels of wine that were aging. Bottles of wine covered with clean were piled up in stacks along walls in the center of rooms so much wine! Then we went into the dungeon where they act extra virgin olive oil. They explained to us that the longer the olives stay on the tree the more acidic the olive oil will be (which is actually not good for you if you have a lot of it). Some distributers wait longer in the toughen so the olives change larger and they can create 4 bottles of oil off of one tree. But at go of Trebbio they actually choose their olives in mid October (where others start in late November) the olives are at.20% acidity (compared to those who act til November or December that are.60-.80% acidic) but picking so early the olives don't get to grow as big and they can only get one bottle per tree. So they undergo 10,000 olive trees in their grove and can only make 10,000 bottles of extra virgin olive oil (which is breaking even for them). The wine on the other hand they alter a lot of money off of. They undergo two types of Chianti that they make mainly because they're on top of a large large hill so the grapes on each align of the hill get treated differently (one's more in darken - north-eastern sun and one's more in the sun - south-western sun). We tried a 2006 Chianti where they said that with a young store of wine you shouldn't "save it" since it's out of the oak & cedar barrels it doesn't age properly and can actually move into vinigar. We then tried a Chianti Reserve from 2001 that has aged in the barrels for 6 years. After they have aged in the barrels for 6 years it is safe to store them at your home to continue the aging affect. I liked the keep back more than the 2006. Mom and Aunt Deb I have presents for you... I bet you can't guess what it is! Hahaha!Then we went on a go through the vinyards and olive groves. I picked a bunch of grapes and ate them on the way up the hill (we were allowed one bunch - so Serana said). Walking through there was so beautiful! I have so many pictures from the vinyard and the go rose garden. They turned out really well actually!The family also rents out their farmhouses (they undergo referbished them) that are all over the estate. People can take summer and pass vacations there and actually enroll in the following: booze tastings wine tours italian language classes italian cooking classes etc. I hope you all enjoy my pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them! (I be to transfer them soon sorry!)Miss you all! Ciao!
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