Celebrations

For the past several years, I've celebrated my birthday here in Spello accompanied by the Angelini family and Dr. C.  This year is a BIG one, and Dr. C. surprised me by flying in our daughter, son-in-law and son Ryan for the celebration.  Let me tell you no one celebrates like the Italians! 
Chef Marco Gubbiotti prepared our dinner, and for dessert, I'd requested a gelato cake from his gelateria Amandola. (best gelato in the world) 

Marco calls this one truffle carbonara: poached egg, crostini crumbs, pancetta, and truffles

Risotto with porcini and butternut squash

Pork two ways:  chop and mini-porchetta

A few days before the celebration my brother and his wife arrived for 3 days; we toured Gubbio where our grandparents were born, and enjoyed some family time here in Spello and Montefalco. 

On the day the entourage arrived, they were still here and got to enjoy lunch together with our kids.  It doesn't get any better than family gathered around the table. 

To further celebrate our family at Enoteca Properzio sent us to the Arnaldo Caprai winery for a wine tasting.  This is one of the largest producers here in Umbria, and the setting couldn't be better. 

Sagrantino, not quite ready

To say I was overwhelmed by the weekend would be an understatement. I'm so grateful to the family at Enoteca Properzio for arranging the celebration with my family this weekend, their generosity and love are astonishing, but then this is Italy, and their passion for what they do is evident every day.  Living here is one big celebration of love, food, and family.  Ciao for now.

Wining

Our friends are here from London and we asked our famiy at Enoteca Properzio if they could arrange a tour of the Arnaldo Caprai winery. Caprai is the largest producer of Sagrantino wine here in Umbria.  It's a great story, about how Arnaldo decided to take a sweet wine, used for mass with communion, and age it into an incredible robust red wine.  Sagrantino is only grown here in Umbria and at Caprai to tame the tanins in the wine, the grapes are aged in new French barriques.
We headed to Montefalco, one of the main wine growing regions here, where there is a Strada del Vini, or wine road.

We drove up to the gates, and then drove through the canopy of olive trees lining the drive way to get to the cantina.

Once at the top of the hill, we were welcomed into the tasting room, and on our way with our guide Francesca.  She was delightful, giving us a history of the winery, as well as telling us which wines were new, and how each was aged.

Caprai makes white and red wines, and this was an interesting cellar, below the tasting room.

Once outside Francesca told us about the different wines, and the winery's  partnership with the University of Milan to make the best wine in this area.

Once inside we were taken to the fermentation rooms, and then the aging rooms.  The smell of wine, and oak was delicious!

This is the bottling room, and although it wasn't in progress, I felt like it was a perfect place for an "I Love Lucy" episode.

Once the tour was over we were taken to the tasting room, and were seated outside on the terrace overlooking the vineyards.  We selected 2 whites, and a red, paired with cheeses, and salumi.  It was a grand feast, but we needed to get on, since we had a lunch reservation in Montefalco.

Grazie Enoteca Properzio for arranging this amazing tour, and to Francesca and Arnaldo Caprai for an awesome tour, and for making us feel so welcome.
On another note, il Giro di Italia is happening in this area today.  Think tour de France, only in Italy.  More on that in my next post.