La Fattoria di Petroio comunica che nell'annualità 2021 ha ricevuto aiuti di Stato per 15722,00€ come contributi a fondo perduto per il mancoato fatturato dovuto all'emergenza COVID.

In the heart of the Campi Flegrei, a stone's throw from the magnificent remains of the city of Cuma, the first Greek city in Italy, on Monday, the 26th of November, Pamela Lenzi, co-owner of Fattoria di Petroio hosted a Wine tasting at the home of Doctor Nannini. 
The 9 guests were a group of American women living in Naples and the wives of the American military forces abroad.
 
The lunch menu was created by Diana Lenzi to enhance the four Fattoria di Petroio wines presented.
As well as a general introduction to Fattoria di Petroio and the family who own and manage it, each wine was presented and explained to the guest as each of the various courses were served.
 
The Wines and Menu were as follows:
 
Poco Rosso 2017   served nicely chilled as an aperitive with toasted salted almonds, prunes wrapped in bacon and grilled, green olives, and taralli.
 
Poggio al Mandorlo 2016   was accompanied by three crostini:  Tuscan home made chicken liver pate, fettunta with freshly pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil 2018 harvest, and soft oven warmed bread with sage & olive oil cannellini beans
 
Chianti Classico 2015  nicely pared with the main dish, Gnocchi di Semolina alla Romana & home made meat sauce.
 
Chianti Classico Riserva 2014 complimented the rich wheatless Dark Chocolate Hazelnut cake and vanilla ice cream.
 
Gran Selezione Poggio ai Grilli 2015 was introduced with a reading of the story behind the wine as told be Diana Lenzi.  It was not part of the wines tasted but presented with the possibility to order it as well as any of the other wines and the new olive oil presented.

This is the second lunch/tasting that Giulia Nannini has graciously organized with her friends in Naples to help the wines from Fattoria di Petroio to become better-known and available for purchase within the American community living in Naples.
 
The women were all invited to come to visit Petroio in the future.

In 2013 the Consorzio del Chianti Classico introduced a new type of wine in its quality pyramid: the Gran Selezione. The desire of the associates and of the Consorzio was to elevate the standards of production and exalt the typicity of Sangiovese from the Chianti Classico territory, and therefore improve the perception of the public on the denomination of Chianti Classico itself. The wine was to be composed of at least 80% Sangiovese, the grapes were all to be estate grown and the wine had to be aged at least 30 months. 
I remember the debate on the disciplinary being very animated and in my own personal opinion I found the rules were not precise enough to really and truly express and guarantee a different and totally “Grand” product.  In our wine production at Petroio all those rules were already employed in producing our Riserva, which was for us the true “punta di Diamante” (diamond tip) of our vinification process.  I decided that until I had something truly different to offer to my clients I was not going to degrade our Riserva, or just change a label on a bottle, and was going to hold back from producing the Gran Selezione. 
 
Those were also the years in which we were working on our special vineyard, Poggio ai Grilli. After a dispute with technicians of the Province of Siena on some varietals present in my small patch of white grapes from which we did Vinsanto, I was encouraged by Professor Bandinelli from the University of Pisa (an important institution in our territory as far as clonal knowledge is concerned) to protect those varietals and try to re-propagate them.  A challenging project yet a fascinating one! Therefore, I decided to go all out and not only work on the white varietals but with all the old clones present in our vineyard planted in 1958. So from 2011 to 2014 my staff and I spent time in that vineyard, identifying clones and then taking specific selected cuttings of Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Malvasia Nera, Colorino, Malvasia Bianca and Trebbiano to a nursery in Viareggio. The nursery used the gems on the cuttings to graft new shoots that were first planted in an“experimental vineyard”, to ensure that they were healthy and free from any diseases. Following this step they were then brought back to shoots and parked in a refrigerated room while waiting for more to arrive the following year. That is how we managed to produce the over 11.000 barbatelle (rootstocks), that were planted in our 3ha Poggio ai Grilli vineyard in the spring of 2015. 
 
My idea at the time was that if I were ever to do a Gran Selezione it would come from that special vineyard that had the true heart of Petroio in it, and was a true grand selection of Petroio. 
 
Meanwhile our usual annual productions were coming along with,as always,better vintages and harder ones. Since 2012 we were converting over to organic farming and were working to overcome the initial challenges of seeing the vines adapt to the new “therapy” against disease. 2013 had been a, small in quantity, but extremely rich in quality vintage, while 2014 had just been the toughest and hardest vintage and harvest of all. A rainy and cold summer with hardly any sun had really challenged us all. We lost over 2/3 of our production that year but ensured that our wines still stayed at the standard of quality that our clients were used to.  
 
So when the first day of harvest of 2015 arrived I think we were all just blown away by how beautiful those abundant ripe healthy grapes looked.  We had had a wonderful growing season, with just the right amount of sun, warmth and rain to make the vineyards thrive. 
My staff and I stood around our sorting table looking at the grapes and really not finding anything worth throwing out. And knowing how picky we all are I still recall it as a miracle. 
We did notice however that every once and a while that first morning of harvest one of us would pick up a grape and show it off to the others: “look at this one” and “did you see this one??” and “have you ever seen anything like this?” was all we could say. And that is when the idea hit. We decided that the next morning we were going to go into the field with our pickers and instruct them on what specifically to pick. We wanted to do a single barrel of grapes that had five stars: the BELLI BELLI BELLI BELLI BELLI grapes. 
I woke up the next morning at 6:00 full of excitement and thrilling new energy, but with the typical broken back of Day Two of harvest. I took Maribò for her usual morning walk and stopped in front of the Poggio ai Grilli vineyard to stretch. And that is exactly when this picture was taken. 

We spent that morning in the Vigna del Viale, 100% Sangiovese planted in 2008, with the pickers. We instructed them on what to pick and then brought back about 15 bins (3000kgs) of grapes to the cellar that were crushed and put in a 40hl barrel. We allowed spontaneous fermentation to happen and kept the must on the skins for a little short of three weeks. We treated that barrel as our golden child, while running around the cellar like crazy people in one of the most high in quality and quantity harvests we can remember. 
 
In December when the wine was finally cleaned off of the dregs,we placed it in our 22,50hl “Pamela 50” barrel, where we left it to age for almost 30 months. During that long period we were constantly watching over our special wine, airing it when it was needed, cleaning it from more residual deposit and making sure the process was always going well, by testing the wine in alaboratory. 
 
In June 2018 we sent the wine to be approved as Gran Selezione and it passed immediately, allowing us to put it in bottle bymid June. We alsodecided that this special new wine needed a special new packaging,  that would distinguish it asthe very exclusive and unique product it is. We picked a very important bottle, had very particularwooden boxes createdespecially for it, so that all the 750ml bottles will come in horizontal wooden cases, and finally we decidednot touse a regular capsule, but rather a shellac top.


When it came to choose a name for the wine there was no doubt that it would be called Poggio ai Grilli, in honor of the project we hope soon to complete with our historic vineyard. However, when an image needed to be choosenit was much more complicated. We wanted something original and modern, that would set this wine aside from our other wines. We wanted something representative of the vineyard, our work, and the uniqueness of the story behind this wine, maybe also the fatigue of it. 
And that fatigue was exactly what lead us back to that particularphoto, taken that morning during harvest, right before the wine was about to come to life.
​It all made sense. 

Harvest is definitely the most intense period of the year for any wine Estate, both for the necessary preparations prior to the actual harvesting and the final “cleanup” of grape juice/new wine, cellar equipment and surroundings. Daily wake up call seems to be earlier as each day goes by with another full day of demanding work ahead!  But the effort, the fatigue, the daily stress is all worth it when one considers the love and passion and great care that go into selection, making sure that every grape of Sangioveses is perfect. And at that point you don’t care if you have spent over 12 hours between the vineyards and the cellars and the pumping over twice daily; it is all done with the passion every wine maker has for his wine, his collaborators and his final clients. And the final joy and compensation comes when a smile lights up the face of someone who just took a taste of the your wine, created and cared for with your own hands.
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From the 2016 Harvest we may surely expect these hoped for results, since our strong and healthy vines have given birth to a grape must of intense and very pleasing aromas, while our supreme commander Mother Nature, gave us a perfect season for the grapes to mature.
 

And for those who were not able to come by and see for themselves here are a few photos of our 2016 harvest and a video showing the various phases of the production cycle.

​No stopping now!     That’s the first motto for anyone passionate about their job and especially when they are travelling to promote and present their products! Non-stopping now is my mantra repeating itself in my head every time I get ready to head out for a new promotional adventure. So time to prepare another trolley, time to give extra hugs to the often-abandoned dog, and another flight with no sleep before departure (which especially when the flight leaves at 6AM is not my fault!)  So it’s time to return to Seattle and Portland, to see friends and colleagues, to promote and present Petroio in the land of the stars and stripes, thanks to the paring of wine and cooking by my own every ready hands. I had barely time to land, drop luggage and I was off to Calabria Italian Restaurant in Mill Crick for a wine Tasting of Chianti Classico 2012 and Chianti Classico Riserva 2010, organized by the Estates Groups Import Specialist. About 70 very “happy campers” spent 4 Happy Hours with us, tasting, snacking, enjoying anecdotes and stories from Petroio.  And the following evening it was Ten Mercer’s turn to host a Happy Hour with their customer seated at the bar tasting our wines which were pared nicely with 5 small plates and lots of good conversation while I poured and chatted with them from behind the bar. 

Of course as in all my other visits to the States I had to prepare a special dinner to highlight for the guest Italian expertise and excellence in the kitchen! However, so far in Seattle, my mother’s place of birth, I had never had the opportunity to do a special dinner. This time we were able to organize a very special evening at the wonderful private dinning facility, The Ruins. Featured as Guest Chef and Winemaker, Diana Lenzi, for me it was a perfect opportunity to prepare for 35 guests, all the best delicacies of the Tuscan cuisine.

Small fresh basil fritters on a bed of arugula, zucchini e aged salted ricotta
Cream of chickpea soup with Pioppini mushrooms, pancetta (Italian slab bacon smuggled in from Italy) wrapped shrimp and a hint of rosemary
Asparagus Risotto with lemon zest and baby goat cheese
Pork tenderloin with a Sangiovese grape jelly glace accompanied by spicy, dark-leaved kale and roasted almonds
Panna cotto and Choco&Wine  (sweetened cooked cream served with a special chocolate sauce made of Petroio Riserva wine and bittersweet chocolate)

All ably pared and accompanied by lots and lots of Petroio wine

It was a magical evening, emotionally rich and very satisfying for everyone! 

​The week did not end there but continued at a high, intense pace with many visits to old and new clients to plan new future events and to taste and introduce our new and present vintages: Chianti Classico 2012 and Chianti Classico Riserva 2011 & 2010, the real protagonists of the work week.
Saturday, a back to back tastings at McCarthy & Schering’s two stores with Dan McCarthy on Queen Anne and Jay Schiering on Ravenna NE we closed the week “in bellezza” Beautiful Ending!
 
After a mini break over the weekend with family and friends, on Tuesday I was off to Portland, feeling excited and happy to be going almost home, away from home.
Here too the week was full of programmed events and some that just came about as the week progressed.
The first tasting was at Enoteca Vino, followed by Liner & Elsen Wine Merchants on Quimby St., our longtime clients and friends, and finished at AgriVino Restaurant di Carlton.

​And with all the Portland meant for me in 2014 during my stay there why not honor that memory by preparing a Gala dinner at the Italian Restaurant Ciao Vito, with my dear much adored, boss and mentor, Vito Di Lullo? And while we were at it why not go beyond the traditional style, fixed menu, served course by course and offer our diners an ‘a la carte’ menu with a series of dishes that they could pick and choose from at their pleasure?   
And thus the idea was born a wine dinner like this:

Pici, handmade pasta, with cured pork cheek, fried eggplant, tomato confit, and aged, salted ricotta and mint
              with Chianti Classic 2012
Lamb shoulder with lemon zested potato flan, and red swiss chard.
             with Chianti Classico Riserva 2011
Tiramisu Chianti style with home made almond biscotti and vinsanto
             with Vinsanto Petroio 2015

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Then the final appointments, that were just as important as the previous one, including a Staff meeting with the Estates Group team at the home office of Young’s Market Company, where during those days a large study was underway regarding the Territory of Tuscany followed by a quick drive down to Eugene to pour our wines at the prestigious Admiralty table at Young’s Market Road Show.

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After my intense and successful visit came to its end I came home to my land, because here too at Petroio, we never do finish our working towards our goal of producing an ever better wine for the tables and cellars of our clients and friends!




In order to publicize the unique quality of our wines in America, I will…never stop…because the experience is fantastic and gratifying and overcomes the fatigue, diminishing all those hours of lost rest and sleep.

In accordance with the established tradition on the 22nd of May we celebrated our annual
Festa del Borgo at Petroio: a hot, sunny day filled with emotion and happiness and lots of festive people from Quercegrossa and surroundings.
It’s always a wonderful party and always proceeded by a long and careful preparation for the abundant food and drinks offered to guests. Diana in charge of the organization executed by Pamela, Gian Luigi and lots of faithful family members and friends.
The Festa started, as always, with the Holy Mass celebrated in the Church of San Michele Archangel, the once Parish church of Quercegrossa restored by the Lenzi family in 2002.
Following the mass the fields and farm are blessed to assure good health and crops.
Since the restoration in 2002 the family has been happy to renew the old traditions and open the church to many people who grew up at Petroio and for many years attended Mass here.
And after the spiritual comes the libation with Tuscan tapenades, cold cuts, local cheese, and homemade desserts accompanied generously by our Wonderful Chianti Classico 2011, offered to all the locals who wanted to pass a warm, friendly afternoon in the country. The afternoon continued with Professor Gian Luigi grilling sausages and ribs assisted by family and friends in an effort to keep the locals a bay until the meat was cooked!
And then everyone danced, from 10 to 90 no one was excluded and Gian Luigi and Pamela joined in to add to the already happy dancing crowd. The dancing is always a good way to help a few acquired calories disappear and the local orchestra and music by Borgogni always provide a variety of music and songs from folk to pop and even some traditional Sienese chants!
All marvelously framed within the scenic Borg of Petroio and the surrounding Chianti countryside of Castelnuovo Beradenga.



The following video provides evidence of the Borgogni making the atmosphere merry and festive!

​We have just barely gotten over all the hard work of Vinitaly Fiera (where we returned actively for the first time since 2010), when already thousands of new projects and new travels fill up my day, my suitcases consuming rapidly all my energy.
The experience of participating in the collective stand of Classico Berardenga was unique and gratifying. In an area where competition reigns supreme, and where ones neighbor is viewed with malevolent suspicion, seeing 7 different wine properties working side by side in order to present and promote the marvelous territory that is Castelnuovo Berardenga, was a real eye-opener. Excellent was the tasting with the group of English and German buyers; excellent the presentation of the micro- vinification project by Leonardo Bellaccini from San Felice Winery, followed up with the tasting under the guidance of Davide Bonucci.
The message I brought home with me, after our 4 days together: my wine neighbor is not my competitor, but rather my ally!
 This after 6 days of being up and out at dawn, eating too much food, drinking even more wine, but knowing these routines were useful ramps for launching endless conversations and for taking long walks to work out the stress and strain, under the blessing of warm spring Verona skies.

Last, but truly liberating, an emotional  and celebrative toast to all the above!




And when I returned, with my weary bones and a sore throat on Thursday to Petroio… I quickly understood that nothing here had been waiting patiently for me, except my dog Maribò.
And so straight on with vines literally growing right before my eyes, (already 15cm long) we immediately accelerated work on the fencing around the vineyards, to keep the roe dear from munching on the new tender growth, yelled at the person responsible for returning our clean, perfectly overhauled equipment for spraying the vines, because it soon will be time for the first treatments and supervising the delivery of all the materials arriving to support and finish my new vineyard.



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However, as per tradition each year after Vinitaly the “Bacon Wagon” landed at Petroio in the form of Todd Bacon, our wonderful, faithful Italian wine expert representative for our importers in Oregon and Washington, who with his collaborators, post Vinitaly goes to visit other client wineries in the area. They use Petroio as a base camp and refuge at the end of their long days, and our quiet and direct chats with some glasses of Petroio wines in front of the fire, have served over the years to strengthen this collaboration and friendship. The group this year consists of people who are all from lake Oswego in Oregon which makes me laugh knowing that I will see them all again in less than 10 days…because yes, the trip is sealed, bags packed, ticket printed, and a full schedule waiting for me there.

So on Monday I am on my way back to Seattle. And also Portland. A series of seeds planted on my last visit have come to fruition and hence below you find all the places and events where in the next 2 weeks I will be promoting our wines and Petroio.
 
Monday April 25: Calabria Ristorante Italiano (Seattle)
http://calabriamillcreek.com/events/
Tuesday April 26: Ten Mercer Dinner&Drinks (Seattle)
http://www.tenmercer.com
Wednesday  April 27: The Ruins (Seattle)
http://theruins.net
Saturday  April 30: Mc Carthy and Schiering (Seattle)
http://mccarthyandschiering.com/free-tastings/fattoria-di-petroio-chianti-classico/
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Wednesday May 4th: Tasting at Vino (Portland)
http://www.vinobuys.com
Friday May 6: Ciao Vito (Portland) Guest Chef at Glass Pour
http://ciaovito.net
Saturday May 6: Liner and Elsen Wine Merchants (Portland)
http://www.linerandelsen.com/index.html
 
 

For the past four years I have dedicated one week of my time to one of my favorite Markets: New York.  Because… when you can walk down those bustling streets of the Big Apple and tell everyone that, yes, its work I’m doing here, then you know that you are really feeling lucky.
 
Since four years, that’s to say, since I once again found someone who distributes with passion and knowledge my wines, in this so unpredictable and complicated marketplace, VOS SELECTION’s owner, Victor, and myself have been inventing new, diverse, entertaining ways to get my wines, myself and Fattoria di Petroio Known.
This year we literally did a little bit of all the above!
 
Hence, my latest trip to New York started out with a wonderful lunch at La Sirena, a brand new, exclusive Italian restaurant owned by Joe Bastianich (who…even gave me a wink of his eye) and where I had the pleasure of presenting and introducing the wines from Fattoria di Petroio, while also getting myself reoriented after my, not so perfect, check in to the B&B I’d booked in Bushwick.
 
After a series of more wine tastings and presentations around Brooklyn and Manhattan, between Waterfront Wines & Spirits and New York Vintners, I prepared a gala dinner event at Victor Swartz home. Here, for his guests, I created an authentic Tuscan meal accompanied by the wines from our Estate We had lots of fun with the guests, 20 strong, crowding into the kitchen with me, as I taught them, hands on, (they actually took turns stirring the large pot) how to prepare a true risotto with baby brussel sprouts and cured pigs check (guanciale in Italian).
In this way we were able to allow 40 guests, including restaurant owners, wine buyers, top sommelier, food bloggers and wine critics, to taste and savor all that my land of Tuscany has to offer: small crostini or bites of bread with chicken liver pate and vinsanto gelatin served with Poggio al Mandorlo 2014; humus Toscan style (chickpea (garbanzo bean) spread with a hint of rosemary) with Chianti Classico 2011,; the “lesson” risotto served with Chianti Classico 2012 and then, especially nice, 2 of our Riserva Chianti Classicos, 2010 and 2011 to enhance a pork filet with a Chianti reduction, accompanied by spicy black cabbage (cavolo nero picante). And to finish the dinner on a high note, one of my favorite desserts, panna cotta with our exclusive Choco&Wine, justly paired with a Magnum of Chianti Classico Riserva 2007.
 
On Wednesday, after a long series of appointments, tastings and staff trainings (http://www.annisarestaurant.com), while walking about town I was, with great pleasure and enthusiasm, interviewed by Ray Isle, head editor of Food &Wine Magazine. On the wake of the great interest stirred up by a double page article in the Sunday New York Times, I was able to talk about and inform international listeners of an important and very real problem that wine growers in Tuscany have to address on a daily basis, precisely the excessive and growing presence of an overpopulation of wild boars and roe deer in our territory. It is, yes a “live and let live situation”, but only possible if affronted with great attention and precision (http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/what-drink-wild-boar).
 
The week continued with the usual frenetic New York rhythm. I had numerous and important meetings with old and new buyers, new and old clients, all thanks to the extremely efficient side by side work of the VOS Reps. And thus we decided to close the week down Cheers-fully with a Liquid Lunch on the premise of their offices where I prepared and presented to an important sommelier, Fattoria di Petroio, our wine Estate and our wines, 2 vintages for each type of wine (Chianti Classico 2011 e 2012, Chianti Classico Riserva 2010 e 2011, e Poggio al Mandorlo 2014).




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However, I could not leave New York without the now “traditional” Saturday wine tasting. In fact, for the third year now at Central Wine Merchants of Flemington we held a high level wine tasting event where I was able to meet new clients and also confirm the support of faithful fans of many years.
 
And so completely and totaly consumed but happy, I returned home to where spring awaited me, ever more proud to be able to travel abroad to represent, and tell the story about my beautiful Petroio.
 

I had always know that there was going to be during my time here in the NorthWest ONE specific week dedicated to the Portland market. 
I just guess you are never prepared enough for the Portland marathon: three wine dinners in a row, two of which involved my cooking too, an afternoon of wine pouring and tasting at The Cellar Door and innumerable stops at new and old clients, to say hello, share some news from Petroio and present the new vintages. 
Well it was so intense it has taken me almost three weeks to regain the energy and all of the material I wanted to share. 
Because my Portland week was and is all that this long stay in the Northwest is and was supposed to be: a new way of presenting Petroio, combining our delicious wines to my cooking, putting all the skills we have in play and creating a new and stronger bond with this territory and it's people. And I suppose also fattening me up a bit!

The two wine dinners where I also cooked part or all of the meal were at Gallo Nero and Nicoletta's Table, one on Tuesday the 4th and one on Wednesday the 5th. Those days though were dedicated to the market, so I had to get creative with the menus and prep for the first on Sunday and for the second on Monday, ultimating the meal only and hour before the arrival of the guest. Well I don't know how we did it, but thanks to the great people I worked with we pulled them both off with great results. At Gallo Nero I was preparing only the Antipasto and the dessert but that too could not have been done without the extra help and know how through that small italian sized kitchen of their staff!

It is my mission while I am here to explain and possibly teach something about italian food to the people I work with. Lesson number one in all the kitchens has been the use of the word BISCOTTI. For those who still haven't seen me freak out on this here is the lesson: BISCOTTI IN ITALIAN MEANS COOKIE: it is the word we apply for ALL cookies and not specifically for the ones americans call biscotti. Those are according to the region you are in CANTUCCI (tuscany), TOZZETTI (lazio), CANTUCCI DI PRATO...ecc. So if you are in Italy and ask for a Biscotti and are handed a cookie don't be surprised or offended: you got what you asked for!

My dinner at Nicoletta's Table was instead prepared between Monday and Wednesday and involved a whole four course menu I was really looking forward to prepare. Ossobuco with risotto alla Milanese was a must for this occasion and it turned out almost as good as my mom's! Also during these dinners I have tributing secretly the chefs that taught me while I was training many years ago, so this nights dessert was a special thank you to Giulio Terrinoni and his Cappuccino and Cornetto: the first dessert I ever fixed professionally. 

What made my Portland week truly special though was not the juggling between kitchens and wine presenting, but the incredible help and support that I got from our importer and friend Todd Bacon. He helped make all of this possible, got me in and out of accounts and back in the kitchen when I needed to, was there every single night presenting me and making sure that all went smoothly and also being my personal photographer. I could have never done it without him and his incredible team and his own personal love and appreciation for Petroio! 

So when all was cooked and all the wines were presented I was left the time to sit and enjoy all the wonderful guests of my dinners. New and old friends, people who have been or will come to Petroio. We are becoming a very large family and I could not be happier: