Castello di Potentino

Thursday, 10 May 2012

Andiamo a Roma- Degustazione alla Galleria Alessandra Bonomo

VINO

GALLERIA ALESSANDRA BONOMO

Via del Gesu’ 62 cortile B, Roma

degustazione: venerdì, 18 maggio ore 17-20

www.bonomogallery.com / www.potentino.com

Andiamo a Roma- Dinner 18th May 2012

POTENTINO a ROMA

venerdì, 18 maggio, 2012

INVITO CENA SU PRENOTAZIONE

Ex Osteria 41, Viale Ostiense 41 - Ore 20:30

Castello di Potentino tra Maremma,

vino e Cucina Romana

Venerdì, 18 Maggio, 2012

Evento Roma

Nel cuore della Maremma toscana ... Charlotte Horton, vignaiola ed enologa

dei suoi vini, ha trasformato Castello di Potentino in un vero e proprio centro

culturale della Maremma. Le battaglie di Charlotte per la salvaguardia del

territorio, segnalate anche nella guida Slowine , saranno al centro di una cena

dove la DOC Montecucco sarà abbinata alla cucina romana di Alberto Albanesi.

Antipasti misti della casa:
Salumi,formaggi e mozzarelle di bufala -

bruschette miste -Cocci alla romana: coratella, pajata e trippa

Primi
Tonnarelli cacio e pepe -Paccheri con cicoria, guanciale e pecorino

Secondo e contorni
Petto di vitello alla fornara -Verdure di stagione

Dolce della Casa

In abbinamento:
LYNCURIO 2010, PIROPO 2008, Balaxus 2008 e

Sacromonte 2007 e 2008.

Ex Osteria 41, Viale Ostiense 41, Roma Soci 35€ - non soci 40€

www.potentino.com

www.slowfoodroma.it/news/castello-di-potentino-tra-maremma-vino-e-cucinaromana

www.lacantinadimarco.com/1/

CENA

venerdì, 18 maggio, ore 8.30pm

prenotazioni & info : Andrea Petrini 377.1615140

www.exosteria41.com

Ex Osteria 41, Viale Ostiense 41, Roma

Contatti & ulteriori informazioni

Charlotte Horton

Castello diPotentino

–

348 288 1638

charlotte.horton@potentino.com

Monday, 27 February 2012

Potentino Goes to Ireland 29th February-2nd March 2012

So... Charlotte and I are off to the Emerald Isle for a whistlestop tour with Stuart of Fromvineyardsdirect Ireland. If you know of any potential Potentino fans in Ireland, do spread the word!

Wednesday 29th February

Sebastian Guinness Gallery, Dublin

6:30pm onwards

Tasting with Fabio's Amiata Salami and Aldo and Angela's Unpateurised Pecorino Cheese

Address:

42 Dawson Street,

Dublin 2

Thursday 1st March

The Hunt Museum, Rutland Street, Limerick

7pm

Dinner

€46 (including three glasses of wine, one of each)

Please book via FVD's website here

Friday 2nd March

The Science Gallery, Pearse Street, Dublin 2

6pm

Dinner

€50 (including three glasses of wine, one of each)

with a talk from Charlotte

Please book via the Gallery's website here

Dinner Menu

Pasta with Bottarga Pesto (served with Piropo)

A tasting of the new season olive oil

Sausages cooked in wine, Fave e Foglie (broad beans and bitter greens) (served with Sacromonte)

Unpasteurised Cheese from Angela and Aldo's flock of sheep raised on Monte Amiata (with Lyncurio)

Chocolate pots with Maldon Salt and Lavender and Potentino Olive oil.

All our ingredients will come from Italy or sourced locally in Ireland.

If you can't make it... but would like to buy some wine...

Charlotte's wines can be ordered from From Vineyards Direct Ireland or UK.

Ireland

Please click here for the Piropo and here for the Sacromonte. Delivery is free. The Lyncurio is also now available too.

Thursday, 9 February 2012

Snowy Potentino

We are in the midst of a week of proper wintery weather. Minerva, the Great Dane is loving the snow. I thought I would post some photographs. Mini really didn't know what to make of Robi's snowman... she hid...

Wildflower and Foraging at Potentino

It is hard to imagine, given that it is snowing outside here at Potentino, that in 4 months time, we will be sorrounded in a green paradise of orchids and wildflowers and that we will be foraging for some of the wild plants to eat.

One of the most extraordinary things about our valley, owing to its lack of modern agricultural practices, is that we have an amazing variety of flora here- along with wonderful insect life and birds. The orchids are so prolific that at times you have to tiptoe through the fields. We even have the very rare lizard orchid.

May is a great moment to come and visit - picnics in the olive groves, walks along the valley and trips to some of the local sites will be organised. We will have a wildflower and foraging expert on hand to help you find and identify plants and to give you guidance on what to pick to eat. Charlotte and I will then cook foraged ingredients for your dinner. One of our favourite dishes in May is the first feathery sprouts of wild fennel: lightly cooked with anchovies and a little garlic and olive oil they make a delicious pasta sauce. For the foodies, I am sure there will be even more treats in store.

Other highlights include:
A visit to the wonderful gardens at La Foce, the renaissance jewel of Pienza and to the local monastery at Sant' Antimo.

The Details
The course will run from 16th-22nd May and costs £1,100.
The cost will include your stay and all food and wine at Potentino for 6 nights. It does not include flights or any meals outside of Potentino (during the day trip away).

Booking
Please book by sending me an e-mail at alexander.greene@potentino.com

Getting to PotentinoFlights to Pisa Airport are easiest, although one can fly to Rome or Florence and hire a car. We will be collecting people from Pisa prices to be confirmed depending on numbers.

We have written directions for those who wish to hire a car.

Wednesday, 19 October 2011

The wine is in the vats...

And has now been bubbling away for while so while the olive nets are being repaired and things calm down, I thought I would say a few things about harvesting grapes.

As an annoying younger brother, I tend to ask questions of my sister about the whole winemaking process- this is my first full year of production so I have a lot of questions and one of them was why we do so much by hand...

So this is what Charlotte adds:
Many estates use machines to remove leaves. This is often done without observation of the particular conditions of individual plants or consideration of the weather. Forecasting what the seasons will bring is a core part of winemaking and fine-tuning in the vineyard can improve or save a harvest. Working robot-like to a standardised calendar has created many problems including the spread of fungal infections of the vines and is not kind to the vines.

This year has been a very difficult year for most of the vineyards in Italy- a cold, wet July followed by a very hot and dry August lead to grapes that in some vineyards resembled raisins rather than fresh grapes as the vines were sucking back all the water back into the plant to save themselves. Not ideal- we widely hear reports that quantities are down by more than 30%- the vine equivalent of the Great Depression...

But we have managed to avoid the raisin issue completely by leaving a lot of leaves on the vines this year providing extra cover. This wouldn't be possible if we didn't work by hand. The result is that we have actually produced the same amount as last year and we are very happy with the quality as well.

Look at these

When it comes to picking the grapes, the mechanical harvester is incredibly violent, potentially damaging to the vines and to the grapes both, which leads to wounded vines and fermentation before the grapes reach the cantina. But perhaps more important, it takes out that human element of selection- particularly important for the pinot noir where there are a lot of small secondary bunches of grapes that aren't as sweet or as ripe at harvest time- that leaves out all but the healthiest grapes.

I leave you with a clip of video of a mechanical harvest- I certainly wouldn't want to be a vine in their vineyard...