I Pastini Tasting

Martina Franca, Puglia, Italy. Tuesday 08-August-2022.

We signed ourselves up for a week's Italian course in Alberobello and, as schools are wont to do, they organise excursions for the benefit of the students. Unfortunately, having lived here for 18 years, we have visited all these lovely towns many, many times. So we decided not to avail ourselves of the team bonding opportunities and rather slip off home at lunchtime. However we did make an exception for this wine tasting.

I Pastini are wine makers we know well having consumed their products on numerous occasions and even visited the vineyard to buy wine but have never done the tour. We were greeted by the owner who welcomed us then handed over to our guide who took us on a tour of the vineyard, cellars and the tasting room, all conducted in English and partly in Italian.

They attribute the characteristics of their wines to three factors of the terroir: the soil which is calcarious and gives minerality to the grapes, the altitude of 350m above sea level which gives warm days for sugar and cool nights for acidity and the constant wind which helps blow away flies and other pests.

Their approach is "tradition in the vineyard and technology in the cellar": they only use local grape varieties and harvest by hand but then ferment in stainless steel vats. They don't use pesticides or fertilisers (the leftover skins and stalks serve the latter purpose) but when required they use the traditional "Bordeaux mixture" which still allows for biological certification.

They grow three indigenous white varietals: Verdeca, Bianco D'Alessandro and Minutolo. The latter was in danger of dying out so they sent cuttings to a research establishment in Locorotondo for cloning and subsequent replanting back in the vineyard.

Minutolo

Of the indigenous red grapes, they grow Susumaniello (used for rose and red) and Primitivo however there was no mention of the other important local variety, Negroamaro.

Susumaniello

Having had a tour of the facilities where they bottle 100,000 bottles per annum (forgot to take photos, sorry) we went into their custom-built tasting room which is a repurposed farm building. We got to taste five of their wines. Looking at their wine list we noted that about half their range is already sold out at the cantina.

The tasting was accompanied by classic Pugliese nibbles: friselle with tomatoes, taralli, olives and fried fava beans.

1759: Sparkling, Valle d'Itria I.G.P. Spumante Classico. Made by the classic champagne method from 100% Verdeca. Alcohol 12% ABV. Very pleasant with quite a yeasty palate. We have tasted this before and liked it however Mary found this one a bit too yeasty on the nose (possibly due to vintage variation). 

They also do a Spumante made by the Charmat method (fermenting in pressurised steel vats), same grape, same ABV; it was sold out and we did not get to taste it. 

Antico: Still white, Locorotondo D.O.P., from a blend of Verdeca 60% for acidity / freshness, Bianco D'Alessandro 35% for minerality, Minutolo 5% for aroma. They do not blend in the cellar, that is the mixture as grown in the vineyards and is harvested and processed all together. Very dry and minerally with refreshing acidity. Only 12% hence good for lunchtime or aperitif.

Rampone: Still white, Valle d'Itria I.G.P. Minutolo 100%, 12.5% ABV. More character than the Antico: quite fruity on the nose the but different on the taste.  Mary liked this one so we bought a six-bottle case. 

Arpago: Red, Puglia I.G.P. Primitivo 100%. Grown on a parcel of land they own down on the coast. Fruity, sweet, alcoholic (14% ABV). More to my taste than Mary's.

VersoSud. Red, Puglia I.G.P. Susumaniello 100%, 14% ABV. Fermented in steel, matured in French oak for six months. Grown on a parcel of land further south, hence the name (translation: Towards the South). We have also drunk this one many times before and we both like it so we bought six of these as well.

Fortunately we don't need to pay shipping charges: just pop the cases in the boot and take them home. Good to have some bottles ready for the expected influx of visitors later this month. Our friends are a thirsty lot!

Giardino Storico "Masseria Ferragnano"

Locorotondo, Puglia, Italy. Monday 29-August-2022.

A wonderful tour of a historic garden practically on our doorstep. The only Italianate garden south of Rome with a fascinating history. Ancient cedars, a collection of bonsai and formal gardens with statues of the months and seasons. Finishing up with a tasting of local wines.

We knew nothing of the existence of this amazing place but for the fact that our friends spotted a listing for a Passeggiata nel Giardino Storico con...calice di vino. We were met by our host Annalisa and the guided tour was given by Mimo. It was good practice for my Italian listening skills and fortunately Mimo spoke clearly and not too fast so I could follow most of what he said.

The gardens owe their existence to the fact that the one of the owners, Francesco Caramia, actually lived on the farm estate rather than in a palazzo in town like most landowners. This prompted him to beautify his estate, expanding the buildings and constructing the garden.

The garden has a rectangular plan with the sides having a ratio of 2:1, divided into eight flower beds sections with a gate on each side and fountain in the middle. 

Stairs and balcony at the back of the Masseria overlooking the garden.

View from the balcony.

The garden had twelve statues for each of the months of the year and four for each of the seasons.

There are no rivers in Puglia and water is a challenge; formal gardens require a lot of watering. Here Mimo was explaining part of the irrigation system: water from the roof was channeled across an archway and into a cisterna (water tank), one of many in the garden.

The forecourt between the Masseria and the Garden also had a sophisticated irrigation system that flowed twice round the flower beds and then out through channels under the paths.

The water is then fed to a large well under the central fountain.

Out through a side gate we visited the bonsai collection, not original to the garden but providing a home for the Valle d’Itria Bonsai Cultural Association.

One of my favourite bonsai.

And another.

At the opposite end of the garden is a hexagonal tea room and belvedere from which the owners could admire their garden or turn round and survey their lands.

View from the belvedere showing a number of the statues.

A panorama of the garden including one to the two ancient cedars.

The front of the Masseria. It looked familiar because we came to a concert here back in 2015 as part of the Locus Festival: George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic.

I was skeptical that the tour would take the two hours advertised but there was so much to learn. Finally the wine tasting from a local producer. The white was a blend of chardonnay and aglianico, the rose was negroamaro. Both very pleasant and quite low in alcohol - only 12.5 ABV, unlike a number of more potent wines from this far south.

The full history can be found on their FaceBook page: 

The origins of the Ferragnano masseria date back to 1500, following the liquidation by the Court Regia of the territory of Selva Monopolitana, of which Locorotondo was part of. His appearance was very different from now on. We can imagine her surrounded by trulli and cummerse. Two centuries later, the masseria became the property of Vitantonio Montanaro, doctor of law, born in 1694 and elected governor of Martina Franca in 1728. Having no kids the Dr. Montanaro left the masseria to the third and last wife, Maria Maddalena Pinto, who in her second marriage had Francesco Caramia from Giuseppe Caramia of Martina Franca. Francesco Caramia renovated the residential complex of the masseria, building in 1811, under the direction of the locorotondose architect Giuseppe Campanella, the master "mess" with the present monumental staircase, the church of 1812 and the "pit garden Torresco”, at the bottom of which he built, in 1833, a Belvedere pavilion from which he can admire the surrounding countryside and the Bell tower of St George’s Church, covered with shiny blue and white bricks

In 1847 Francesco Caramia named his universal heir Giovanni Basile, son of Martino Basile and Carmela Calella, on a pact that little Giovanni would go and live with Carmela Giovine, wife of Francesco Caramian. Giovanni Basile Caramia continued like his predecessor to beautify the garden, engraving in the stone verses insulting to the beauty and the badness of life.

Upon his death, the Ferragnano masseria passed to Opera Pia Basile-Caramia, having been buried by his grandson Giovannino Basile, to whom he had inherited all his belongings. With the money from the work pia the agricultural school was built, to educate the children of the poor farmers in the Municipality of Locorotondo.

The garden of Masseria Ferragnano is a monumental Italian garden, rectangular plant, surrounded on one side by a high fence wall, with two side entrances. There are eight flower beds, perfectly symmetrical, surrounded by wood hedges, in the center of which there is a fountain. Along the avenues, the garden is adorned with benches, columns, a couple of wells and 34 baroque tombstone busts that symbolize the months of the year, the seasons, virtues and some nymphs and goddesses. The verses engraved on stones and marbles make the garden even more precious. At the end of the garden, crowning a path reserved in the green, there is a terrace with balusters and towers, designed as a belvedere to spread over the surrounding countryside.

Since 1995 the Historical Garden and some premises on the ground floor of the masseria have been entrusted to the Valle d’Itria Bonsai Cultural Association which has made it their headquarters and provides continuous maintenance to make it fruitful for both exhibitions and little shows for celebrating weddings with rite civ.

Bingley Weekender 2022

Bradford and Bingley Rugby Club, West Yorkshire. Sunday 07-August-2022.

The original plan had been to spend Friday in York doing the tourist thing followed by York parkrun on the Saturday morning. Then a long drive down to Letchworth to spend Saturday evening with our friends. When Mary investigated the cost of accommodation the prices were ludicrous, presumably because it’s still peak holiday season. Decided to save York for an autumnal, off-season visit and devised an alternative plan.

We went and ran our NENDY (Nearest Event Not Done Yet) at Keswick, event #355.  A very level, scenic, out-and-back along a disused railway track starting from the old railway station. Then back home for a shower and the long trek south for a lovely evening with our friends Christine and Paul in Letchworth.

Mary had received an alert from a music app and discovered that Rag’n’Bone Man was appearing at the Bingley weekender on Sunday afternoon so we booked a day ticket for the Sunday. An excellent way to break up the journey home and fit in some live music.

As it turned out the app was partially correct in that Rag’n’Bone Man was appearing but got the date and time wrong. He was the headliner on the Friday evening not mid-afternoon on Sunday. Never mind, the joy of festivals is that you get to discover new bands you’ve never heard before even if you don't get the one you were hoping for.

On the Sunday we drove back up from Letchworth and decided not to pay £15 for parking at the festival. Instead we went to the station car park and paid a whole £1 for all day parking and got a five minute taxi to the venue.

It was all very relaxed and spread out, a small but perfectly formed festival. 

A couple of pints and a food stall lunch set us up for the afternoon.

The first act were Zuzu who we were both very impressed by, very up-beat, pop-rock trio from Liverpool.

Sea Power. Cannot remember anything about them which probably says a lot.

The Slow Readers Club were up next, a very impressive band though more to Mary’s taste than mine.

White Lies. We also enjoyed them.

The headliners were the Pixies who both Mary and I found a little harsh and discordant although they clearly have a following based on the number of T-shirts we saw. 

After an hour we decided we had enough and give the last half hour amiss so we could hit the road early at 8:30pm. A 20 minute walk back to the station car park and we were away up the road to be home at a reasonable hour.

My Life In ... Albums

The sixteenth in an occasional series of alternative Curriculum Vitae because no-one on their death bed says "I wish I'd spent more time in the office"

Facebook. June 2018.

Music has been important in my life. Like Marcel Proust's madeleine it can evoke memories. 

There was a meme on facebook: "Day N of the 10 day challenge. These are my most influential or go to albums even if only now and then. Post a cover each day, no need to explain and nominate a person each day to do the same. Today I nominate Y."

I accepted the challenge (thank you, Tim Harris) but refused to nominate anyone.  I am where memes come to die. I considered the "no need to explain" rule stupid. Context is important. Two people can chose the same album for wildly different reasons so I am recycling this meme this time with my reasons. The albums should be in date order but this is the sequence I posted them back then.

Day 1 of the 10 day challenge. "My People Were Fair and Had Sky In their Hair... But Now They're Content To Wear Stars on Their Brows" by Tyrannosaurus Rex (1968).

I was more of a Tyrannosaurus Rex fan than a T.Rex fan. Like many I listened to John Peel's late show under the bedclothes and was introduced to many a strange musik including Tyrannosaurus Rex back in 1967. I rushed out to order this album as soon as it was announced. I continued to buy every single and album until early 1972 (Telegram Sam and Electric Warrior were my last purchases). For more detailed memories read the post My People Were Fair... 50 Years On.  Then there were the concerts, the tribute bands, the movie launch, the visit to the tree where he died and there are people I've met online and later in real life who continue to feature in my life to this day [read all Bolan blog posts]. The cover by George Underwood was a thing of mythological strangeness.

Day 2 of the 10 day challenge. "Graceland" by Paul Simon (1986).

I was introduced to this album by a colleague, Colin Williams from BIS, and it has been a staple of my playlist ever since. Nowadays I usually wait until Mary is out of the house since she reckons that she has heard it too often. According to Wikipedia "Graceland became Simon's most successful studio album and his highest-charting album in over a decade; it is estimated to have sold more than 16 million copies worldwide." Love the music, love the lyrics. My favourite lines include:

"It's every generation throws a hero up the pop charts"

"Over the mountain, Down in the valley, Lives a former talk-show host, Everybody knows his name
He says there's no doubt about it, It was the myth of fingerprints, I've seen them all and man, They're all the same"

Day 3 of the 10 day challenge. "Transformer" by Lou Reed (1972).

Second year at college hanging out with Mike, Pete and Vince (aka The Walton Wastards). I have to say we were a bunch of misfits who never settled into university life but that is a longer post. The urban myth was that both images on the cover were Lou Reed himself in macho pose and dressed as a drag queen. This was indeed a myth [See Artwork]. Another album much listened to at the time and since. It painted an edgy, decadent, seedy portrait of NYC that my first visit there in the late '80s did little to dispel. 

"And the colored girls go 'Doo do doo do doo do do doo...'"

Day 4 of the 10 day challenge. "Taking Tiger Mountain (By Stratgey)" by Brian Eno (1974).

Another favourite from the college years. The Walton Wastards owned all the Roxy Music albums between us and it was natural that we would segue onto Eno's solo works. Like Roxy a feature was the clearly articulated but slightly surreal lyrics. 

"Maybe she will do a bit of spying with microcameras hidden in her hair"

"But her sense of taste is such that she'll distinguish with her tongue the subtleties a spectrograph would miss"

Day 5 of the 10 day challenge. "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" by Eurythmics (1983).

It could have been any one of several Eurythmics albums but this won out. Annie Lennox is one of the great singers of our generation. I downsized my vinyl collection as space was a challenge when we moved from a house to a smaller apartment and many albums had not been played for years. As the dealer was carrying the crates to his van the bottom dropped out of one and spread the contents over the tarmac like a magician saying "pick a card". In a moment of "what would you save from a burning building?" I grabbed three Eurythmics albums (this, "Touch" and "Touch Dance").

Day 6 of the 10 day challenge. "Blonde On Blonde" by Bob Dylan (1966).

I acquired this from my brother back in the day. He never bought many albums, didn't seem to care much for music, only had half a dozen albums, this being one of them. Not sure when it changed hands, probably college era as he did not own any kind of music system. His loss is my gain as this is one of the great albums from a 20th century poet. I also acquired Elton John's "Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player" in the same transaction.

"But me, I expected it to happen, I knew he'd lost control
When he built a fire on Main Street, And shot it full of holes"

"She takes just like a woman, yes she does, She makes love just like a woman, yes she does
And she aches just like a woman, But she breaks just like a little girl."

Day 7 of the 10 day challenge. "Hunky Dory" by David Bowie (1971).

To quote from my Desert Island Discs post: If I were to nominate my favourite album it would not be a T.Rex album which might surprise some, it would have to be Hunky Dory. Some timeless lyrics and a gentle playfulness not found in the subsequent classic albums (Ziggy, Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs).

"So I turned myself to face me
But I've never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I'm much too fast to take that test"

"I was stone and he was wax, So he could scream and still relax. Unbelievable"

Day 8 of the 10 day challenge. "Visible World" by Jan Garbarek (1995).

The back story to this is that we had never heard of Jan until a few years ago but Mary’s copy of the Rough Guide to Jazz kept falling open at a page with a picture of this slightly strange looking man so she figured she had to go buy an album. The first one we bought was the haunting and evocative Visible World. Since then we have acquired several more albums and have seen him play live several times.

Day 9 of the 10 day challenge. "Fantastic" by Wham! (1983).

Pure, unadulterated pop at its finest. I like pop music, I like ’80 pop music, I like Stock, Aitken and Waterman, and Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go is, for me, the archetypical example of what a pop song should be. That and Like a Virgin by Madonna were two song that rekindled my penchant for pop music. I have all their albums but this first album is the best.

Day 10 of the 10 day challenge. "Bumpers" by Island Records (1970).

Back in the late '60s and early '70s sampler albums were a way for record labels to promote their artists through cut price compilations. I was in the middle of the sixth form halfway between O-levels and A-levels. It was an idyllic summer. This double album I bought with money from a summer job working on an archaeological dig at The Lunt Roman Fort. That was also the summer I spent two weeks digging at Portchester Castle under Prof. Barry Cunliffe. The only purchase I made as a result was the self titled Renaissance. 

Since it's my game, my rules here are two extras.

Day 11 of the 10 day challenge. "Tommy" by The Who (1969).

This is one of the albums I regret getting rid of in the downsize. As well as the music, the packing was amazing: limited edition no. 24867, gatefold sleeve, booklet with artwork and lyrics. You don't get that with a CD and definitely not with a download. I bought it from the only record shop in Kenilworth - a dark and gloomy cave presided over by a dark and gloomy woman. In those days most of the shop was given over to "proper" music i.e. classical, with a small browser box for those albums that stated "File under POP for Popular". My copy had the original price label 85/- that is to say 85 shillings or £4.25 in decimal currency. Further resonance is given to this album in that I saw The Who perform the whole album live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970.

Day 12 of the 10 day challenge. "No Secrets" by Carly Simons (1972).

Another purchase from my college years (a period of intensive vinyl buying). My college friends joshed me that I only bought it because I could see her nipples on the cover. In fact I have a penchant for female vocalists, so much so that my vinyl collection was sorted into four main sections: classical, collections, pop, and attractive female singers (or bands with female lead singers). The latter section obviously features Carly plus Madonna, Linda Lewis, Minnie Ripperton, Cher, Kate Bush, Maria Muldaur, Kylie and many more... Some great songs on this album.

"Well you're where you should be all the time
And when you're not you're with some underworld spy
Or the wife of a close friend, wife of a close friend, and..."

That's enough.

Postscript [28-Dec-2025]:

Talking to the daughter of a friend in the pub, I realised that I need to clarify. These are not my favourite artists but albums. For example, Paul Simon is a fine musician, but he's not on my top 10 list of artists. That list would include Sting, Blondie, Kate Bush, Madonna and Van Morrison for starters.

Borgo Divino In Tour 2022

Cisternino, Puglia, Italy. Saturday 02-July-2022.

Cisternino was the fifth date on a nationwide tour of a three-day wine tasting events organised by Borgo Divino. The format follows other wine fairs we have attended, you get a glass, a neck halter to carry your glass and a voucher for a set number of tastings. 

There must have been about fifteen stalls representing around 30 producers from all over Italy and Puglia was well represented.

We were joined by our neighbours Stephen and Kate from across the alleyway.

The council closed off a couple of streets and, as well as the wine stalls, there were a dozen posters on all sorts of wine topics including regions, grapes and glasses, very informative.

At the second stall we tasted a wild ferment wine (using only wild yeast strains present on the grape skins) which fell into the "interesting" category. Wild ferment is always a risk, sometimes fantastic but not always wholly successful. 

Third stall: even at this stage they were not too bothered about crossing off the glass symbols on our tastings tracker.

We had also bought tickets for a tasting plate of local salami and cheeses, etc. but we were running out of time so took it home for lunch the next day.

Multiple wine tastings later we went for a pizza at Da Tonia's, then back out for Round 2.

We had tasted wines from Ciu Ciu in Penrith back in March [Low-Intervention Wines from Europe] so were interested to taste others in their range. We tasted their sparkling Passerina and still Pecorino wines. 

The fair was from six-thirty till midnight every evening. At seven on Saturday the streets were deserted, by midnight they were still buzzing.

We went back out on the Sunday to buy some wines, the Ciu Ciu Pecorino mentioned above and Kia Ros, a rose made from the Nero Di Troia grape, from Domus Hortae in northern Puglia.

Other wines we liked were: a rose called 26 Agosto from Villa Agreste, Prima Filaro from Monte Marcuccio, both from Puglia, Greco and Falghina from Torre del Pagus in Campania, and a Sangiovese from Tuscany (producer not noted).

A very enjoyable evening with new wines to drink in the rack!