This is one of those things that I wasn’t sure if I should write about, purely for the fact that my mother reads this blog…or is at least my most avid reader (perhaps my only reader)…and to whom this will be the most disturbing. Nevertheless, I believe it is worthwhile to not only recount on the events that were exciting and interesting…but also those that are a little more disturbing. This, I am afraid, is definitely the latter.
Ti disturbo?
23 NovIl giorno perfetto!
13 NovWhoever said Friday the 13th was an unlucky day?!?! Today being Friday I would normally be dressed in my shabby manly man work clothes but instead I got to put on a dark blue dress I bought in Firenze and my new boots with my hair au naturale for a tasting that was being held at San Guido. I hopped in the ute with Giorgio and Francesca, excited to hopefully get to sample some wines! For those of you who don’t know what San Guido are, here is what Wikipedia says:
Chitty chitty bang bang!
8 Nov
6:15am BOOM!…….BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
Vintage Festa!
27 OctIeri sera e’ passata la festa della vendemmia! We ate at Federico’s pizza restaurant and we were about 18-20 of us all up. We had a lovely meal set up for us with seafood salad, prosciutto crudo and crostini to start with, then I chose matriciana penne pasta which was delicious, and finally porcini atop scallopini. For dessert my end of the stick was a bit of a disaster. I’d made pavlova and:
Last picking day
25 Sep

General happenings
21 SepAhh so we had our first drama in the winery yesterday and fortunately it was not my doing. What a surprise.
I uomini!
2 SepSo I have been at work a few times now and nutted the place out. It is located in Donoratico – a nice 15minute bike ride from our place (I’m referring to a pushbike Nonna, not a motorbike)! We have lent some bikes to ride to work but I have to have mine repaired after a dodgy pedal continually wants to fall off and onto the road when I ride it. The winery itself is nothing like the winery I worked at last year that was obviously completely ostentatious in order to live up to its name and appeal to the tourists. Giorgio makes his wines here but there are also about three other wineries who come in and process their fruit and do their own thing too at the same time. Giorgio also makes wine on the side for a couple of very small businesses apart from that. The winery at least is very clean, and efficient and easy to work with. There is the main cellarhand Roberto who is lovely and non-chauvinistic to work with. Thank goodness. I have already come across some rich man and his ‘I’ve never worked a day in my life’ son who used to own Simenthall (crappy meat in a tin Company) and now venture in wine I suppose who saw that there were three women working in the winery (Francesca, Greta and myself) and said to Giorgio, “Why have so many women? Your wine will not be as good this year because of it.” To which Giorgio replied that he had no problem with us bimbe’s as he calls us. I’m extremely glad that Giorgio has turned out to be quite the modern guy, he loves to cook and as I mentioned, is not in any way chauvinistic. I think I’m lucky he’s like that. There aren’t too many guys in Italy that are like this, I can tell you that.
Come verde sono tutte le cose qua!
31 Aug
Sono arrivata a Bolgheri!
28 AugThe flight itself was your typical 25 hours including the stopover in Singapore. I bought myself a nifty little laptop bag to replace the dodgy one I’d created back home and that had already given me a nasty pain in the shoulder. I’d been so positive about my packing leading up to today thinking that I had just 20-21kg of stuff, being so proud of myself with the work clothes, normal clothes, shoes, etc…then I realised that I hadn’t been measuring the whole backpack properly and in actual fact my bag was a hefty beast at 27kg. Hence I had to do the bogan country thang and wear my manly work boots on the plane, then somehow cart them with me after I’d converted to thongs in Singapore. Let’s just say that if carry your sports bag on just one arm like a lady and make it look like it’s really light and under the required 7kg (when it is really cutting off your circulation and you can feel your pulse slowly fading in the one arm)…well hey, they don’t ask you to weigh your bag and you walk right through, one functioning-arm less!
Once the flight was over I was lucky enough that my bags came through in the first decent load onto the carrier. Then it was just me and my three bloody bags to lug around the airport until I reached the station, got my tickets from the airport to Roma Trastevere, then continued on from there to San Vincenzo. Once I reached Roma Trastevere I made a phone call to my boss Giorgio to let him know I was alive, and well and truly on the way to the area. He sounded absolutely lovely and reassured that I’m not a complete liar and can actually speak some Italian and wasn’t lying in my curriculum vitae and emails to him. Two and a half hours later, after spending the train ride to San Vincenzo with a man who had a staring problem sitting directly opposite me, I arrived at the coastal town of San Vincenzo where I was greeted by my boss Giorgio Meletti-Cavallari, his girlfriend Francesca and the other girl who’d just arrived yesterday from Milan, Greta.
We drove off together in the car and talked about how everything went, how my last name is said with an emphasis on the ‘g’ in MeneGazzo and not like a C to make it MeneCazzo…you Italians out there will get it. In summation, they are all equally lovely. Giorgio is 30years old, is very open and always has a smile on his face. He started his own business back in the early 2000’s and his father, Piermario Meletti-Cavallari is the man who owned and ran Grattamacco, a very well-known label of some beautiful wines from the Bolgheri area. Francesca is 24years old and just this year finished studying Enology too. She is your typical Italian, brown haired, though with green eyes, tanned and gorgeous. Greta is my age and too finished her degree this year in Enology but has had very little experience working only one vintage a couple of years ago. Her and I are living together in separate rooms in the large villa that will eventually be Giorgio’s house.

- La Villa Borgeri
For now he still lives with his parents in their gorgeous estate surrounded by vineyards up near Castagneto Carducci.
That night we go to Giorgio’s friends place for his birthday party and swim in their pool, eat some lovely food, and drink some of Giorgio’s wine he shows me. By the end of the night I am about to fall off my chair from extreme tiredness so I’m off to bed by 11pm. Poor form, but they understand with what, my almost 30hour journey to get here!
“Lasciate mi cantare”
13 OctLast night Manuela, Ele and I went to Grinzane Cavour for dinner with Anja and Giorgio’s friends to celebrate their daughter Lidia’s first birthday. The party was held in the degustation room above the winery and when we arrived we received a glass of Champagne from Andrea: Philippounat Imperial-sized!

- The degustation room at Grinzane Cavour
The night commenced with appetisers cooked by some Californian appretice chef dude who thought he was awesome. But he did make some crazy dish of prune wrapped in prosciutto and oven baked. I commend you for that sir, but not your ego I’m afraid!
After that Giorgio and some other vecchio competed with cooking their two pieces of capretto to see who’s was best. They were judged to be equal but in my opinions , Giorgio’s was lacking in a little flavour. Scusa!
There was plenty of La Spinetta wine ot be drunk and by the end of the meals a guitar was pulled out and a gentleman sang songs in Italian for the next few hours. A couple of English ones were thrown in too and it was so much fun singing songs that I actually knew in Italian so I could join in with everyone, like ‘Marina’, ‘A sole mio’, ‘Rosa Rosa per te’, ‘Lasciate mi cantare’, etc.
Bonding with the boys
25 SepToday I was la regina di riempire le barrique (the queen of filling barrels). I did not spill anything which winemaking Andrea Rivetti informed me was a first for a person who is here for only vintage. After work someone pulled out some bottles.

- The barrique hall at Castagnole delle Lanze
Myself and the boys drank: 2001 La Spinetta Pin Monferatto Rosso – I thought the 2001 had some real Bordeaux-like characters, which understandable once I was told some Cabernet Sauvignon was added in that year to the Nebbiolo and Barbera blend.
We continued drinking and then my mamma Emiliana arrived with some gorgonzola so we migrated to the degustation room and ate until 7:30pm when I realised my dinner was probably ready upstairs so I left the lads and ran to eat some trout. Afterwards, I decided it would be more beneficial to my Italian and to my reputation with my alcohol-loving boss Andrea if I went back downstairs after dinner to drink some more vino with them…so I did.

We had Franciacorta’s and Valentino’s and whilst the men sang, shouted and teased, I took it all it. I did get the chance to ask Andrea if he was happy with how I am working so far to which he said yes, definitely, which was a relief to hear. We were a little inebriated so I think he would have said something positive whatever I asked!
Drank: Cuvee Valentino sparkling from Piemonte, Riserva Spumante. Dangerous on an empty stomach!
I stumbled back to bed at 11pm and fell into dreams with my head spinning like it never has before!
Under Stefano’s wing
23 SepThe last two days have been fantastic with work. The cellarmaster Stefano has taken me under his wing and I’m actually in the winery a lot more now and doing all things with him. This is such a huge change from the way they treat the other ragazza Danila. She has not shown any initiative or extra sort of physical capabilities and is happy to help Gianni do orders, so is delegated to that part of the winery instead of the exciting cellar during vintage! Go figure…

- Winemaker at work, Stefano Mazzetti
At the end of the day Giorgio came into the winery and we went and tasted the 2008 Barbera they’d just pressed and put into tank to see if it was still sweet. It was, just. He was saying how this vintage 2008 reminds him of 1996. A good vintage for Barbera, Nebbiolo, Moscato, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, but not for Dolcetto. The reason being that the hot days and cold nights are great normally, but one really cold night will completely stop the maturation of a dolcetto grape. Risky business.
Tonight drank: 2000 La Spinetta Gallina Barbera d’Alba – great nose, good lenth and structure.
Lidia
14 SepDrank: 1997 La Spinetta ‘Lidia’ Chardonnay. Lovely complex and textured palate, lacking on the nose but still in good condition.
La festa a Toscana!
8 SepThe winery crew congregated at 8am to take a large white bus all the way to Toscana for the two-day party that was going to celebrate the official opening of the La Spinetta Casanova winery. It took 3.5 hours to get there but that was compensated by stunning views (quick scenic snapshot of Portofino or Pisa for example) to pass the time.

The countryside here is beautiful and considering we’re not even in the Chianti DOC area I can only imagine how stunning it must be where the majority of wineries are.

The afternoon and evening were spent incredibly well-made food and drinking all Tuscan La Spinetta wines. They sure know how to through a party!

On the night of the second party just after midnight once the majority of guests had departed, Giorgio Rivetti, his brother Bruno and the head chef of the function decided to cook three huge T-bone steaks. The meat was cooked to absolute perfection, raw on the inside! Giorgio thinks I speak nice Italian too, which is good to hear.

Arrived at Castagnole delle Lanze, Piemonte
22 Aug
Chilling on the balcony after a long flight
Drank: 2003 La Spinetta Pin Monferatto Rosso. 65% Nebbiolo and 35% Barbera. Beautifully balanced, concentrated savoury flavours




