Cantina Stefanoni

Cantina Stefanoni

Johannes Fugger, a bishop, headed for Rome for the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V in 1111. Fully aware of the excellence of Italian wines and not averse to enjoying them himself, he sent his servant, Martino, on ahead. Martino was instructed to sample the local wines and to leave the word Est on the door of the taverns where the wine was good and Est Est where it was better. Apparently, when Martino reached Montefiascone, a town on the edge of Lake Bolsena, he was so impressed he left Est! Est! Est! on the door and thus the name of the local wine was born. Johannes became such a devotee that he stayed on, dying there in 1113. His tomb is in the church of St Flavian and it’s worth a visit for the fabulous frescoes in the lower church. Put a euro in the box to light up the church to fully appreciate their grandeur

So to enjoy this refreshing and historic white wine we left the old city by the Via Trento, stopping to admire the breathtaking view over the lake. This is the largest volcanic lake in Europe and the view over the caldera from here is spectacular. We then turned down the Via Bandita to the Cantina Stefanoni [www.cantinastefanoni.it]. This is not a new enterprise, having been started in 1948. I was met by Stefano, the current owner, who was happy to show us around the cantina dug into the soft volcanic tufa like a massive tunnel. In the depths of this giant burrow, where the temperature and humidity are constant, are stored the bottles of Brut, a dry sparkling white wine, in rows of pupitres, their bottoms raised to await the daily riddling that will move the sediment to the neck of the bottle. This is an essential part of the metodo classic.

But this is not the Est! Est! Est! that we are here to sample and Stefano was happy to pour us a glass. In a country with over 500 grape varieties it is unsurprising that this is a blend. With its history, it is only to be expected that the grapes used in this wine are all local varieties and in this case 55% Procanico, 30% Malvasia and 15% Roscetto. Stefano calls his wine Campolongo and with a good straw colour there are white flowers on the nose – I could definitely detect elderflower – and on the palate good acidity and a certain salinity that comes from the volcanic soil. Classically, this goes well with fish.

Stefano had another wine for us to taste, again an Est! Est! Est! but this time a classico that Stefano calls Foltone. The same grape varieties go into this wine as the previous one but in different proportions, 50% Roscetto, 30% Procanico and 20% Malvasia. The result is a very different perfume. This time there was a prevalence of green apple and a hint of citrus although in the mouth again there was the clean acidity as in the Campolongo.

Finally, by way of contrast, we tasted a red wine Rosso di Montanello. This is again a blend but, apart from a small amount of Merlot, Stefano has once more concentrated on local varieties, Sangiovese, Violone and Ciliegiolo (we are, after all, very close to Tuscany). This is a pleasing trend in winemaking in Italy, namely that the winemakers are rediscovering their local varieties and using them in new ways to make exciting wines. However, this blending is not always easy as the different varieties ripen at different times, in this case necessitating three harvests. This wine has a good ruby colour with cherries and blackcurrants on the nose and a pleasing acidity on the palate with surprisingly soft tannins achieved by harvesting late. Enjoy it with red meat or game or a mature cheese.