Italy - Musical Wines
We are off to Italy again in a few weeks and I am going to be
in the Arezzo area for a few days at end of trip. I will be on a
mission while in Tuscany.... I am to find a town called
Montalcino where there is a vineyard owned by a man who has made
a startling discovery and now being studied scientifically. His
grapes were not growing as robustly as they should have been for
years so he tried an experiment. He decided to pipe classical
music to half of his vineyard and the grapes responded by
growing large r, juicier and redder than those not listening to
music... It deserved a closer look Montalcino is also home to
the famous Banfi wines .Banfi wines are considered by the
Italian to be the best in Italy with only a small production of
certain kinds distributed to America. So Montalcino is about 1
1/2 hours from Arezzo but a lovely trip especially at harvest
time .Be sure to go to the musical vineyard called Paradiso di
Frassini on the way to Montalcino from Buonconvento. According
to an acquaintance who lives there the grapes prefer violins.
The owner is Giancarlo Cignozzi and he makes very interesting
wines, including one called " DO" ( musical--do, a doe ,a female
deer...) containing 12 varietals. An interesting note is that
this acquaintance ,Laura, states that when the boss is not
there, the workers replace Vivaldi with Vasco Rossi and it does
not seem to do the wines any harm It has become a very notable
place so it is now necessary to request and appointment to
visit. I will gladly give anyone the necessary phone and fax
numbers upon request.