Month: January 2020

Honey of Calabria

25.1.2020

DELICIOUS HONEY OF CALABRIA

A must of Calabrian food is Honey, a delicious product, an authentic mediterranean piece of culture.

Main types of honey in Calabria are the following:

  • Wildflowers – ‘Miele Millefiori’
  • Eucalyptus – ‘Miele di eucalpito’
  • Fir Honeydew (Spruce & Fir)
  • Orange Blossom Calabrian
  • Strawberry Tree
  • Bergamot Flavored Honey
  • Bergamot Honey
  • Citrus – Orange, Lemon, Grapefruit
  • Chestnut Calabrian
  • Orange Tree Honey Calabrian
  • Spicy Flavored Wild Flower Honey.

Generally, it is used for the preparation of traditional sweets (Pignolata, Mustaccioli, etc…), but orange blossom Honey is employed also in folk medicine (bronchial infections). Only in recently honey has been characterized and appreciated as monofloral.

Main places of production are Amaroni (Catanzaro) Italy and San Ferdinando (Reggio Calabria), where honey is of a ‘clear’ or ‘dark’ quality.

CHESTNUT HONEY

This kind of honey  is perfect  with  Pecorino cheeses or with semi aged Pecorino, flavoured with Balsamic Vinegar.

The production comes from a very big diffusion of the chestnut trees, which often represent the wilder part of the region, both far from the sea and best-preserved. The rich woods of Chestnut cover great extensions of the land.

This environment is pure and without traces of pollution, so that in summer swarms of bees release tons of wonderful nectar, which is perfect for delicious contrasts between aged cheeses and meat dishes.

Namely, this honey is full of impalpable grains of chestnut pollen and these give it a flavor decidedly particular, moderately sweet and bitter aftertaste.

The presence of pollen is due to the chestnut blossom, not particularly beautiful, but long with a sharp smell, sticky to the touch, rich in pollen and nectar, which, depending, on the altitude is everywhere in the months of June and July.

The outcome is a Chestnut honey very rich in fructose, which crystallizes only after a long time, dark  (from brown to black), strong, intense, tannic and woody.

“MILLEFIORI” HONEY

Usually, this treasure of thousand of flowers, patiently elaborated by swarms of bees, is moderately sweet and wonderful  with semi aged Pecorino, for example Mount Poro or Pecorino of Crotone.

The quality of this clear honey comes from a slow creation by spontaneous roaming of bees collecting the nectar from several floral sources.

The wildflower meadows of Calabria are the place where bees search wildflower floral sources. The natural conditions vary during the year, so that the taste of wildflower honey slightly differs from year to year.

A Wine from the Past: Verbicaro

20.1.2020

THE PAST OF VERBICARO’S VINEYARDS

gastronomy includes many Mediterranean wines, but no one is so full of history and local culture like “Verbicaro”, a protected denomination (“DOC”), a wine produced in a region comprised between the Tyrrhenian Sea and Pollino Massif.

Plentiful historical evidence shows that the ancient Romans produced there this nectar, letting ferment and age the grapes in the semidarkness of the “catuvi,” the local cellars. Precisely, in the more ancient past, grapes were taken on the back of mules to the so-called “parmienti” (in Italian “palmenti”) where barefoot peasants pressed and crushed the grapes and put the must in barrels inside Catuvi.

THE LAND OF VINEYARDS

“Verbicaro”, protected denomination (“DOC”), is a wine produced in a region comprised between the Tyrrhenian Sea and Pollino Massif. These lands, full of vineyards, are key factors in creating a viticulturally suitable mesoclimate for “Verbicaro”. The area of Verbicaro is a sub-region of Cosenza and it is DOC (so called “Terre di Cosenza” DOC) like the other local wines Donnici, Pollino and San Vito di Luzzi.

The topography of the land helps channeling wind and waters down the valleys and through the vineyards. The reliable air movement provides a stable environment, while the sea waters, surrounding the Calabrian peninsula, moderate the intense heat of south Italian summer.

Effectively, the Verbicaro area is small, between the Savuto and Lamezia zones (it is the coastal hills of the ‘Riviera dei Cedri’ and beside the River Lao, where this fruity ruby red wine is ideal with red meats and spicy food), but this wine blends and concentrates a large number of grapes, including Gaglioppo, Greco Nero, Greco Bianco and Malvasia Bianca. Therefore, it represents well all the scents, flavours and fragrances of an authentic Mediterranean cuisine.

THE PEOPLE OF VINEYARDS

The wine reflects something of the people and the local history of the village called “Verbicaro”.

This small town is surrounded by the hills of a cavernous valley and by mountains on either side, is 400 meters above the Tyrrhenian coast and offers a magnific view of the Calabrian hinterland and seascape below.

The history of local people recalls the ancient foundation by a pre-Roman, nomadic tribe, then Verbicaro has been conquered by Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Barbarians, Spanish and French.

But the winemaking survived to these different cultures.  The wine made by the grapes harvested in Verbicaro’s vineyards has been enjoyed since Roman times, and today experts considers that wine even the Calabria’s best wine.

Tables about the three (3) known Verbicaro wines

  1. “Verbicaro Bianco” is white and sparkling. Alcohol: 10.5%, straw yellow, soft, distinctive, dry, sometimes aromatic.  Its grapes are Greco Bianco, Guarnaccia, Malvasia Bianca.
  2. “Verbicaro Rosso” is red and sparkling. Alcohol: 12.0%, ruby red, winey, soft, distinctive, dry, sometimes slightly aromatic. Its grapes are Gaglioppo, Greco Bianco, Greco Nero, Guarnaccia, Malvasia Bianca.
  3. “Verbicaro Rosato” is red and sparkling. Alcohol: 10.5%, pink more or less intense, soft, distinctive, dry. Its grapes are Gaglioppo, Greco Bianco, Greco Nero, Guarnaccia, Malvasia Bianca.