Upper Valle dell'Ambro and Mt. Amandola hikes in the Sibillini mountains

June 10, 2012
Bacco and I packed Italy's Sibillini National Park, Walking and Trekking Guide from Gillian Price and headed out early to hike "Walk 5" in the book.  It was splendid and the guide will keep you safe and provide precise instructions on this exploration of the area above Garulla, near Amandola.  It is listed as a 4 hour and 15 minute hike if you include the peak, but can be done at your own pace.  Double click on the photos to enlarge them if you wish.

Starting out from the refuge you walk 30 minutes down which is a sort of warmup I guess for the 30 minutes of up that follow.

This rock formation is called the Balzo Rosso and is quite impressive as you walk beneath it.

Another cool geologic formation with sedimentary rock which started in flat layers millions of years ago, but which have been pushed upward, almost vertical by tectonic movement.

Examples above and below of the meadows you walk through during a respite from the climbing.

Bacco exiting tree line at 1200 meters, much lower than I am used to in Colorado

Bacco heading towards the 2nd house on the trail, Casale Ricci with Mt. Acuto in the distance.

Looking for Rock Partridges to chase.

Casale Ara del Re and some shade, but no water.

 Natural rock garden

more flowers and distant peaks waiting for me to climb them

Bacco getting an immersion and drink at Casale Grascete

The top of Mt. Amandola looking south to Gran Sasso and Abruzzo

Marking another mt. top :)

looking WSW towards my objective for this year, a 10 hour hike to the top of Mt. Priora

back to the West

NW

the northern view to the beautiful hills of the southern Marche

East towards the Adriatic and more beauty, a patchwork quilt of colors

looking below Mt. Amandola

final descent to our starting point

peonies in the middle of the mountain

back to tree line

last photo before the camera battery expired

The total hiking time was 3 hours and 15 minutes, but I am not one to waste time. The book says 4 hours 15 if you include the mt. top and that seems pretty reasonable.  With breaks for eating and Bacco soaks, we managed start to finish in 3 hours and 40 minutes.  Some words to the wise:  if you are not wanting to decrease the ardor you feel towards your beautiful married neighbor by suffering the pain and swelling caused by stinging nettles as did St. Benedict who was faced with a similar temptation, by all means wear long pants.  There are several fields with the nettles and thistles to test your toughness if you wear shorts.  The last hour and a half or so is completely exposed in the sun, so take at least 2 -3 liters of water per person (and one for the dog).  Hiking poles come in handy for the ascents and descents and the scree fields which you will encounter.  This was a very pretty hike and Bacco and I started at 7:35 in the morning and saw a grand total of 0 people, a great escape!  The refuge at the trail's beginning and end serves food and drink and there is a nice picnic/bbq area if you are so inclined after hoofing it for 3.5+ hours.

Sibillini flowers 2012 edition

10 June, 2012
I am going to try and make up for my lack of posting, starting with the flowers Bacco and I saw today in the Sibillini mountains on the upper Ambro valley and Mt. Amandola hike. Enjoy and feel free to tell me what their names are.  None of the colors were enhanced, by the way.

39 hours and 10 minutes locked in a tractor, today's harvest, decapitated 4 yo vines

1 Maggio
Today is Labor Day in Italy which means I worked, but only 6 hours.  I have been trapped in my tractor with the rotary plow attachment cleaning the weeds between the vines for nearly 40 hours.  With all the rain we received (thank goodness) in late winter/early spring, the weeds were higher than the vines when we started.  Raffaele went ahead of me with the weed eater so the high weeds wouldn't interfere with the plow and we spent the last 6 days making the vineyard look as good as it will all year.  Having finished, I took time out to water the 2 gardens and lo and behold, the first artichokes had arrived along with many roses and irises-below.  You can miss a lot in 6 days.

One of the problems with a rapidly spinning, 3 bladed rotary plow traveling between the vines at warp speed, is every once in a while one of the vines gets decapitated.  I hate losing my 4 year olds after all the work which has gone into making them healthy and training them on the wires.  Here are the casualties of the last 2 days.  I wiped out 6 total in 6 days and at this rate, I will run out of vines in 5,800 years unless I get more careful.  I cut the poor suckers I massacred in 2 pieces and with a great deal of probably misplaced hope, I put the ends in the ground and will see if they grow.

I am a certified master weed eater, so with my grand talent I try to save those weeds which have some esthetic value.  Below is my little patch in the parking lot of what I think is chamomile; tea anyone?

Below is the cleaned vineyard, what a job, but probably it will be the last time I have to do the whole 13.5 acres this year.

 Here are some wild irises (I think) which I found in the neighbor's olive grove.

The Pecorino vines with visible dirt in between the plants.

Unfortunately, we lost over 50% of the primary buds and their leaves in the Pecorino vines due to a surprise cold snap.  That may drastically reduce production-last year we lost 50% due to drought. That is the life of a farmer.  Secondary and tertiary buds will probably come out, but are less productive.  Buds are formed the prior summer with very tiny little grapes and leaves already formed in the bud.

Above, Bacco helping me inspect the Merlot vines and below, the early Merlot clusters and leaves.

All the stuff from our land is certified organic by the organization Suolo e Salute.  That includes the wines, olive oil, fruits and jams and, of course the artichokes-they are wonderful!

One of the pretty weeds in bloom now, the poppies with a little insect inside.

Bottling of 8 new wines is scheduled for May 17th with a Pecorino from 2010 which has spent a bit of time in barrels/tonneau, the 2011 Pecorino which is marvelous, but limited, an un-oaked blend of Cab/Merlot/Syrah, the flagship wine which is our bordeaux blend with all the bordeaux varieties except Malbec, which we didn't plant and then each of those varieties in a 100% form to make 300 boxed sets of the 5 wines for collectors.  Exciting stuff!  Sorry for the lack of posting.

Peace, quiet and beauty of the Lake Como area in Gittana

28 Marzo, 2012

I had a week between pruning and tying, so headed up to my new S.O.'s territory around Lake Como.  I had been there before to tool around on one of the ferries for half a day, but to really experience the beauty of the place, I suggest a few days of exploration.  A great place to start is with this website where you can find reasonably priced, beautiful apartments for rent in the peaceful town of Gittana, www.holidaysingittana.it   Below you see a view of Bellagio, a short ferry ride from Varenna, which is just 5 minutes from Gittana.

Ca Pina, one of the apartments with a really cute patio and everything you need for your vacation, including a personally selected group of wines (mine included), a fully equipped kitchen, washing machine, etc.

Wall painting in the street above Ca Pina

Gittana, from one of the most important hiking trails which skirts all of the eastern side of Lake Como

Castle di Vezio with its "real ghosts" 10 minutes away

The castle has a raptor program with all sorts of birds of prey, mostly from the US

2 swans I saw on Lake Pusiano, but an even better refuge was Lake Segrino with a trail circling the lake and a great little mobile restaurant at the end with wonderful porchetta!

Lecco, another nice city to visit

This is only a small sampling of the things you can see on the lake and it is a very short drive from Malpensa, so you could either start or finish a vacation in Italy/Europe here and recharge your batteries.  I recharged enough to start 7 days a week vine tying!

8 New Wines, Spring is arriving

11/03/2012

New rosemary plants in the winery landscaping project

Almond blooms

2 more almond tree photos, above and below

Pruning completed, next job is to tie those branches sticking up to the wire, but I have to wait for the sap to flow freely and then they become more flexible

Slightly out of focus peach blossom

And finally, apricot blooms

Greeting from PS winery and Nascondiglio di Bacco and the beautiful Marche.  We sat down with our 2 winemakers and a beautiful redhead to come up with our Bordeaux blend last week and after trying each of the 4 bordeaux varieties we had "in purezza", we proceeded to try the first logical blend which was based on how much of each we had in barrels.  That was pretty decent, but decidedly towards the Pomerol style with lots of Merlot.  I encouraged our chief winemaker to try some other blends and thus the next try was with 25% of each.  This was actually a bit better and really brought out the Cab. Franc.  Finally, we tried a bit less Merlot, more Cab. Sauvignon and equal portions of the Petit Verdot and Cab. Franc and that seemed to be the consensus favorite.  Final blend for this wine will be 1000 liters of Merlot, 750 L of Cab. Sauvignon and 500 L of the other 2.  The IGT Rosso or base red (with no barrel aging) for 2011 will either be half Cab. Sauv. and half Merlot or perhaps 40% of each of those 2 and 20% Syrah.  The 2010 Syrah has decided it will stay in its wooden barrels/tonneau for another year before release and rules dictate the same for the DOC Offida Rosso from 2010.  We will also be bottling the slightly wood aged Pecorino from 2010 as well as the 2011 Pecorino, which had a very low yield but is of high quality.  Finally a limited edition of 300 bottles of each of the Bordeaux varieties will be available in wooden display cases along with the blend.  Bottling is scheduled for May and release of the reds should be around Christmas, 2012.
The snow is gone for good and the fruit trees are blooming one at a time, beginning with the almonds, then just yesterday, the peach and apricot trees.  In waiting are the apple, plum, cherry and quince trees.  The grass was becoming a bit of a nuisance, so I broke out the weed eater today to clean things up a bit for guests coming tonight, so I guess spring is springing.
I can't wait to show everyone the labels, once they are ready, really cool ideas from our designer Cristiano with input from Raffaele, Alessandra and me.  The artists series is still in the works and will be used now for the Offida Rosso.   For those with an interest in these things, all the DOC wines from Offida have been elevated to DOCG status as of the 2011 harvest and we have a few new rules to follow, but this will be good for marketing purposes.
Congrats to the MU Tigers for a great season and winning the Big 12 championship and boos for leaving your traditional conference.  Good luck in the tourney!