A visit to Florence, November '21.

 

The drunkenness of Noah. Andrea Pisano and assistant, 1343-48.

In Florence, mainly to re-establish contact with great art, lacking for too long. You realise how much you miss visual nourishment when deprived of it. It's a basic need.

So not too many forays into wine and yet it is almost unavoidable. We say almost but a big disappointment was missing for the nth time, the Antinori wineshop. The shop is closed in August and that is generally when we have been in Tuscany. So arriving in Florence on a Saturday in November we planned to go there Monday morning. 'Lunedi chiuso'! Our return flight was at 3.00pm on Tuesday but they only open at 12.30. So we'll have to wait another decade or so.

Our limited ambitions for our trip to Firenze wine-wise included finding good examples of Ciliegiolo, Colorino, maybe Canaiolo Nero and to try the mysterious Vino Novello.

The first night we drank red (Sangiovese of course) and white (Vermentino rather than the Trebbiano we might have expected) - both 'della casa.' the great thing about being slap bang in the middle of a world class wine region is that the ordinary wines are really rather good.

 

 

On the second evening we went to the Osteria dell' Enoteca; a justified recommendation. There is a really great sommelier there who didn't have Colorino, Ciliegiolo, Canaiolo in purezza but immediately understood what we were after. He placed his hand without hesitation on this 'Libero' Toscano Rosso from A.A. Casagori de Gori which is in the Val D'Orcia near Pienza, therefore not a Chianti. Although the grapes are Sangiovese (90%), Canaiolo (7%) and Colorino (3%) this wine was indeed 'particolare' as the somm had promised. Excellent stuff. 13%

That was it as far as restaurant wines were concerned. Della casa ruled thereafter and it was always different and interesting.

Our search for Vino Novello was frustrating to say the least. The first day we had gone to the Mercato Centrale where there was indeed a bottle of Novello but we didn't go for it at E.7.90 thinking we would check out some more of these wines as we went and find out which were the recommended ones.

Apart from another bottle in Conad under E.3 we didn't see another bottle of Novello the entire time we were there, We soon got the vibe that this was not something reputable winemerchants stocked. Indeed nobody had a good word to say about Vino Novello so we returned home empty-handed. That  was a pity because after many disparaging opinions we were all the more keen to try it ourselves.

 

On the Borgo San Jacopo was a smart wine shop and Enoteca called Obseqvivm (Obsequium obviously). It was rather pricy and looked along conventional lines so we asked the gentleman in charge if he a had any Barsaglina/Massaretta. 

Barsaglina/Massaretta, we swear it. E.46

he simply ponted to the first bottle in the window. The photo is over-exposed to you can't see the label  but the bottle on top is a Barsaglina by Piandaccoli. At E.46 for the bottle we were not sure. Even at only 12.5% Abv (if memory serves) it may not have had the typicity we wanted and that would have been a waste of 46 big ones. Later we checked the price on other sellers' websites and this was in line with the others. Barsaglina was to crop up again in the following and final adventure.

Being in Florence, we had to visit Dante and the cathedral of Santa Croce. Sitting at a cafe afterwards, fiddling with the phone, we discovered that there was a Vino Sfuso shop nearby called 'Bacco Nudo.' Our travels to Venice have always involved visiting these shops with wine on draught. Indeed we have checked out vino sfuso shops in Campania and Puglia too. The Venetian ones were the best. Until our encounter with 'Bacco Nudo.'

 The outside did not look too promising but inside was different.

On entering there was an encouraging rane of taps with names (and Abv values) of various wines.

 

The gent behind the counter is the excellent Francesco Cappellini. He is the only vino sfuso guy we have come across with glass bottles and corking machine should they be needed. That is very helpful because the alternative is used plastic mineral-water bottles. Sanitation not guaranteed. 

As you can see the selection is eclectic and interesting with some Veneto and Venezia Friuli Giulia wines and some even from Campania and Puglia. We bought a 75cl bottle of Schioppettino which was delicious. So much so that we are in contact with Sr. Cappellini for a mixed dozen which we will have sent from his shop to us in London. We asked if he could get a Barsaglina to add to this and indeed he said he could which was anazing.

There is an amusing painting by Niccolo di Pietro in the Uffizzi. It shows a winemerchant trying to do away with San Benedetto by the use of poisoned wine. A miracle occurs however and the glass shatters as you can see. There can't be many depictions of winemerchants in renaissance art. It's a pity this one is such a miserable fellow. Definitely not related to the admirable Cappellini Francesco.