Le Velette

Thursday we returned to Tenuta (estate) Le Velette, the home of Cecelia (remember pronunciation, its kinda like chichillya with short i's like "it") Bottai (long o long a) for our promised tour/wine tasting/buffet. We arrived shortly after 11 since manual GPS (me) got us turned around coming out of Orvieto. The Rick Steves group had already debussed and was in the garden taking pictures on what ended up as a cold, blustery day. We joined another American couple as extra participants and were all seated outside in the cold and wind for a short overview of history and the estate. We then quickly went inside and proceeded through the working kitchen, with a roaring fire in the hearth,  down to the historic Tufa wine cellar. Although not used professionally any longer, it houses a significant amount of vintage bottles (Cecelia calls it family fun wine) still used for the family's private consumption and of course for tour backdrops. That cellar was originally dug/cut into the Tufa 500BC by Etruscans and they found artifacts when her family explored that are now in some of the Etruscan museums.  Each progressive owner has added area and it is now the largest original underground cellar in Italy, stretching 1/3 mi long. We learned there is no real way to duplicate the perfect conditions in those cellars. The wine knows if the temperature changes, I.e. ac goes out from no electricity even for just a few hours, if people walk on flooring, if lights constantly go on and off, etc. Not an issue in the caves/cellars like her's. It is always the perfect temperature 57°-65°(with or without electricity), stable humidity, dark, no movement, quiet, etc.

We also learned every bottle of wine can be the perfect bottle if you remember 3 things, memory, mood, and temperature. Memory - if you want to forget a bad day, drink a light wine. Use a robust wine to really reinforce a memory. Mood, we forgot her words because we drank too much white wine?,  but ties to memory most probably.  Temperature - light cool wine for warm day, robust red wine for cooler temperatures.

After the cellars we went upstairs for the wine tasting and a light buffet. We tasted 4 wines and learned about different pairings. Traditionally Umbrian wines were white such as the standard, Orvieto Classico, but now they have moved into reds. Le Velette now bottles 11 estate wines from light white to very robust reds, including a sweet  white that we tasted with both a biscotti-like cookie called cantuccini and a filled cake of which we never learned the name but could easily have packed for leftovers. I know you'll all be amazed, as were we, but we didn't buy any Le Velette wine to go, although not by intention. We just missed the opportunity at the time, but did get the name of the US importer and also found out ABC Liquors carries at least their Orvieto Classico at a reasonable price, thank goodness for the internet. Before leaving we captured the wonderful view of Orvieto from the garden (back yard) and I tried to get the entrance with less luck.

Returning home we decided domestic housekeeping activities were is order, read that as wash, turn on heat and hang clothes all over the bedrooms and bathrooms. There is a clothes line outside Maggi's bedroom window but there are pigeons too.  We weren't taking any chances. Speaking of pigeons, dinner was a visit back to the "especial place",  John's Etruscan Well, where Maggi actually had the Gnocchi with Ragu of Pigeon. Yes, that's what I said, PIGEON. Guess what, it tastes like dark meat chicken. I, on the other hand, ate conservatively and had the Truffle Tortellini. Boringggg - Not! Ciao.