Fascinated by fragrance
This is the time of year when winemakers get high. We walk in green vineyards and smell the leaves, feel the soil, taste the grapes. Early mornings we go to the cellar before anyone else for that rush when you open the door, walk into the cool and smell the must, or enter the barrel room to listen to the effervescent bubbling of rows of fermentation bungs. Hours become fluid, days and nights fuse and exhaustion becomes addictive. Then you know: it’s harvest time!
I have always been fascinated by senses. After years of searching a suitable profession I discovered the making of wine. After my studies I was blessed to find a job in a winery where quality was the focus and where I could experiment widely in winemaking techniques. Since starting Saltare in 2007 I have learned a lot more about the wine industry than winemaking. The learning curve has been steep, but making wine remains the core and passion of what I do. It combines nature and terroir with fragrance, delicacy, texture, saturation, cadence – all five senses! The goal is that elusive, evocative, artful balance between the wine’s hue, aroma, fruit and acidity. This intention guides the entire flow from selecting the vineyards, deciding when to harvest, how to press and ferment the grapes, whether to use barrel or tank, how long to age and countless more decisions.
Food & Wine event in December
With the broader exposure to the wine industry there is, however, a new avenue that I am exploring. Some years ago Christoff and I had an opportunity to travel to Sicily and we could not get enough of their food. What put our culinary experience apart was the flawless match between Sicilian wine and Sicilian food. One could taste that their products came from the same soil and climate. Most memorable of all was a meal of never-ending Mediterranean courses at Trattoria Da Nino in Taormina that we savoured with a matching white wine from the nearby mineral-rich slopes of Mount Etna.
Inspired by this we began to work with chefs and food writers on pairing wine with food. Our food & wine events have been a new source of awareness for me and I thank all of you who have participated so far. I will continue with this in 2011 (see our website for upcoming events) and I invite you to join us as we cultivate the age-old tradition of matching good food and fine wine.
Carla
[This post was sent to subscribers of our newsletter in February 2011. Subscribe using the Email Signup form on our facebook page.]
