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The Slow Life at Casa al Bosco
What is it about a place that helps you retrieve and relive a memory of a special moment or two in time? The kind of place where you can be exposed to so many wonderful scents in the air if you just take the time to do nothing at all but go for a walk in the morning. With your best friend if possible. Who also grew up on a dairy farm like you and can appreciate the colors of late summer mixed in with the dusty overturned earth as it is being plowed for the next season during the wine harvest. A little bit of terroir in your nose is a great thing. Far away from the vanilla world of corporate offices and cubicles and the constant pings of email, texts, face book updates and people needing something yesterday.
Stopping occasionally to sample a ripe dew covered grape or two that pops in your mouth. Happening upon a colorful grouping of beehives down the road from Villa Casa al Bosco in Abbadia di Montepulciano where we were staying. Sweet honey being made at another vineyard called Il Greppo, where one can also buy and sample wines and rent bikes even if you're not staying in one of their lovely villa homes on the property. Stumbling upon fig and pear trees that were dropping their fruit on the ground, free for the taking if you beat the birds. Stopping to smell the fragrance of the over six foot high rosemary plants that seem to grow everywhere in Tuscany. Finding sweet white onions in the middle of the dirt roads as they bounced off the truck on the way to local markets. Later using these onions to sauté with the leftover juicy thick Florentine steak you and your three girlfriends on the trip had the night before up in Montepulciano. Accompanied by the strong freshly ground coffee that a restaurant owner in Montepulciano gave us the night before when hearing of our need for fresh coffee in the morning and having missed a small market open to purchase same on the drive down from Florence. A bountiful thrown together brunch finished off with a nice bottle of chilled dry Italian rose wine smelling of ripe strawberries. The wine had been recommended by Paolo at the wine bar and restaurant called La Bottega del Nobile in Montepulicano. Such a smart young man who puts 12 year old sweet thick aromatic balsamic vinegar on the table so you will sample and want to purchase some in his store above the restaurant before you leave.
At Casa al Bosco you are off the beaten path and happily surrounded by ripening olive trees, tobacco fields, vineyards and the sound of chirping birds. Not only the small vineyard for homemade wines made by Adrianno of Casa al Bosco, but of Simona of Villa Sant' Anna. A vineyard owned by a sixth generation wine maker who just happens to be a woman who is training her two daughters to take over. Who took the time to give us a two hour wine tasting complete with a delicious lunch of several types of cured meats, cheese decorated with the Italian flag and crusty bread to pair with the most elegant of Nobile di Montepulciano wines with dark cherry and rich plum aromas. Elegant just like the owner.
The scent of roses growing near our villa with the occasional one plucked for an up close and personal enjoyment in our adjoining rooms. The perfumed hand made soaps in the bathrooms. And of course that rose scented Aquaflor room spray purchased in Florence.
And at the end of the day after exploring the little surrounding towns in Val D'Orcia, the smoky smell of a real fire in an old stone fireplace somewhere close was experienced while toasting another wonderful day in Tuscany during the golden sunset time of this special little place in the world. While consuming a bottle of Simona's wine which can only be purchased in New York, New Jersey and California. Her American wine buyer should add a few more states like Massachusetts. We all purchased a couple of bottles to bring back home so we could open in two years and help bring back some of the scents and good memories of our secret Tuscany. Cheers.
Diane G.
