Where the Towers Meet the Vines: Panizzi Vernaccia di San Gimignano

Vernaccia di San Gimignano was one of my first white wines of Italy that I came to enjoy.  It also was Italy‘s first DOC in 1966 and is still Tuscany’s only white wine with the DOCG designation.  Let’s take a look at this quaint Tuscan town and the Panizzi winery, which is the focus of today’s tasting.  

All About San Gimignano 

I find It's easier to relate to something when you have visited the area from which something originates from.   I have always loved the medieval tower driven, walled town of San Gimignano set in the Siena province of northwest Tuscany.  It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage site with its 14 medieval towers that still remain that were once built by 13th century rival noble families where height ruled.  

It’s such a great town to explore whether you stay over or make it one of your stops while you’re touring the Tuscan countryside.  Just make sure to sit back and have a glass of their Vernaccia di San Gimignano in one of the many cellars open for tasting in the town center or just grab a gelato and take in the daily living of the locals. 

Copyright of Consorzio del Vernaccia di San Gimignano

Here are some of the top sights to visit when making a stop in San Gimignano. 

• Stroll down Via San Matteo and Via San Giovanni making pit stops at the local shops eventually arriving at the center of it all, Piazza della Cisterna. 
• Climb the tallest tower of San Gimignano, Torre Grossa, for sweeping views over the hills of the Val d’Elsa. 
• Take in sunset at Rocca di Montestaffoli with views over the towers and the rest of the countryside. 
• Visit San Gimignano’s main church, Collegiata di San Gimignano, and admire the Renaissance frescoes. 
• Enjoy the local specialties including saffron and wild boar, called cinghiale (my all time favorite).  

The Panizzi Winery 

Founded in 1979 by Giovani Panizzi, he moved to this area to ”discover his best self convinced at the ago of 50 he could reinvent help”, per the winery’s site.  He bought the Santa Marguerite estate on the outskirts of the walls of San Gimignano, occupying only a few hectares.  The vineyards and their olive groves are surrounded by forests, which help to moderate the temperature. 

Giovanni was a visionary and it took him 10 years of experimentation until he released with first wine in 1989, which is the wine I’m sharing with you today, the green label Vernaccia di Sam Gimignano DOCG.  Five years following that harvest he released his Riserva and also came out with Sangiovese wines.  The winery practices organic farming without the use of chemical fertilizers and the vineyards are hand harvested for the best care and selection of grapes.   

In 2005, Giovanni sold off the winery to the Nicolas family where it is run today by Simone whom takes an innovative approaching to winemaking and has added Pinot Noir to the collection of wines produced. 

See a video of the winery for yourself on their site.

The Panizzi Wine 

Today I’m sharing the 2023 Panizzi Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG which is made up of 95% Vernaccia and 5% Incrocio Manzoni.  The grapes are sourced from 4 of their vineyard sites of 30-year-old vines and re grown on tufaceous, sandy soil with yellow clay.  The wine is vinified and aged on the lees in stainless for 5 months.   

This wine was light-bodied and fresh on the palate with crisp, mouthwatering acidity.  Bright citrus of lemon and grapefruit with some tart green apple.  A slight bitterness on the finish along with some nice minerality ending with nice length.  ABV 13.5%, SRP $18-20.  This wine should be enjoyed within the next 5 years.   

Pairing with Vernaccia di San Gimignano

With the summer nights and a busy schedule now that we are back into football season in my household I wanted something easy on the grill, but flavorful.  In my selection of food pairing with this Vernaccia di San Gimignano I decided to go with some zucchini from our garden, homemade pesto also from our garden and marinated Tuscan chicken.  

The garlic and herb Tuscan marinade I used consisted of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic and your choice of fresh spices (oregano, rosemany, basil).  Make sure you let it sit overnight if you have the time or at least a couple hours to absorb the flavors.  Every element of this dish paired just right with the crisp, freshness of this Vernaccia di San Gimignano.  A perfect summertime pairing!

The best way to reach San Gimignano 

If you find yourself in Florence, or even Siena, and are looking to explore the Tuscan countryside, San Gimignano can be reached by car, my preferred style for flexibility, within an hours drive on the SR2 (Via Cassia).  If you opt out of renting a car, you can always take the bus from Florence to the town of Poggibonsi, which is about an hour, and then a local bus that is about a 20 minute ride to Porta San Giovanni.  If you’re taking the train from Siena to Poggibonsi it is only about 30 minutes. 

If you find yourself in Tuscany make sure to venture to this enchanting town that rises out of the Tuscan hills and enjoy a glass of Vernaccia di San Gimignano.  You’ll be glad you did! 

 

You can find Vernaccia di San Gimignano wines to sample on your own at Wine.com. I may receive compensation for any wines purchased through the affiliate link in support of Vino Travels. 

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Vino Travels Highlights the Top 10 Italian Wine Blogs of 2015

Another year has come and gone and boy does time fly.  I appreciate all the support and recognition from my readers since my beginnings of Vino Travels in 2013.  I'd love to hear from more of my readers around the world so drop me an email to say hello or leave a comment.  It's always exciting to me to see subscribers from around the world and I hope you have enjoyed your weekly newsletter.  I'm always looking to improve and will have some changes to my site hopefully this year that I'm working on as well.  Can't wait to share it with you.  Have a great happy and healthy start to New Year!

Below I'm sharing my most popular top 10 Italian wine blogs of 2015.  Enjoy a recap!

#1 - Italian Food, Wine & Travel  (#ItalianFWT) Explores Abruzzo

#2  - Vernaccia di Serrapetrona: A 3 Fermentation Wine

#3 - Comprehensive Guide to Sagrantino & Montefalco

#4 - Donna Laura Ali, The Sangiovese of Angels

#5 - Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Colline Terramane DOCG with Cerelli Spinozzi

#6 - Italian Food, Wine & Travel Features the Le Marche 

#7 - Sicilian Volcanic Wine Pairing: Pasta Alla Norma with Giovi Nerello Mascalese

#8 - Italian Food, Wine & Travel Visits Umbria

#9 - Wine & Food Pairing of Sicily: Inzolia and Arancini

#10 - My Italian Wine Specialist Certification and Podcast with Rick Zullo

Looking forward to another great year in 2016 and sharing the wines of Italy with you.  

Happy New Year ~ Buon Anno!

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Leap into Spring with Pasta Primavera & Montenidoli Vernaccia di San Gimignano

Time flies when you're drinking wine! I started my Italian wine blog 2 years ago this month in order to push myself to study Italian wine deeper. Since then I have become enrolled in an Italian Wine Specialist certification program (exam a week away), written well over a hundred blogs, started writing for some magazines, attended a number of wine events I've been invited to including my recent trip earlier this year to Italy for the Anteprima Amarone. I have met bloggers all around the world including face-to-face gatherings in Italy and have learned so much about social media and blogging it's mind blowing. One of the great surprises during this time was meeting a local food blogger to me, David of Cooking Chat, who invited me over one night to join in on a wine/food event online about wines from the Languedoc. 

Since then I've joined his Wine Pairing Weekend event of a fantastic group of food and wine bloggers. I love cooking when I have the time and I'm not one that always knows exactly what to pair when it comes to food and wine, but that is one of the greatest parts of this group. We learn from one another and it has forced me to think outside the box every month, experiment with a variety of different recipes and share with you what I would like to prepare, pair and share with you. That's a lot of rhyming for one sentence.

This month we are featuring spring pairings as we get ready for the nice weather to come. Although depending on where you are maybe it never really left you, but in the Boston area we literally just got some more snow this week and we're coming into 60 degree weather this weekend. Crazy New England weather.

My food pairing selection this month was easy when I actually had the time to sit and think about it. When I thought of spring immediately I thought of getting my garden ready for the summer and thought of all the wonderful fresh vegetables I grow. Although, after last year and my battle with my non-friend the gopher, I need to devise my plan to keep those critters from eating all my feed. So today I'm sharing with you a Pasta Primavera that's so easy to put together. Feel free to substitute whatever vegetables you like, but I chose green and red peppers, mushrooms, zucchini and summer squash. A simple recipe I put together with plenty of flavor.

Pasta Primavera Recipe

1) Boil and prepare water for your choice of pasta selection and add pasta once boiling
2) Saute minced garlic, olive or coconut oil and kosher salt
3) Cut vegetables of your selection.  I chose mushrooms, 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, 1 summer squash and 1 zucchini.
4) Add chopped vegetables to saute pan and cook low to medium heat until softened.
5) Add chicken broth to vegetables and simmer on low heat
6) Season vegetables with salt, pepper, parsley and oregano.  I also added a dab of mint.
7) Once pasta is cooked to desired time and drained, add to saute pan and mix with vegetables
8) Top with grated cheese of your choice.  I chose asiago cheese.

For my wine pairing I chose a Vernaccia di San Gimignano
from Montenidoli. I've previously written about Montenidoli when I had an opportunity to meet the owner, Elisabetta Fagiuoli, at a local wine shop here one night. I purchased her 2011 Montenidoli Tradizionale Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG. You can read all about her winery and the wine itself on my blog “MeetingElisabetta Fagiuoli from Montenidoli in San Gimignano.” What I loved about this pairing is the fresh, crispness of the Vernaccia paired with the light, simple sauce of the pasta primavera and vegetables. It was a light hearted meal where the simplicity of the food and wine balanced well. 

 

Here come more spring wine and food pairings coming your way........

Spring Pea Risotto with Picpoul de Pinet by Curious Cuisiniere 

Spring-Kissed Seafood Chowder with Pelerin 2011 Les Tournesols by Cooking Adventures with Camilla
Wine and Dine: Las Lilas Vinho Verde 2013 and Chilled Cucumber with Mint Soup by Grape Experiences.
Creamy Mushroom Pasta with Spring Peas and Westrey Pinot Noir by Pull That Cork
Red Wine with Asparagus and Mushrooms by Cooking Chat
Spring Hopes: Asparagus and Rosé by Food Wine Click
Spring Fling with Greek Pizza and Wine by Confessions of a Culinary Diva
Spring Flavors with Hungarian Pinot Grigio by A Day in the Life on the Farm
Welcoming Spring with #WinePW by Rockin Red Blog
Winter's Hill Pinot Blanc and Warm Arugula, Bacon and Asparagus Salad by Tasting Pour
Roasted Halibut with Potatoes and Lemon and a Tablas Creek Cotes de Tablas by Enofylz Wine Blog
Beets and Wine Pairing by Girls Gotta Drink

 

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The 1st DOC wine of Italy: Vernaccia di San Gimignano with food pairing

San Gimignano, Tuscany

One of the star white grapes of Tuscany is called Vernaccia and you will find it around the town of San Gimignano located southwest of Siena. San Gimignano is a medieval hilltop town surrounded in the present day by 13 towers. Back in the 14^th century there were 72 towers in total that were developed by the upper class families to demonstrate their status in society. San Gimignano is a great place to base yourself for traveling throughout Tuscany. You have the Chianti region at your finger tips, along with Pisa and Lucca to the north and the distinguished wines towns of Montalcino and Montepulciano for their Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano to the south.

Throughout all the grapes of Italy, Vernaccia di San Gimignano was the first to be granted DOC status in 1966 and later was granted DOCG status in 1993. About 5 months back I wrote a blog on the 2012 Crete Rosse Chianti D.O.C.G. that the Tenuta Torciano winery from San Gimignano had shared with me. Today I'm sharing with you their 2012 Poggio Aicieli Vernaccia di San Gimignano. 

I looked forward to this sample as I am a fan of Vernaccia. I thought this wine was a great expression of the vernaccia grape. This is a grape that you will be able to locate in many wine shops as it's not as discreet as some of the other grapes. Tenuta Torciano also has some great wine clubs that you can enjoy as well that shares with you 24 of their wines throughout the year including future discounts. The Poggio Aicieli, meaning “hills to the skies”, had a slight tropical bouquet with an almost clear color to it in the glass with a hint of straw coloring. Being a lighter, refreshing wine it was dry with mouthwatering acidity, nice minerality, some citrus and I picked up lots of sea saltiness on the finish.

I paired this wine with a couple dishes over a couple days, both very different. One was a roasted chicken with roasted potatoes and black olives along with a spinach salad topped with goat cheese, cranberries, walnuts and a homemade vinaigrette. I enjoyed at least half the glass by itself before eating as it was the end of a nice summer day and no better way to unwind than with a glass of wine. It paired nicely with the chicken. My next meal was from Frances Mayes new cookbook “TheTuscan Sun Cookbook”. It was stuffed pasta, I used shells, with ricotta and pears covered with a gorgonzola cream sauce and topped with toasted walnuts. Delicious! It was nice how the creamy sauce smoothed out the acidity of the wine and the fruit of the wine was more present. Two different meals that both paired nicely in their own way showcasing the wine slightly different. The fun of wine and food pairing.

Pierluigi Giachi and his family are backed by 14 generations of winemaking. They have an estate that offers a wide variety of activities and a food and wine experience to satisfy your desires. Check them out and seek out a Vernaccia this summer!

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Meeting Elisabetta Fagiuoli from Montenidoli in San Gimignano

Me & Elisabetta Fagiuoli

If I could visit wineries in Italy every day meeting the winemakers, sampling the wines and touring the land I would be a happy lady, but the second best thing is meeting the winemakers when they visit locally. My most recent tasting I had the pleasure to meet Elisabetta Fagiuoli, the owner and winemaker of Montenidoli in San Gimignano, Tuscany whom was visiting the Pairings wine shop in Winchester, MA where they always host great events and opportunities such as this. This entertaining and charismatic woman at the age of 77 had such vibrancy when discussing her wines and vineyard that she referenced as her “big garden”. Funny, but my garden looks nothing like hers!

Elisabetta started her organic winery in 1965, but the estate dates back to the 1700's. She also operates an agriturismo there, equivalent to our B&B's, along with running the vineyard. Lots of work, but when you love what you do the passion takes over. Her excitement about the way she takes care of her “garden” was very evident. She doesn't cut branches or green harvest and her vineyard has dense plantings. Green harvesting is when you cut some of the more unripe grape clusters in order to allow the others to fully ripen, which decreases the yield of the grapes, but helps winemakers to get their desired quality that they are looking for. The reason that Elisabetta doesn't green harvest is because it causes the vines to struggle forcing them to deepen their roots in the soil creating more complexities in the wine. The soil in her vineyard is clay and very fallow containing shells left behind from the Ligurian Sea providing minerals to the soil.

Elisabetta, with her crew of about 10-12 workers annually and 30-35 workers during harvest, hand pick all the grapes and produce about 10,000 cases annually. I sampled 6 of their wines that night and wanted to discuss a few of my favorites, which were the 2011 Montenidoli Tradizionale Vernaccia, the 2011 Montenidoli Colorino and lastly the 2005 Sono Montenidoli.

Starting with white I compared her 2011 Tradizionale Vernaccia DOCG, which I enjoyed more than the 2011 Montenidoli Fiore Vernaccia DOCG, both of these being made 100% of the vernaccia grape. The difference between these two is that the Tradizionale is macerated with the skins and then fully pressed, where the Fiore is about ½ the production and is just the must and free run juice, which isn't pressed. The Fiore had a nice elegance and finesse and showcased more fruit where the Tradizionale was drier, but I enjoy this style of Vernaccia.

For reds I had the 2011 Montenidoli Colorino, which was 100% colorino. These colorino vines were planted at the winery in 2006 with its first release in 2012. This wine was actually sold out for the night temporarily, but I was still able to sample it. It is aged 12 months in barrels. The colorino had good body with very noticeable cassis on the palate with a little dryness and tannin creating a very approachable and enjoyable wine. Colorino is a lesser known grape that is usually added to chianti for its deep color, but stands very well on its own in this wine.

The last red wine that Elisabetta called the “big baby” was the 2005 Sono Montenidoli made of 100% sangiovese. Definitely the highlight of the reds and comes from Elisabetta's best sangiovese grapes. It is aged 12 months in barrels and another 3 years in the bottle. It had such structure and power and even though it was a 2005, it was still younger and has such aging potential. It was fuller bodied with lots of fruit present as well as tannin and had such a long lived finish.

It was such a pleasure to meet Elisabetta and share in the works of her passion. Have you ever visited Montenidoli or tasted Elisabetta's wines?

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