flavors
twelve o’clock, May 18, 2021 – 3:02 pm
Restaurant, farmhouse and farm; everything to make the most of the quality linked to the territory of its cuisine. Tastings: an Aglianico aged in terracotta
of Vincenzo Rizzi and Pasquale Porcelli
The restaurant (by Vincenzo Rizzi)
I scents that are breathed in the air, the vegetation with wooded patches, the undulating hilly profile, and the roofs of the suggestive village of Orsara that stand out on the horizon help to instill a feeling of well-being and act as an ideal setting for one of the sanctuaries of the Apulian territorial gastronomy, where the use of indigenous raw materials is not a publicity stunt but a daily reality. We are talking about the wonderful Piano Paradiso locality, that is the kingdom of Peppe Zullo, the chef, restaurateur and farmer who managed to create an extraordinary new world in this remote corner of Puglia. Here in fact Peppe cultivates the garden with aromatic herbs (mint, thyme, wild fennel, borage), and the forest with wild fruits; produces excellent wine and raises animals. While he runs an authentic farm, also capable of managing a fascinating and polyvalent structure: between the beautiful cellar, the different rooms for lunches and banquets, and the rooms furnished with modern pieces. Until the miracle of the renovation of Villa Jamele, a valuable country house from the early twentieth century, which is located a few kilometers below, set like a precious stone in the magnificent scenery of the Daunia mountains. However, it is a point of arrival, because behind all this there is Peppe’s wandering between Boston and Mexico in the seventies of the last century, to import Italian gastronomic knowledge first in Massachusetts and then in Puerto Vallarta, where the sea and tourism inspired him fishing solutions. And there are unforgettable experiences such as the sortie to Canada, when his dishes were appreciated and applauded by the Toronto delegation of the Italian Academy of Cuisine. But Peppe’s heart has always been tied to his land, and in his paradise he realized a great dream with indomitable energy. An energy that also triumphs over the pandemic, and that will allow him to return soon to delight his guests with products that, as in this case, it is never right to define zero-kilometer. Starting with the focaccia and the fantastic homemade burnt wheat breadsticks, and the home-made cheeses: both the goat cacioricotta which is served with fresh broad beans, and the canestrato accompanied by honey. Then continue with Peppe’s historical dishes. The borage parmigiana is very good, the burnt wheat orecchiette with pumpkin, cicerchie and borage are delicate, the boneless rabbit with black pork cheek and potatoes cooked under ashes are not to be missed.
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In Peppe Zullo’s Paradise
The wine (by Pasquale Porcelli)
Nhe recent years more and more companies have resorted to amphora to refine their wines. This rediscovery of ancient traditions opens up to renewed interpretations in which the maturation and sometimes even the fermentations are no longer entrusted to stainless steel containers or to concrete or wooden tanks, but to terracotta containers. The choice obviously depends on the quality of the vine, because it seems that this practice is much more incidental to the vines that have an important tannic content, to speak only of the red berried ones, such as Sangiovese, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and Aglianico, to mention the most known. Obviously, the quality of the terracotta and in particular the granulometric structure, or its porosity, does a lot. Unlike wood which offers the same micro-oxygenation capacity, terracotta does not release aromas or even tannins present in the wood. This allows to express wines without any transfer, enhancing the peculiarities of the grape. We are still in an almost pioneering phase, but more and more companies are pushing on this ground without giving up their history. Elena Fucci with the Title by Amphora 2017 experiments her first version fermented and aged in terracotta from Impruneta, with an aging of 18 months in terracotta and a further 6 months in the bottle. The result is a wine with a color tending to garnet played in transparency. The color could deceive, but the intense, elegant smell, giving us hints of black cherry, hints of pepper, spices, bay leaf and licorice of an essential finesse. Certainly not opulent palate, but linear, vertical, which does not widen, remaining intact and giving us complexity that can be read with medicinal herbs, myrtle and hints of spice with a young, fine and reactive tannic texture.
May 18, 2021 | 15:02
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