Posts Tagged ‘annalisa’

Anna Lisa

Thursday, October 2nd, 2014

A year in the life of a wine grower,I am convinced, is like pregnancy and giving birth to a baby. So many months leading up to the big event.

This year throughout Italy, it rained all of August. Not enough sun! So some of the grapes have some mold, and now that the sun is finally out, the mold is growing. The sun is needed to get the sugar content up so the alcohol level will be the right level when it starts to ferment in the cask. A lot of the grapes were pre-harvested and tossed to the ground because of the mold. Add to that the demand for workers to harvest and the crushing machine working sometimes, and the fact that all the bills have to be paid and the wine isn’t even in the bottle yet!

Our friend Anna Lisa Tempestini goes through this and more every year. She’s a wife and mother, yoga instructor, and cooking teacher and even a soon to be author. We stopped by to see her in action as the harvest was happening, at that precise moment!  

She dropped everything to be with us and make us feel welcome on our third time, over the years, to her home. We tried to be brief and take lots of photos of those lush bunches of grapes being picked but also noticing half as much on the ground that weren’t gonna make it into the barrel.

When you pop a cork on a good vintage, it is a joy and delight; you are a participant in the whole drama of the grape. When you have a not-so-good vintage, I saw through Anna Lisa,  the vintner still loves it for all it took to bring it to life.

The struggle makes it all the more dear.

And her wine, “Martin del Nero“, is excellent!

martindelnero

Painted in Waterlogue

grapes1

The Besta In Resta

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Being with Annalisa Tempestini in her home in Resta, Tuscany is like stopping the world and enjoying the very best in flavors: food,wine, and life.

The “home” (former monastery) was started in 1571 by the contractor/mon Martin del Nero. He wrote a prayer in the cement in the basement,blessing the home and the wine to come, and it is STILL recipient of that prayer.

We enjoyed cooking with Annalisa, making Pinci, sauteed  fresh harvested artichokes, stuffed zuchinni, foccacia and dried tomato/caper spread. Gelato and dark cherries topped off a PERFECT afternoon.

And of course, a bottle of the legendary Martin del Nero.

Though as busy and stretched as a mom-artist-yoga instructor-writer-cook-winemaker can be, she made us feel her world had stopped for us and our time together.

I wish I could send you the flavors and aromas, or bring back a bottle of them in my suit case. Bella, Anna Lisa, grazie,grazie.

Return To Montalcino

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

returnmontalcinonewbottlesWell,  we have come full circle. The moment we left Montalcino, we were talking of a reunion party and  you all made it happen!

What a beautiful night it was, and many hands made light work, I do appreciate the gift of not waking up to a day full of clean up.

Hearing some of your reminesence were warm tugs at my heart, and listening to Alice made me wish we had had her with us in Deruta.  But ultimately we had prayed all along that God would show us His glory and His creation in the new adventures we had,and then looking around the table, I saw that was in all of you all along.

Let’s do this again soon,

ciao,cara amici! 

p.s. check out our dear cooking teacher, AnnaLisa’s blog at  fattoriaresta.blogspotcom

Cooking Class

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

pastarollingCooking with AnnaLisa Tuscan Style

We all learned something about cooking, pasta, wine, tradition, and most of all hospitality on our day in Resta at the home of AnnaLisa. She shared with us her passions for the land, her wine, her home and the chapel on the grounds.

We cracked a few eggs, kneaded some dough, sliced and diced and made an awesome meal, that we enjoyed on the covered 2nd story terrace of her home.

annalisa2Our menu included foccacia, tagliatella, pinci, tomato/garlic sauce, an eggplant dish to die for and tirramisu .We all were delightfully  surprised on how fresh and wonderful it all tasted.

Several of us had had bad prior experiences with some of the dishes (I had never had an eggplant that I had liked, and most of us were not looking forward to the tirramisu).  Boy, were we blown away with how fabulous ,and amazing it all was. 

The time with her and each other was almost an out-of-body experience as we reveled in the tuscan gastronomic  experience!