Manvi organic winery

 Here is a gorgeous sunrise for you, from my apartment window:

This morning I wandered down to the Thursday open-air market.  It was filled with the usual stuff that you see in markets of this kind.  There was lots of old clothes, kitchen supplies and gadgets, odds and ends for the home.  But the highlight is always the food stalls.  So marvelous! I enjoyed talking to the merchants in Italian (they were very kind to go along with it ;-) and this is what I came home with:

But before heading home, a porchetta panino!  The porchetta man was quite glorious, I must add.  A porchetta is the result of taking a whole pig, deboning it, flattening it out a bit, and then adding a mixture of 'bits and pieces' of the pig and some herbs.  Then you roll it all up into a huge long roast, tie it up, and then roast for a day.  And then you slice it up and eat it.  The skin gets really crisp and for many that is the highlight.

In the afternoon, I joined a group and went on a tour of an organic winery and olive oil maker.  They are Manvi, and they are just down the hill and in the valley.  

It was a delight to see Montepulciano from this perspective, looking so noble on the hill.

The home and winery are just what you would imagine:

I've been very lucky to have visited many wineries in France, Italy, and then of course in the US, in California, Oregon and Idaho.  It's always interesting to listen to someone talk about the process:

Of course, everything from planting, care, harvest, mash, movement from one barrel to another, it's all carefully planned out and completely natural.  No artificial anything; no manipulation; no interference via pesticides or even watering in some cases.  That is what makes a wine D.O.C. (Denominazione di Origine Controllata)  or D.O.C.G. (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita)  A classification that means.... it's fabulous.