Winenxt

Visit to Tenuta Pandolfa winery

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On 20th of October 2009 I visited a estate vineyards and winery of Tenuta Pandolfa winery in province of Forli Cesena. Below I have described my visit and few lines from the winemaker of this winery.

History
Built from 1731 to 1754 in the municipal district of Fiumana, today Predappio,according to Marquis Andrea Albicini’s will, it remains, till a short time before the
second world war, the favourite resort of the noble family.
Giosuè Carducci , often visiting the family, admired and exalted the structures and the stateliness of the Villa till he declare that it was “built for eternity.”People say that the teacher of the school in Predappio took her children Benito to the gate of the Villa to point at the great poet from a distance

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The name of the Estate would have earliest origins when, in the middle of the XV century, the troops of the leader Pandolfo Malatesta stayed for a long time in this place, during the siege of the Castle of Fiumana

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During the 1936 the Commendatore Giuseppe Ricci bought the Estate from Marquises Albicini starting a long and engaging adventure consisting of huge investments, repairs and restructurings.
These are the years when Romagna and its people identified Pandolfa as the Spirits’ house near S. Agostino maybe because of a little girl, that misteriously died, whose whispered prayers can be heard at the fourth floor; maybe because of that chains sound that you can hear during windy days; maybe because of that far train puff…The Villa was centre of a German division that was attacked by Polish people, there are stories about evacuees in the cellars, about basements inside the hill across the little church, about war events with killed soldiers, about tunnels full of snakes closed in a hurry… People tell till today about the Villa with a hundred windows outside and ninety-nine windows inside

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Today the property is in the hands of Mrs Paola Piscopo , granddaughter of the Commendatore.
The Villa, originally in the centre of a vast park, is today encircled by the largest vineyard of the Rabbi valley. Erected in 4 floors lies at the foot of the vast Estate.
Its wonderful rooms, the frescoes, the large staircases, preserved with care in time and recently restored, make it one of the most important villas in Romagna.

The Vineyards
The Estate Pandolfa extends on a nearly 140 hectares surface on a hillside prevalently exposed to south, south-east
The position is in middle hill at an altimetrical band between 150 and 400 metres above sea level. The soil is deep, basically dense, mud-clavey and comes from the destruction of ancient clavey-calcareous sandstones

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Of this area, about 90 hectares are subjected to intensive farming while the remaining part includes woods, sowable land and lawns. Vineyards are by far the widest cultivation with about 80 hectares vineyards in intensive farming cultivated prevalently by “cordone speronato” with a density between 3.500 and 5.000 stubs per hectare

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The vineyards in Pandolfa, originally planted with traditional varieties, mainly Sangiovese (42 hectares) and Trebbiano (10 hectares), have been afterwards enriched with non traditional grapes as white cultivar Chardonnay (12 hectares) and Sauvignon Blanc (1 hectar) and red cultivar Cabernet Sauvignon (4 hectares), Merlot (4 hectares) and Montepulciano (2 hectares). A unique specificity in Pandolfa is the presence of the grape Nebbiolo (about 5 hectares) planted during the Sixties and still present as a differentiation and firm value element

Trebbiano is the Trebbiano clone “della Fiamma” cultivated in the hill zone around Forlì.
It’s very different from the Trebbiano Romagnolo as the vine is less fruitful, grapes less compact and peels take on a beautiful rosy coloration when, during the period of turning colour, they are exposed to direct sunlight.

The Winery
Pandolfa wines are produced in facilities and systems modernly equipped, built in the 1997 and with an operative capacity of more than 7.000 quintals of grapes
Magnificently integrated near the Villa, with sober and elegant architecture, they consists of:

a department on the ground level for the receipt and selection of the grapes, pressing and first vinification;
An underground department for storage, refinement in tank and secondary fermentations.
Pandolfa wines that need ageing, are refined in oak barrique and tonneau in the ancient cellars under the eighteenth-century Villa

The bottling system consists of a semiautomatic line with a potentiality of 2.000 bottles per hour, comprehensive of bottle washing, filler, corking, capper, labelling and packing for 0,75 litre and 1,5 litre bottles with both cork and screw plug

A system for the packing of bag in box has been bought recently. All the systems and the rooms are in separate areas and can be sterilized by vaporization systems.

During my visit i had a adventures drive within the vineyards in tractor and enjoyed tasting of different wines. I enjoyed the red wine Sangiovese di Romagna superior D.O.C and fresh young cavina wines made from mix of all varieties during having a typical lunch og Romagna region. I even enjoyed tasting of some new products like Amora del Forte, Grappa di sangiovese, Rosolio del gentil sentire and Saba.

Reference:
www.pandolfa.it

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