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Hello, and welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host, Melanie Young, and I have had just the most amazing past three weeks of my life, which I'm going to be sharing with you today. I mean, I truly believe that when you get to a certain age, we'll just live life to the fullest because you don't know how many years you have left, so we just got to add more life to those years.
Right.
In fact, one of my favorite muses, I call her amuse, Patricia Schultz, who wrote the book A Thousand Places to Go Before You Die, one of my favorite books of all time. She posted something that I reposted on my social media feed and it is. I'm going to pop it up and let you see it. She's a prolific poster,
so I've got to like find it. But basically, it basically says, you figure you only have, you know, on average, eighty years of your life left and on average, so you want to make the most of all of it right. So that means you know, you may not like what's going on in the world, or in politics, or in your personal life or anything. But as she writes, the problem is you think you have time. On average, we
get eighty summers if we're lucky. Don't put off the trip, stop waiting for life to begin, Stay up late with friends, get up early to watch the sunrise, catch every sunset, book the trip, go on that hike, go to the beach, Spend time with those you love and tell them how you feel, and make sure that you feel great. And thank you Patricia Schultz. Let me give her a wonderful plug.
A Thousand Places to Go before You're Bye Die. A Thousand Places to Go Before You Die, best selling book and one of my all time favorites.
When I book my trips.
I just finished three weeks where I said yes to everything.
I said yes to everything.
That included yes to going on an almost two week trip to Tuscany to taste wine poor meat. But as many of you know, part of my life is embedded in the wine and food business. And I have another show called The Connected Table Live where you can learn about all that. And then I came back and went right into Deep Gras. That's Marty Gras's final week, and we lived it up because as they say, New Orleans live life to the fullest. They sometimes call the New
Orleans the city that care for goot. I sometimes call it the city that forgot to care. But basically, Marti Gras is. Between January sixth, three Kings Day and that Tuesday, Marty Gras not to the city's French roots, it's a time of celebration and parties and parades and living life
to the fullest. Because Ash Wednesday, which happens to be today March fifth, is begins a forty day time of reflection and solemnity in the being solemn and spiritual in many religious calendars, including Catholicism and Louisiana, and particular New Orleans is very heigh embedded in Catholicism. It's a beautiful time, and today is quiet. Yesterday was absolutely insane. There were parties.
Everybody's in costumes. I've never seen so many crazy costumes in my life, and I think it was probably one of the funnest days of my life. I enjoyed it with my husband David. I was with family, I was with friends. We got up early before dawn to go watch the parades, which had been moved up because there was a thread of tornado wind tornado level winds, which more simfully didn't show up until later in the night.
We watched these beautiful barraides under a sunny, beautiful day, and then went down to the French Quarter where there were so many revelers and costumes, practically some not wearing anything, and everybody was just having a great spirit. And I ended the night with friends having Thay food, because why not when you're in New Orleans, sometimes you just want something different. And so we had a beautiful time. We just had a really beautiful time, and I think it in by living life to the fullest.
It really did.
I'm gonna sell you a favorite, a favorite thing that they say in.
New Orleans on Marti Gras everywhere else.
It's just Tuesday, but in Marti Gras it's Fat Tuesday. And I gotta say, I'm so proud to be a New Orleanian now really really really really really really happy to be a New Orlinian. So you know what we talk about the day am I talk about Tuscany because I just got back, and Tuscany evokes amazing images of beautiful rolling hills, golden hued sunsets, rose and rose, and rows of vineyards, these tall cypress trees, it stretched to the bluest sky. That's Tuscany. Tuscany is also a very
large area. Many people think of Tuscany and they think of Florence, which is certainly the center of crust scan There's also Sienna and Luca, where I'll be going soon, and Cortona, where Francis Mays, author of Under the Tuscan Son, lives and she probably wrote the pivotal book Under the Tuscan Sun, which brought many people to Tuscany. What brought me to Tuscany this year and every year is an
event called Onteprima Tuscana. And David, my husband, and are honored guests at Entreprina Tuscana as journalists to taste and learn about the new releases of Tuscan wines from throughout all the regions of Tuscany. As I said, Tuscany is a large area. It's not just Florence, it's not just Krtona. There's a lot of regions. It stretches from look at the picture the coast where there's beautiful beaches in Maremma, the Tuscan Coast, over to Umbria and Arezzo, which is
in the center the heart of Italy. To the north of Tuscany is Bologna and Luguria on the coast, and to the south is Lazio, where Rome is located. So Tuscany is this beautiful area in central Italy, bordered by the Apennine Mountains to the east and the Terranean Sea to the west. I have been blessed to go to many of these regions, and we'll be going back because there's endless things to discover about Tuscany. What I'm going to talk to you about, because that was what the
trip was about, is Tuscan wine. So you can become well versed in Tuscan wine. It's pretty easy to know about Tuscan wines. It is mainly Tuscany is mainly a red wine production area. Only one other Italian region, Calabria, and that's to the south, is more intently focused on red wines. Almost ninety percent of Tuscany is want red wine. And the one grape you must know it is the king of Tuscan wines is san Giovese. Say it again, san Giovese.
These are red.
Wines with highest city which is ads that zip and Christmas to a wine, red berry aromas and flavors. Most of Tuscan wines, many of them are one hundred percent sangiovesei, most notably Brunello di Montulcino. Those are the wines made in the hilltop of Montulcino. They are doc G wines. Denomination origin contrada controlata guaranteeta the highest level. There is also in Chianti Classico wines called grand Seleccioni. Most of those are one hundred percent San Giovesi. They can allow
us very small amount of other local grapes. And then we also tasted wines in an area just in the same area, a little south of Florence called Nobly de Montepulciano. Those wines are mainly a blend there they call the San Giovesi, Prunello, Gantile and Noble Demntepulciano is blended with
other local varieties, notably Colorino and Caniolo. But they just launched a new level called Pieve piaves are much like grand Seleccioni, the highest level of wines from noblely de Monteplciano, and those are going to be mainly one hundred percent San Giovesi. That may seem confusing to you, so I'm just gonna make it very easy. San Giovesi. You can also find san Giovasi in other areas of Italy, notably
parts of Umbria. Umbria borders Tuscany to the east. It makes sense these wines tend to be a lot of deep cherry notes, bal balsamic notes based on how much wood there is, licorice, tomato leave, violets, and herbal.
Notes.
They are long, aging wines and they are beautiful wines that you can.
Enjoy with a variety of foods.
Mainly if you go to Tuscany, you're going to be eating a lot of meat, which is very hard for me as a vegetarian because I don't eat meat. But that is what really goes beautifully with san Giovani, san Giavesi wines. It's a noble grape Italy and one that you will enjoy and savor with beautiful chescan cheeses. I particularly liked the cheeses of Pianza, your noblely de Monte Placiano. They're sheeps milk cheeses. There are some dish called ribolita, which is a bread soup made with vegetables.
Goes beautifully with that.
The main regions of Tuscany where you're gonna want to know is well. Obviously I mentioned Brunello to Montucino. The other big area is Kianti Classico. Kante Classico is the historic heart of Kanty, dating back to the Middle Ages. There are kiyanties, and there's Kyanti Classico, there's Kyanti Docg, and there's Kyanti do z and boy does they get confusing. Here's what you want to know. Kyanti Classico is a docg.
It's a very large area. Inside of it are different subregions where grapes are harvested called ugga, different regions much like they do.
And think about Napa and Napa.
You've got big Napa Valley and then there's sub avas with a napa that's kind of like Kanti Classico. Kanti Classic is between eighty percent and one hundred percent San Giovesi reds, and there is a County Classico Reservo, which requires longer aging. And there is, as I said, gran Seleccioni, which is the top level of county Classico wines. These are beautiful wines, many are affordable, and I highly recommend them.
The other wine which I just references, Vino Noble de Montepulciano, also a docg based with Sangiovesi, but seventy percent, so you can add in some other wines.
Other grapes.
Usually it's a grape called canola nero or colorino. Those are both Italian native varieties. Occasionally you may have Merlo Cabernet franc or Caberne sauvignon. But the best ones, in my personal opinion, are just one hundred percent Sangiovesi. They'll taste a bit different from County Classico because they're there's different soil levels. You know, you've got lots of fossils in the soil and gravel and clay, so depending on the region that soil will feed the grapes and that
gives the grapes their unique DNA and personality. Kiante also has this doc and then there's Kyanti doc Cheese, which are different sub zones that surround Florence and their different appellations, and they're all very unique because they have different soils and what they call micro microclimates. I learned about one called Rufina. Rufina is one of the oldest of these sub sub zones and it's in a mountainous area. I had some amazing wines from there, not to be confused
with raffino, which is a wine. Rufina and I learned a lot from this particular trip about roof and the wines because I went to fabrious dinner hosted by their consortium. All of these have consortium, which are governing bodies organizations that maintain the standards and quality of the wines. That's why it's DOCG and DOCG, DOCG being the highest level.
So you know, just outside Florence, you can drive forty five minutes north, an hour east or west and you'll be in one of these sub zones with their own unique wines. There's Coley Arantini, Coley Fiorentini, Coley, Senezi, Colini, Pisani, Nicoli means hills, so these are hilly areas. There's Montalbano, Montespertoli and as I mentioned, Rufina.
So Tuscany is like.
A puzzle of different areas, each with its own personality. These all areas surround Florence where we base ourselves, and it is fabulous. But a region that I highly recommend visiting for its incredible history and unius and amazing wines is called Carmignano. That's c ar MiG n a and o. It is also a docg. It is a red wine of fifty percent san gioves. So what makes Carmignano unique.
And this is about ninety minutes drive from Florence, just to give you a perspective, ninety minutes drive north end west of Florence. Carmignano wines are fifty percent Sangiovese and the remaining amounts can be cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet froc. Now that's pretty interesting because that's not really the case with a lot of wines in Tuscany which use native varieties.
But this is because this area is influenced by Bordeaux producers, and the producers brought vines from Bordeaux over to plant in Carmignano. I know it'll be the Rothschilds. So these wines are really fabulous. Highly recommend them. And the producer that I will recommend above all is Capisana. Capasana is a very historic family run producer, dates back centuries. It was so blessed because they you know, many of these wineries did not bottle their wines for commercial sales until
much later into the twentieth century. They were producing wines for the Capisinos, the locals, or for the family. But Tenuta de Capisano is a beautiful place to visit. Highly recommend it. And there's a farmhouse you can stay in which I have stayed in, and the family is at The Bonacossi family dates back. They actually came from Spain and came over to They were art dealers in Spain and they moved to Italy Cesra as Alessandro Conti, Cossi's son Augusto moved to Italy and their first vintage is
nineteen twenty six. The story begins for the family in nineteen twenty six, so What was amazing was this year.
The Bonicasi family.
Had a dinner a beautiful restaurant and opened a bottle of their nineteen twenty six wine one hundred years. It's hard, you don't know what happens to wine in a bottle for one hundred years, but it was quite beautiful and it was a special occasion to mark that one hundredth anniversary. Tanudo Capizana also makes beautiful wines and oil olive oils. Actually brought some olive oil home and they being art dealers, they have a gallery in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
If you have a chance to visit it, sometimes you have to go by invitation. It is quite spectacular, but I highly recommend this winery. I highly recommend visiting this winery and the farm house. It is fabulous. So again, the region is Carmignano. The winery is new to Capisana. Capasana is c A P E z z A N A dot it beautiful wines, probably one of my favorite Tuscan wines ever. In terms of regions, Carmeniano highly recommended
another area that I kind of rediscovered this trip. They call Ultra Tuscana Altra tiscana Is are the regions more to the coast, uh Montecuco. Here's some names to know Montecuco, Suveroretto, Bulgary, Montescudo. These are all Moralino uh is the great what they call Sancho Visi, they call it Moralino. Here these are more coastal wines. You're gonna have some amazing slight selinity and some of the wines beautiful wines. I gotta tell you,
the wines of Subaretta blew me away. And this is where you'll find what they call the super Tuscans, well nonofficial categorica wines. They're really highly regarded. The name originated in the nineteen seventies when producers started making wines that fell outside the doc and DOCG regulations at the time, where they took san Gioves wines and blended them with other varieties. And here you'll find some very famous wines
like Sassakaya, Tigna, Neello or Inlaya. Those are some of the big ones, and they're called super Tuscan and they're very popular. They're very different because they have a lot of Cabernet, Cabernet franc and merlau. The Bordeaux varieties, but they're beautiful wines. I you know, I've been talking about red wines because Tuscany is mainly a red wine region, but I would highly recommend the whites that are produced there on the coast, in the coastal area and what
we call ultra Tuscana Vermontino rules. Vermentino wines are very crisp white wines, really fabulous, and you can find really good vermentino not only in Tuscany on the coasts and areas like Marema, which is a coastal area, but also in non Tuscan areas like Sardinia. But I would think Vermonino is a great alternative to drinking say savignon blanc. You can find some savignon blancs also in the Tuscan coast. I had a few and Vienna and they're all very good.
It is a smaller area production, but they're all very good. So white wine Vermentino. And then there is one area of Tuscany that is a docg Bernacio de sand Jiminiano.
It's a cogc only of white wines. Vernacia is another white grape, really refreshing, kind of floral, herbaceous grape, and the wines and vines are all in the docg area, exclusively around San Giminana, which is a beautiful village known for its tall towering bell towers they call Vernacia descend Jiminana the White Queen of Tuscany wines, and San Giovanni is the Red King of Tuscan wines. So if you go, the best way to get there is to fly into Florence.
I highly recommend spending a lot of time in Florence. It's a very historic, beautiful area, and if you can rent a car or catch a tour, I would suggest going over to Carmeniano. It could be a day trip, but I would make it a night trip, and then I would highly recommend going down to Pisa or Luca. That's where we're going to be going next actually to explore. I think those are all great areas. We also visited an area that was we'd been to once, but we
went back to again, called Valdano de Sobra. It's more toward Oretso, another area of Tuscany where there are a lot of hunting. The royalty and the Medici family and the wealthy would go there and hunt, so it's a very hilly Bucolic area. Just a little footnote here. A lot of Florence was built around the Medici family. Its storied family, very very wealthy. They controlled and all the banks, they controlled, all the land, and a lot of businesses
were built to serve the Medici family. You will see museums, you will see palazzos, you will see palazzos or palaces. You will see incredible buildings built around the influence of the Medici family, which remained today. And so when they left Florence in the hot summers, they would go to places like Aretzo and go hunting, and you'll see beautiful estates there. And Valdona is Sobra. I wish we had spent more time there. It was quite beautiful, very rural,
a lot of medieval influence. And the wines there again are Sangia Vesi dominant, but there was a lot of Sarrah, Cabernese, Sauvignon and Marilow and very good wines as well. I was incredibly impressed by Valdano di Sopra. And if you continue further west you're in Umbria. So Aretso is kind of like the between of Florence and Umbria. So very big area, and I think a lot of people go to Tuscany and just stay in Florence and maybe pop over to Siena, Pisa or Luca. But there's so much
beautiful Pienza is another area known for their cheeses. As I mentioned, there's so many areas to explore, so I would take more time and do that and go to those beautiful little villages. Tuscany makes a very famous sweet wine called vincento. The Sainted Wine is a very specific way to make this wine, and it's a doc wine. There are four docs for vincento in Tuscany, Chianti, Santo del Tuscan County, Santo del County, Classico, Santo di Multipulciano,
and Santo di Carmeniano. And I have to tell you Tanudo Capazana's Santo di Carmeniano van Santo di Carmagiano is really one of the greatest wines ever. So Vincanto is a sweeter wine that is in limited quantities. In fact, it used to be made just for the families. It's typically a white wine made from Trebiano Tuscano, another white grape in Tuscany, along with Malvasia, there's sweeter wines, but there's also a wine called Okio de p Nietzsche. I have the Partridge, which can be made. It's a more
copper colored wine. One of the best ones is from Nobly to Multipulciano. It's called It's by Buscarelli. It's Buscarelli's Vancento. Buscarelli is a terrific and probably one of my favorite producers in Montepulciano. And that's hard because you have a lot of favorite producers there. And on my website, the Connected Table, I'll be listing some producers that you can look for, because these are wines that are widely available.
But if you want to.
Bring something special for a dinner party, a bottle of Vancento for dessert and maybe some Cantucci or Piscatti to go with it is a very special gift. These are labor intensive wines that take years before they can actually be bottled and ready to be served. They have to be kept in an attic for a minimum three years,
naturally aged. Very special. So Tuscany is a lot more than you probably vision It's a lot bigger than you probably envisioned, and it deserves more time than you probably planned for when you go on your grand tour of Italy. I have been several times, and every time I go, I discover something new. If that says anything to you. We'll be going back soon to Luca never been and we'll be exploring in that area and I can't personally wait, can't wait to go back to the Tuscan coast and
to a Retzo. I was blown away of both of these areas and the wines. So if you want to learn more information about tusk and wines, there as several websites I would highly recommend. First of all, I like the website Italian Wine Central. It's just a good, old central, easy to follow website. It's wine centric, but I think it's a good one. You can go to the Kianti Classico website. The website is I think www dot Knti class dot com. You know, the symbol of the Countie
Classical region is the red rooster Gallo negro. There's a whole story behind that which I won't get into, but it all County Classico wines have the Gallo negro on the label. There's a lot of history there, but look for that when you're looking for wine.
So county.
Classico is a region, and then Brunella de Montlcino.
Okay, I'm gonna make this short.
Like I said, I was gonns to have another guest on and she did not appear. That happened sometimes, so I kind of give you a little trip to Tuscany. I'm going to give you basically a quick recap of things you may want to know. Key grapes San Giovese, the red white. There's two Vernaccia de San Geminano only made in San Gimiano, the Towering Bell city of central Tuscany, and Vermentino very well produced on the coast. There's also
Trebiano Tuscana, but I recommend Fermentino. There are some wines that are dominantly Sendiovesi, but also conclude Cabernet and marlow other grapes and notably that could be international, notably Carmeniano and Baldono di Sopra and the super Tuscan areas of Bulgary. Tuscany is a beautiful venue to have ribollita and bistaiko Fiorentina, beautiful steaks and while bore and meat dishes, it is meat centric. If you want fish, go to the Tuscan coast.
Go to Elba, the island of Elba, or Suvaretto, or Montecuco or Marama. Those are all the Tuscan areas, and I'm going to tell you the beaches are quite beautiful and not crowded, or at least when I was there.
Some hidden gems.
Well, we love Brunello di Montalcino. They're very expensive wines. They're the king of Tuscan wines. But if you want a wine that is frankly as delicious and beautifully and elegant as Brunello to Montalcino one hundred percent chance, Sangiovesi, I'd go to Valdorca, which is just nearby. You can actually wave to Montalcino from the Valdorcia area. Beautiful wines there, and you can also enjoy some incredible uh marlina disc and sounds of wine to one hundred percent, Sangiovesi, They're
made everywhere. I think what you may want to do is throw a Tuscan party, a dinner party, and ask people to bring wines from the region. Give them an assignment, say find a wine from this area or this area, and do a tasting. So you can taste for yourself the differences and the nuances. It's a big area, it's a wonderful one to visit, and I hope you have the chance to go not once but twice, but many, many times. You can find more on our trip to to Prima Tescana and the wines if you follow me
at the connected table dot com. I am happy to make recommendations. I'll include a list. I'm going to be writing all this up in the upcoming weeks before I go back to Italy. Until then, I really want you to remember that the world of wine is big, but it should not be intimidating. What you like is based on what you enjoy. There's no right or wrong answer. If you like a certain style of wine that works
for you, great. What I hope to do is just help helping understand different regions and different styles of wine, so that when you're making selections, you understand and know what to look for and hopefully give you a little trip along the way.
That's what I do.
When I first got into wine, I knew basics, and then I studied and tasted and learned and traveled and kept an open mind and an open palette and It's been a great, great experience. Like I said, just always enjoy it with food if possible, and in moderation. I'm Melanie Young. This is fair less fabulous you. I want you to save your life and all it has to offer, because, as I said in the beginning of this show, we
only have a limited time here on earth. Why deprive of yourself of good food, good wine, that trip, that special occasion. What are you doing that's so important that you have to give something up that would bring you real joy. Think about that and then go out and do something for yourself and invite others to join you. Because you have a choice.
You can choose to live.
Life based on what others expect from you and tell you what to eat and drink and where to say, and how to dress and how to live.
Or you can write your own book of life and say this is who I am and what I want to be and how I want to live. And I'm going to tell you.
I lived by the term of others for a very long time to prove myself to the world, and now I no longer need to. I just want to be happy and spread the joy, So I'm spreading it to you. Today, signing off early and wishing you a fearless, fabulous rest of your day.
Thank you,