The farm Podere Sassi lies in a beautiful location overlooking the surrounding valleys of the southern Sabina. It’s a small biologic agricultural holding that is characterised by a pure, strong and unyielding approach, one devoted to a zero intervention policy that faithfully preserves Nature’s work. There is no place for pesticides and every other intervention that doesn’t fully adhere to their principles.
In 2007, Leonardo Sassi took over his grandfather Antonio’s old farm, which had previously specialised in raising Chianina cows, making olive oil and co-operative wine. The farm is in Tarano, a picturesque spot in Lazio on the Umbrian border. Slowly, Leonardo has put the farm back into working order, a process which took several years, and today there are 3.5 hectare under vine. The winery is now certified organic and the winemaking minimal intervention. Leonardo bottled his first vintage in 2017, ten years after his stewardship of the farm began.
His great passion for real wine, one with a strong character and personality, has brought about a collaboration with Danilo Marcucci to make wines that truly represent the unique land in which they were born. The vineyards are planted at 300 metres above sea level. In the winery the wine is made without any added yeast or temperature control, filtration of any kind. In this area of the Sabina, at the border with the Umbria region, the Ciliegiolo grapes has its historical habitat, while the Sangiovese and Montepulciano give life to a structured red wine. Lazio Malvasia and Trebbiano Giallo are the base of the white wine.
Now for the ampelo-cultural bit:
The first documented references to the Ciliegiolo are from the early 17th century when the Florentine writer Soderini described a “Ciregiuolo dolce” with a long bunch, a somewhat large berry, and a sweet – “dolce” – and fragrant flavour. This description of the physical characteristics of the variety corresponds to present-day Ciliegiolo, as does the observation that the grape does best in notably warm climates. There exists, nonetheless, in popular and folk descriptions of Ciliegiolo, another tradition which attributes the origins of the grape to Spain and ascribes its presence in Italy to pilgrims who returned with it to Italy from the sanctuary of Saint James in Compostela. Hence the other name once widely used for the grape in Italy: “Ciliegiona rossa tonda di Spagna”, or the “red and round Ciliegiona of Spain”. Nowadays, Ciliegiolo is cultivated almost exclusively in Umbria and Tuscany.
The name of the grape comes from an Italian word for cherry which Ciliegiolo wines resemble in colour and perfume. This particular version hails from a vineyard with east-west exposure at 300 metres a.s.l on clay, sand and silt soils. This wine is made from the farm’s youngest vineyard, which Leonardo believes has great potential.
The grapes are harvested by hand and subsequently destemmed. Maceration on skins takes place for five days with ambient ferment with indigenous yeasts in cement tanks. The wine is aged in the same vessel and naturally undergoes malolactic fermentation, before bottling without filtration, fining and with minimal added sulphites (the total is only 16 ppm).
The colour of the Sassolini is striking, somewhere on the cusp of dark blue and purple. The nose is brimming with… yes, dark cherries – but also twists of liquorice and garrigue herbs. The natural acidity drives the wine, but the fruit, tannins and spices all harmonise to produce a stunning (and stunning value) glass of wine.
2022 Sassolini Rosso
To be paired with…
A meaty non-meaty veggie lasagne.
If you are trying to cut down on your meat intake but want that rich umami smack of slow braised mince, then this could be your thing. On the second day the savoury flavours seem even more amped up.
Lasagne with aubergines and mushrooms
- 2 small aubergines – or one large one
- 250-300g of chestnut mushrooms (or mixed) – wild mushrooms in season.
- Dried porcini – small handful, soaked in warm water
- 4 plump garlic cloves
- Handful of fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
- 250g nice Italian mozzarella
- Dried lasagne sheets
- Passata or tin of chopped tomatoes
- Flour, butter, milk (and cheese) for bechamel sauce
- Good quality olive oil for cooking
- Parmesan for grating
- Put the dried porcini into a small bowl or coffee cup and pour hot water on top. Leave for 20-30 minutes.
- Optional – blitz a few porcini in a coffee grinder until you have a fine powder.
- Cut the ends off the aubergines and dice into equal sized cubes
- Smash two cloves of garlic, remove the papery skin and finely dice
- Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in large lidded pan and sauté the garlic, then add the aubergine pieces. Liberally season with sea salt and black pepper, some thyme and fresh or dried oregano. The aubergines will absorb quite a bit of oil – feel free to add a little more.
- Turn down the heat and put a lid on the pan. Cook for 20 minutes, occasionally stirring unless the aubergines are soft and have turned golden brown.
- In another pan add a couple of slugs of olive oil and gently fry the garlic, then add the fresh mushrooms with fresh herbs, salt and pepper. Cook for 8-10 minutes.
- Squeeze the porcini until dry and add them to the mushroom, garlic mix. Stir and add some of the porcini stock, a little glug of white wine and the porcini powder.
- Reduce heat to a minimum and cook for another 10 minutes.
- Finally, add the passata, stir the sauce, check for seasoning.
- Combine the aubergines mix and mushroom sauce and leave to cool for half an hour.
- Make the bechamel sauce to your favourite consistency.
- Take an ovenproof dish and put half the mushroom/aubergine mix into it.
- Then layer with dried lasagne sheets
- Line the next layer with torn mozzarella pieces and roughly chopped spinach
- Another layer of lasagne sheets
- Another layer of mushroom/aubergine
- Final layer of lasagne sheets
- Layer of bechamel sauce with grated parmesan
- Put in a preheated oven at 200oc for half an hour and cook until golden brown and bubbly
- Finally, uncork with Sassolini Rosso, guzzle with alacrity and marvel at this perfect food-and-wine match!
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Interested in finding out more about the wines of Podere Sassi Sassolini? Contact us directly:
shop@lescaves.co.uk | sales@lescaves.co.uk | 01483 538820