Castello di Semivicoli and Masciarelli wines

Castello di Semivicoli

We left Florence on Wednesday mid-day last week and drive south in our rented Volvo 40. It’s less sporty than an Alfa-Romeo Giulietta but it’s perhaps more practical for our purposes as we carry four suitcases from place to place. The Volvo has a turbo diesel so it has good pick up and it’s pleasant to drive at Italian superhighway speeds. (The speed limit on the superhighways is 81 mph. This limit does not seem to appear to apply to Mercedes, Audis, BMWs, or red Italian sports cars.)

Our plan was to end our drive south in Puglia and stay in an apartment in Martina Franca for a week. Instead of driving there directly, however, we wanted to break the trip up into some pleasant side trips to some in between places. Our first side trip was to Castello di Semivicoli about 4.5 hours south of Florence. The Castello is owned by the Masciarelli family and is operated as a small resort.

Masciarelli Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

Masciarelli wines

At home we enjoy Masciarelli wines, two in particular, Masciarelli Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (a red, DOC, 100% montepulciano d’abruzzo; typically $8) and Masciarelli Trebbiano d’Abruzzo (a white, DOC, 100% trebbiano d’abruzzo; typically $9). These wines are reliably good and not expensive. The company has a reputation for making good wines.

We had understood that Masciarelli produces a number of wines that are available in larger cities in the US. We were curious to try some of these other wines in order to see if Masciarelli’s good reputation applies to these wines, too.

Castello di Semivicoli is a castle in Abruzzo that was purchased by the Masciarelli family in the 1980s and which has been extensively redone into a place to welcome visitors and host festivities. We stayed at the castle one night and during the first evening a wedding and reception were held on the property.

La Brocca

The Semivicoli property is in a rural area and does not include a restaurant. After we arrived we asked for a recommendation for a nearby trattoria. Reservations were made for us a La Brocca, a small brick and store farmhouse that has been made into a small handsome restaurant. We asked the host for a light meal and she offered us a mixture of wild greens, boiled and cooked in garlic and oil, and served with chunks of corn bread (though not the sweetened version of corn bread that we have). The greens were bracing and the corn bread chunks gave the dish substance. 

The wild greens were preceded by some locally produced sliced meats and cheeses and accompanied with the host's homemade red wine. This kind of cooking is called cucina povera or peasant cooking. This kind of cooking uses the freshest ingredients that are cooked in a straightforward way. In Manhattan cucina povera, despite the humble name, is incredibly expensive.

We’d recommend La Brocca but you’d need to put coordinates into your GPS or your smart phone to find the place. Here are the coordinates: N 42° 13.537' E 014° 13.099'. The phone is +39 0871 809100. Here is the restaurant web site: La Brocca home. Here is the recipe for pizze e foje, the dish of wild greens and corn bread that we had:  recipe for pizze e foje.

The wine tasting

Near the end of the wine tasting

The next day we sat down at mid-day for a wine tasting at Castello di Semivicoli. There were the two of us and Valentina, the hotel manager and a marketer of Masciarelli wines. We were served a number of hot and cold dishes to sample from and seven wines were opened and offered to us for tasting. We talked about food and wine for about an hour and a half. Then she left us to return to her work and we stayed to consider the food and the wine further. We enjoyed to food with gusto and tasted the wine with responsibility. After the wine we had coffee and enjoyed the view of the mountains.

We asked to sample only wines that we can purchase in the United States. Here are the wines that we tasted over the course of several hours. All the wines were very good. We especially liked the first, second, fifth, and seventh wines.

1. Villa Gemma Bianco Colline Teatine, 2015 IGT, white wine. Floral in the nose, nice acid. One of our favorites wines in the tasting. Wine-Searcher shows this wine at about $14 a bottle. This is a blend of 80% trebbiano d’Abruzzo, 15% cococciola, and 5% chardonnay.

2. Villa Gemma Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo, 2015 DOC, rosé wine. This is a pleasant wine with a nice little bite that would go well with food. Wine-Searcher shows this wine at about $13 a bottle. 100% montepulciano d’abruzzo.

3. Marina Cvetic Trebbiano Riserva, 2013 IGT, white wine. A more sophisticated white wine that can be aged. The wine spends 22 months in small oak barrels. Wine-Searcher shows a bottle from 2010 vintage for $12 each. 100% trebbiano d’abruzzo.

4. Marina Cvetic Chardonnay, 2013 IGT, white wine. Another sophisticated white but not in an highly oaked style. The wine spends 23 months in small oak barrels. Wine-Searcher shows bottles from 2011 vintage for $50 each. 100% chardonnay.

5. Marina Cvetic Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Riserva, 2011 DOC, red wine. A fine dinner wine, not too complicated and matches well with food. This wine and the chardonnay above actually matched will with the artichoke pasta we were served. This wine spends 12 to 18 months in small oak barrels. Wine-Searcher shows this wine at about $20 a bottle. 100% montepulciano d’abruzzo.

6. Marina Cvetic Iskra Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramane, 2009 DOCG, red wine. A hearty wine that matches well with chocolate. Sophisticated. This wine spends 12 to 18 months in small oak barrels. Wine-Searcher did not return any prices for this wine; is this available in the US? 100% montepulciano d’abruzzo.

7. Villa Gemma Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, 2007 DOC, red wine. This was a stunningly good wine, as good as any wine we’ve ever had and calls for the best cut of beef that you can imagine. This wine spends 18 to 24 months in small oak barrels and is aged further in the bottle. Wine-Searcher shows a bottle from 2008 vintage for $80 each. 100% montepulciano d’abruzzo.

Mont Amaro from Castello di Semivicoli

Marina Cvetic has her name associated with many of these wines. She was the wife of Gianni Masciarelli until he died suddenly and unexpectedly at 50 in 2008. Her name had appeared on these wines before his death and she has taken over the operation of the business. For more on Martina Cvetic, see Celebrating 10 Talented Women in Wine: Marina Cvetic From Italy's Masciarelli Winery.

The hospitality shown by the Castello di Semivicoli staff to us was outstanding. They have a small hotel with places for a small number of guests. The grounds of the hotel are well kept and the surrounding area is beautiful. And, finally, the wines are a great value. For more on Castello di Semivicoli, see Castello di Semivicoli: A Hideaway in the Highlands of Italy’s Abruzzo.