Il Salviatino, Parto of the Salviatino Collection

The world of wines is a compelling subject on almost any continent these days, and it was the first event of Club Salviatino this spring with a visit by Peter Mondavi, Jr., the third-generation owner of Charles Krug Winery in Napa Valley, California. He and his wife, Katie, and their 13-year old daughter, Lia, spent a week with us here at il Salviatino.

Peter had this to say about the week: “The accommodations, service and experience were fabulous. Il Salviatino was everything you had promised, and then some.” The Mondavi’s started their week with an “orientation” tour of the historic city of Florence led by the most prestigious guide in the region, Riccardo Nesti. Riccardo is a third-generation tour guide of Florentine and Tuscan art and history. He and his wife, Cindy, are simply the best. That was followed by one of Riccardo’s specialties: a “Michelangelo” day in the center of town. There are almost two dozen works by the famed artist, all within walking distance of each other.

Mid-week, we were the guests of the Corsini family at their wine estate in Tuscany – actually in San Casciano at the family’s villa, Le Corti:

The Corsini wine estate in San Casciano

The Don Duccio Corsini and his wife, the Marchessa Clotilde Corsini were the most elegant and expert hosts we could have hoped to have. After seeing the intricacies of wine and olive oil production at the estate,

including giant, ancient olive oil storage tanks of terra cotta produced in Impruneta and each signed by its maker, we heard the Corsini family history, beginning in the 1100’s in Florence and producing over the last 900 years, a Pope and a Saint. I had never met anyone before who was related to a Saint. Peter and the Don talked intensely about wine production and got into serious detail on flavor characteristics over a wonderful, Tuscan lunch at the estate’s Cantina.

It was an unforgettable day in Tuscany for all involved.

Later in the week we visited the castle of superb wine-maker, Bibi Gretz: Castello di Vincigliata.

We tasted straight from the barrels at Bibi’s and discovered a very rare production: a wine of 100% Canaiolo: Canaiolo di Testamatta, 2006. Bibi’s wines were so excellent that we invited him to join the wine tasting event we had planned for Peter Mondavi’s finest California wines at the end of the week.

A high-point of Peter’s visit to Club Salviatino was the 5-course dinner prepared by the villa’s superb Chef, Saverio Sbaragli to especially compliment the wines from Charles Krug.

The Chef and his amazing stuffed Quail appetizer

The library of il Salviatino became a beautiful, seated dinner venue.

The various wines of the evening were poured with each course of the dinner, and Peter and Bibi gave introductions to each wine in order to deepen the understanding of its subtleties with the food pairing.

Peter describes the wines with each course © Claudio Sacco

There were about forty people at the dinner, including journalists from around Italy and luminaries from Florence.  Some guests of note were: Claudio Sacco, famous Italian restaurant critic and blogger, Paolo Rossi, Estate Manager for Sting’s tenuta in Tuscany , Dr. James Bradburne, Director of the Strozzi Museum in Florence, Stanford alumna, Brenda Kennelly and her Oxford husband, Professor William Dodd, who own the world-famous wholesale flower estate Giardini Toscani in Casentino, Michael Brod, President of Club Tornabuoni, and Lucie Leca, Cultural Agent for Castello di Ama Vineyards, among too many other VIPs to list.

The evening was a wonderful success as the first event for Club Salviatino.

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