Our passion for Italian wine was engendered by our work in cultural tourism in Italy and the books we published on Italian cooking and culinary culture. When we travelled in different regions looking for the best and most interesting restaurants, the high quality winery owners were a very fruitful source of information. Visits to the wineries for tastings and communal feasts sometimes led to deep friendships with people who soon infected us with their passion for wine.

We started to look for a suitable location to grow our very own, personal wine, and in 2000 we found it in the region of Orvieto. We were immediately fascinated by the discreet charm and unspoilt rusticity of the village called Sugano. In spring 2005, we entrusted the planting of our vines to the agronomist Federico Curtaz. Before, he prepared the soil for the celebrated wines of Angelo Gaja in Piemont, today he is part of our project. As a consequence, the vines on our volcanic soil are growing fabulously, also thanks to the optimal alignment towards the sun and the excellent aeration 450 meters above sea level due to breezes from the Umbrian mountains.

Since July 2009, our winemaking has been supervised and overseen by the oenologist Dr. Paolo Peira. He was nominated, among others, for the Premio Luigi Veronelli 2007 for the category of best winemaker of the year. He is wholeheartedly assisted by our son Leon, who has joined our winemaking team after having finished his training at winemaking schools in Silberberg/Steiermark and in Krems, and after having worked in South Tyrol, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and California.

This location has been the site for great red wines in the past, in times of the Papal States, before the local farmers started to grow the white Orvieto Classico up here in addition to down in the valley. One of the reasons we know this is a letter the papal bottigliere, or cupbearer, Sante Lancerio wrote to the nephew of Pope Paul III Farnese, cardinal Guido Ascanio Sforza:

"Tali vini sono, per la maggior parte, rossi, et è perfettissimo vino si per il verno, quanto per la state. Sucano è un castelletto distante da Orvieto due miglia… Tali vini sono odoriferi, bellissimi e polputi… Di questo vino S. S.(= Sua Santità, i.e. Paul III.) beveva volentieri, massime quando era in Orvieto. Il capitano Jeronimo Benincasa faceva buona provvisione e lo faceva portare a Roma et in viaggio."

One does not need to know much Italian to understand that a member of the pope’s entourage is singing a song of praise to this divine drink favoured by His Holiness. Currently, this "Castelletto Sucano" that inspired the name of our wine is the small hamlet of Sugano, just outside of which our winery Madonna del Latte is situated.

Thanks to the loving care of our farmer Aldo – who grew up on the estate and is happy to be able to take an active part in it again –, the vines have been rewarding us with magnificently healthy and mature grapes since 2006. The young wine is produced from its juices in our modern fermentation cellar. After its alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, it matures in small wooden barrels. They are kept in an ideal surrounding at a constant temperature and optimal humidity in an old tuff cave under our house, a common thing here in the heart of antique Etruria.

A friend of ours described our Sucano as follows:

"The main component in this noble cuvée is Cabernet Franc. It ripened for 14 months in barriques and casks. The densely coloured, but also brilliant red wine has a subtle yet complex nose with hints of black cherries, coffee beans, cocoa powder, combined with spicy notes of pepper, laurel and sage.

Its taste is harmonious, elegant and complex, with soft, rounded, silky tannin and a long finish. The slightly piquant and chocolaty taste, the scent of berries and figs, and the deliciously integrated sweetness of the fruits are reminiscent of great Bordeaux. Its body is round, full and makes this beautiful dark wine incredibly pleasant to the taste.

Such a well-structured, but fine and elegant wine can only be produced from perfect, fully mature grapes. The optimally integrated tannins allow the wine to be drunk early, but also promise a very good aging potential. Every sip reveals a new nuance of unique quality to the connoisseur! What else can be expected when Angelo Gaja’s ex-agronomist Federico Curtaz is contributing his mastery?"

In our opinion, Sucano goes together very well with Italian pasta dishes with savoury meat sauces, escargot, parma ham, smoked sausages or tartar, bistecca fiorentina, wild boar – preferably prepared according to a Tuscan renaissance recipe with chocolate –, lamb provençale, dove, pheasant, or a flavourful stuffed duck. Among the cheeses, we would particularly recommend Pecorino Romano, Gruyère or Parmesan. Even combinations with chocolate desserts are worth trying. And if one feels like it – why not drink it on its own, with good friends, or while reading a captivating book?

The Sucano should and will always remain a manually-produced niche product for a few epicures. This is guaranteed by the small amount of bottles we produce annually – 10,000 to 15,000 maximum, depending on the year. Apart from that, we have planted close to a hectare of noble grape variety Viognier, from which we want to produce a very special white wine that fits perfectly with seafood and all sorts of fish dishes. At any rate, we are sure that the convivial and pleasure-loving Etruscans, the ancient civilization indigenous to the region, would have loved the wine from Madonna del Latte.

The last harvest of our fresh olive oil again achieved the sensational acidity value of 0.18%, a sign of the highest quality (the rate to be defined Olio Extra Vergine di Oliva is 0.80%). It is an enrichment for any kitchen with its marked fruity taste that is so typical of the high-quality Tuscan-Umbrian oils.

The grappa from our 2007 pomace was distilled by Vittorio Capovilla, "the undisputed number one among Italy’s distillers" according to the World Spirits Academy. His modern water bath distillery is located in the historic cellars of Villa Dolfin near the village Bassano del Grappa.

Our Sucano 2007 can be ordered henceforth. Our German distributor is the wine shop Barthel & Sohn in Munich, www.barthelwein.de.