Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Tuscan Wines, Cocktails, and Communist Bars

Episode Date: August 3, 2018

If you’re anything like me, you enjoy wine but are fairly uneducated about it and usually forget everything you learn at wine tastings.    That’s OK. Today I’m talking with my friend Toni from Taste Florence and we are giving you a great wine list that has everything you need, whether you like red, white, or dessert wines. We explain what Super Tuscans are, I learn what barrique is. And we also share where to drink high-end cocktails at hipster places, as well as cheap gin and tonics at communist bars. Visit postcardacademy.co for the full wine list.   I’m your host, Sarah Mikutel. If you so desire, you can sign up for my newsletter here. And thank you so much for listening to this show. I know you’re busy and have many listening options, so it means a lot to me that you’re here. You are the best.   This podcast is brought to you by Audible. Not a member yet? Postcard Academy listeners can get a FREE audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up via audibletrial.com/postcardDo you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to the Postcard Academy, your weekly travel and culture podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Mikital, and I am so happy to be talking to you today. Thank you for subscribing and for dedicating some of your valuable time to this episode, which is all about drinking in Tuscany. If you're anything like me, you enjoy wine, but are fairly uneducated about it, and you usually forget everything you learn at wine tastings. That's okay. Today I'm talking with my friend Tony from Tase Florence,

and we are going to give you a great wine. list that has everything you need, whether you like reds, whites, dessert ones, we explain what Super Tuskins are, I Learn What Baroque is, and we also share where to drink high-end cocktails at hipster places, as well as cheap gin and tonics at communist bars. This podcast is brought to you by Audible. I just downloaded food, a cultural culinary history. This is actually an online course that's part of the Great Courses series, but if you feel like listening to it instead at, say, the beach, you can do it.

I did and download it as an audiobook from Audible. Get a free audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up using the link, audibletrial.com slash postcard. Now into my conversation with Tony. What are the local ones that we should be enjoying when we're visiting Florence? Definitely, you know, mandatory that you drink some Kianti because Kianti, the Kianti Classico is south of Florence and then there's the Florentine Hills of Kianti. several parts of the kianti. So it's kind of like mandatory to have some kianti while you're here.

But there's lots of other reds from Tuscany that I would definitely recommend. And also some whites. So let's start with the whites. We'll do this as if we were like sitting down on a wine tasting. Vermintino. Vermintino from Coli di Lune. Let's see. Vernace di San Jiminyano. And then there's a lot of other just kind of random whites. Monte Carlo Bianco, which is out Saraluca. I love those. Those are blends. So there's some nice, easy to drink whites, some are more complex. Like if you get a good vernaacha, you can actually find some that are more complex than you would expect because the young ones are pretty simple. And those are going to go with fish. They're going to go with chicken, but they're also going to go with things that have more seasoning tunes. Like they would be great for a Thanksgiving turkey

or a holiday turkey. They would be great with things like stuffed mushroom caps, things that have a little season. So they would also be good for vegetarians. And then for reds, ha, ha, Endless, endless, endless, endless. But I would say definitely try. I'm a big fan of Carmignonano. Carmignon is not a great, but it's a place. It's about 20 miles or 20 kilometers west of Florence. And it's a beautiful area.

There's a UNESCO World Heritage Site there. There's a beautiful medicine villa there to visit. So I would definitely, if you can visit Carmigiano, that would be great. But if nothing else, try the wines. There are a blend usually, I believe it's 70% Sanjuvents. vase, and then the other 30 is like French grapes that are cultivated there. So I, yeah, I can't say enough about Carmeniano. I love it. There are a lot of other blends in Tuscany because they're trendy now. They're what are referred to as Super Tuscans. That's like a whole other

episode. Super Tuscans is not a type of wine in the sense that it's not a, you know, it's not Kianti, it's not a legal place or anything like that. It's a kind of name that was given to a category of wines that 50 years ago were way too good to be called table wine, but they didn't have their own category. So, journalists started calling them Super Tuskins. So anyway, if you like blends, look for Super Tuscans. But if you like an elegant blend, I highly recommend Carmino. You've got obviously the ones that are more famous, Brunello of Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepuchano, and you've got Monte Cucco. Oh, I love Morelino di Scanzano. If you want a lighter-bodied red, that you could actually even have with vegetarian dishes or with fish.

I would go with more than needs cancano, but make sure you get one that's made the old-fashioned way, because nowadays even they are using barric just because it's trendy. They're using what? Oh, I'm sorry. Barique are the French style barrels that oak is toasted, so they just tend to cover up the wine more than the big Italian barrels. And I'm not knocking barrique. Barique are good when they're used properly, but a lot of the time they're abused.

for the kind of to give off like vanilla and pepper and things like that on your wine. And when they're abused like that, you don't really taste the grape. You don't taste the terroir. You just taste oak. And oak was really in about 10 years ago. Fortunately, people are starting to, you know, get a grip and realize that oak isn't everything. So things are getting better. But there was a patch of time where everything had to be just, you know, it was like French kissing a sauna.

Yeah, I want to taste the grapes. Exactly. Get out of your own. I know I'm forgetting something and I'm going to kick myself later as far as wine's concerned. I feel like I can feel it. But those are the ones that first come to mind.

Okay. Yeah, we can talk more about wine some other day. If you want. Oh, Elba. Elba is part of Pescany, the island of Elba and the whites from Elba are fantastic. And if you like port wine, if you like dessert wine,

get Aleatico Pasito from Elba. Oh my goodness gracious. That is my favorite. other dessert wines that I've encountered lately. I've been into it for about 10 years now, but I've tried a bunch of other dessert wines and it's still one of my favorites. It's basically it's a red dessert wine. So it's got a little more ump. You can put it with chocolate, which not many things really truly go with chocolate. This one does. It's not, it's not horribly expensive. So that's another one I want to throw in there. All right. If I had a house, I'm fantasizing like this

little dinner party and someday. Yeah. And which one is going with what? And I will in my future home have like some sort of wild chocolate dessert and I'll serve that wine to finish off the evening. I'm a big fan of the soccer torch, that chocolate and apricot cake that comes from Vienna and Bolzano. Okay. That would be my vote. You got a good one. The good ones are really good. The bad ones are like, you need like a gallon of milk to wash them down. No wine will do. But the good ones are so good. So you're, were saying you don't have a house and I just had this thought like no but one could rent an Airbnb that has like a real kitchen like splurge and then you could have a dinner party every once in a

while oh my god you know it's a really good idea yeah thank you and then you get out of your system yeah okay and you don't go settling down and being all crazy I'm all about your lifestyle like I encourage you to keep in what you're doing speaking with sweet sweet stuff. So we also went to, what was it, a cookie shop? Like a Biscote. It wasn't just Biscoti. What was that? Where were we? So that's a place that just makes different types of Biscopi and a couple of cakes. So it was, I mean, in Italian, I guess you would call it a Biscotteria. It's pretty new. It's one of the non-historic shops on the tour. I go there, though, because their Biscoti are really good. If I have people with nut allergies or people that are gluten-free, like celiac, I just skip it.

because it's like gluten and nuts. It was Il-Contuccio? Is that where we were? Yeah. Okay. Uh-huh. And we dipped our little biscotti into Vino Santo, and it was delicious. Tell us what that is.

Yeah. So Vincanto is what's known as a Vino Pasito, a sweet wine, a dessert wine. And it's not like, you know, a lot of people think that it's supposed to be used, like Grappa or Limoncelo, but Vincanto, kind of like port wine, You can have it with cheese, you can have it with dessert. The traditional thing to have it with, though, is the cantuccini, the biscotti. The ones that in English we refer to as biscotti. In Italian, they're called, or in Tuscany, they're called Biscotti, Prato, or Cantucini.

If you go down to Rome, they make them with hazelnuts and they call them Totsetti. So it's kind of funny because every region thinks they invented them. They just have their own version of it. But it's traditional to dip them into the Vincanto. So the Vincanto is this wine that is traditional. traditionally made by taking grapes and hanging them to dry in an attic, sometimes for a few weeks, sometimes for a few months. It depends on the winery and the kind of the personal taste of the winemaker. Back in the day, like in the olden days, they used to leave it hanging sometimes

all the way until Easter time, but that's pretty rare. So the grapes hang to dry in an attic. They are taken down and they are pressed and ferment in a small barrel that's called a cartelho. And that barrel is made with different types of wood. So it's not a series of barrels. It's not like port wine where it gets moved around. It's just one barrel that has different pieces of wood. Like one could be cherry, one could be chest, none and so forth. And it depends on who makes the vincanto, but the better vincanto's, the more traditional

ones are age sometimes like three, five, even six or seven years. And always in that one barrel, though. And it just gets thicker and thicker and thicker. And because there's a mother yeast in the barrel, it doesn't, it's not like a red wine that would go bad. it just stays in there and reduces and gets sweeter and more complex. And then it's the kind of wine that in the bottle is going to last, usually like a good 15 or 20 years.

It has a lot of longevity because of the fact that the way it's age. And so the tradition is to dip your visculti or cantuccini in there. But it's also really good if you have like, I think in a fruit pie, but especially like apricot or apple pie, things like that go really well with it. Yeah. And I think that if you're going to, a gift for somebody. Like, you really cannot go wrong with buying a bottle of Vincanto.

And then also the cantuccini. And I made the mistake of not labeling the bag for, like, a specific gift, like a gift for a specific person. So that I was, hmm, I think I'm just going to open this myself. Gone within like two days. Yeah. Did you get the almond or did you get any of the chocolate ones? The almond. Okay.

Yeah, the almond, both of those, they make different types there, but my favorite are the classic with almond and they make a chocolate one that I don't really like in the Mizanto. I like chocolate. The chocolate ones, if you dip them in Earl Grey Tea or in a coffee, they're so good at breakfast. I don't keep them in the house. They were the best I've had, except for my mother's, the best. Hi, Mom. Wine or cocktail bar. So for cocktails, I would still say hands down locale elocale.

The restaurant's beautiful. That's a slurgy, slurgy, slurgy dinner. But the atmosphere is amazing. I mean, there are a few places where they've got it all going on, and that place has atmosphere. The cocktails are amazing. So even if you just go for a cocktail, because when you walk in, you're in what used to be a courtyard in between buildings,

and they covered it, but the roof can open and close. So depending on whether it rains, or not. They have like a remote control and they can close like that. It's really cool. And there's plants growing up the side of the wall and every cocktail has like a different glass because I'm not a big cocktail girl. I've got to state that for the record. I've already told you guys I'm a crotchety old man.

And so I'm all about a glass of wine or a beer on tap. But a good cocktail when I get a good cocktail, I recognize it. And cocktails are like 10 or 15 euro unless you go to like the little communist Chirquilin. We have to talk about those. Anyway, I love the cheap. Wait. Tell us

about that. Let's go there. Okay. Okay, so good. I'm glad that this came out because I didn't even think about it. Where would I go for a cocktail? If I want like, you know, cocktail with you know, such and such filtered on the back of a camel, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, with a guy that has a beard and suspenders, then there's like a handful places I would go to.

If I want, on the other hand, a box. and water or a gin and tonic or just something simple like that or just a straight up grapa. You go to a chircolo. A chircolo is basically historically they were they were like communist social clubs. And I like I, you know, I shy away from using the word communists, especially with the way things are going politically now, like anything you say. But basically the point is, is that the prices are low and anybody can afford to go there. are and you're supposed to be a member. You don't have to be a communist to be a member,

but you're supposed to be a member because it's like a social club. And so basically they don't pay the same taxes that restaurants pay because it's like a spot that usually has, it depends on how big they are. There's one near Piazza Dalmatia that's like a whole building.

I mean, it's as big as like a elementary school. You've got different rooms that they use. Like when the elections were going on, there was a party there to go and watch the elections. They've got yoga classes. They've got English classes. You know what I mean? Like, it's one of those places that has space for, like a community center.

And then some are big like that. It's a community center, but they always have a little coffee bar slash, you know, two or three really bad old sandwiches. I don't know why, but the sandwiches are always old at these places. And then they have, like you can get like a Prosecco for two euro. You can get a grampa for two euro. I mean, this is where people that like live here and live on low salaries, because salaries are not high in Italy, the Euro Mest.

everything up like you mentioned. So that's where we go if we want to go out and meet up with friends and not spend a fortune. And that's where you go if you want to people watch like older men playing cards with the little hat on, that kind of thing. That is where you do your people watching. I love this. And yes, they have these clubs in Rome as well. And they're not all like labeled communist, but that's a way to avoid taxes is just to call yourself a member. members club. Yeah, exactly. And then becoming a member is usually just a matter of writing your name on like a member paper. And then that's it. So yeah, it's not. I mean, you might pay like a five euro member fee or something, but it's never anything traumatic. Yeah, yeah. I hope you enjoyed this

mini episode. For a full list of all the wines we talked about, head on over to postcardacademy.com, where you will find all the wine names and spellings. You can sample some of these fantastic wines yourself if you go on Tony's Taste Florence Food Tour, and you can get 5% off with the code Postcard 18. If you're enjoying this podcast, please subscribe if you haven't already, and let me know what other cities or travel topics you'd like me to cover. You can email me at sarah at postcardacademy.co, or find me on the website. That's all for now.

Thanks for listening and have a beautiful week. wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarahigatel.com slash blank no more.