Visiting Sirmione and Lugano

Day 3 of our wine trip is easy going. We are visiting Sirmione in the morning followed by a winery visit with lunch. Sirmione and the winery are only a 40 minute drive from Verona.

The day is overcast. We arrive before the tourist hordes who will form a solid line of vehicles all the way along the peninsula looking for parking by the time we leave.

Ruins of the villa of Catullus

We board a motor launch for a circular tour Sirmione at the tip of the peninsula. The boat, one of many doingthe same trip, stops to let us observe a streams of small bubbles coming from an underground volcanic vent. The largest  has been capped and hot water pumped to the thermal spa (Terme) we can see on the beach.

Then we have a hour of free time to explore Sirmione. We have holidayed in Sirmione for several years in the past. Sue and Peter Chasney continue to do so, and we meet them there for a coffee in the town square. 

Then it's back to the coach for our lunch time visit to Cascina Maddalena Winery owned by the Zordan family.

Elisa Zordan

Elisa Zordan shows us the vineyard and cellar. They have 4 Ha of mostly white Turbiano grapes, (see note below)

Turbiano

also some red Marzemino and seven rows of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Marzemino

All their wines are from their own vineyards. Elisa and her winemaking husband Mattia are the third generation on the farm. Mattia's grandfather bought Maddalena farm in 1947, but his father, Luciano concentrated on wine. 

They produce 30K bottles and export 20%, mostly to Germany but also others including Montana. The rest they sell at the winery.

Then we had lunch with wines. All their wines, apart from the fizz, are closed with Stelvin screwcaps as they think these are the best closure, and they now use lighter bottles.

Among the wines we tasted were:

Leonardo - 2,400 bottles are produced of this sparkling wine made by the traditional method, aged on lees for at least 24 months, and with no dosage. All you could expect from a superior fizz, showing again that grapes other then those used in Champagne can and do make super fizz.

Rosanora - pink-orange colour. Made from Marzemino. 3,700 bottles of this off dry pink wine are made. Not my type of wine.

7 Scurtoni 2017 - Meaning 7 Rows with a stylised label image of the rows. They make 3,000 bottles of this unwooded Cabernet Sauvignon. Made in stainless steel its is delightfully soft fresh and fruity.

During lunch Mattia's parents Raffaella and Luciano sang to us. Raffaella is in charge of the kitchen and they boat local dishes made from 0 kilometre ingredients grown by them, or bought from neighbouring farms.

Note: Turbiano is an old local grape variety also known as Trebbiano di Lugano. But Wine Grapes states that Turbiano is the same as Verdicchio Bianca.

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