Orgia Redux
A Trip Through Time
Bellies full after a leisurely Florentine lunch of Pici, Polpettine, Pollo Alla Griglia, Insalata, Spinaci, Pane e Olio d’Oliva, and a bottle or two of Ramato Pinot Grigio, the group decided it was time to take a nap. I, on the other hand, took advantage of the quiet time to write a story about Orgia.
Maria and I have been traveling for the past month, trying to pack it all in before we find ourselves grounded by the reconstruction of the old Wilding Farm structures and the downtown Napa tasting room and restaurant. But today, we are in Florence, Italy, guests of our good friends Lee and Cristina Hudson of Hudson Vineyards who, in turn, are guests of the Antinori family.
It is fitting we are back in the place it all began for Maria and I nearly thirty years ago. Not long after we met, Maria was sent off to a culinary program in Florence by her old employers and she asked me to meet her there. Without informing the other, we used this trip as a kind of audition to test our own rules of engagement. We were both looking for the same thing: an adventurous partner who travelled well – even without knowing the local language – and a person who lustfully enjoyed the world of food and wine. Italy sealed the deal.
I met up with her right as the program was ending, straight off the plane to a sendoff feast of pasta, vegetables and Florentine beef, seared in a bed of hot coals, all washed down with beautiful Tuscan wines. The next morning we left for our new temporary home, a restored stone barn in the hills above Sienna in an almost abandoned village called Orgia. It seemed fitting that we were in the town where an ancient secret Bacchanalian festival took place, where revelers ate, drank and indulged in uninhibited carnal pleasures. A few millennia later, the word “orgia” became “orgy”… appropriate because we spent the next week or so indulging in a gloriously, hedonistic orgy of Italian food, wine and, well, other pleasures! That experience left an indelible impression and we loved the fact that a town named Orgia was the beginning of our journey together.
Decades later, we decided to make a skin-contact, ramato-style, Pinot Gris inspired by the skin-contact wines of Northern Italy. We called it Orgia because this lustful wine celebrates life in its, beautiful, messy glory.
Orgia is made using the traditional ramato (Italian for copper) method, where the Pinot Gris grapes get a little extra skin contact time while fermenting. This process gives the wine its alluring copper hue and an intriguing flavor profile. Orgia doesn’t take itself too seriously but it does deliver seriously good taste.
Rob Sinskey
