Murder A La Carte

Chapter 13

After a leisurely meal, I finished off the remains of the carafe of wine. Sipping a cup of espresso, I considered the rest of my day. I was too near Montalcino to pass up a quick visit. There were wine shops and enoteche that served the Trantini wines and it wouldn"t hurt to pay a visit. Then there was the magnificent fort, the fortezza, I had spied from the roadway.

enotechefortezzaAs I strode to the Maserati I mused over the difference between Italians and Americans when it came to dining, and particularly to drinking wine then driving. Italians were passionate about many things, but wine and automobiles ranked among the highest on the list. Consuming a meal without wine was considered somewhat sacrilegious, and denying a man an afternoon driving in a fine automobile would be cause for a fight. So, whereas Americans were always trying to put distance between alcohol and driving, the Italians never seemed to be able to.

I had enough wine to feel its effects and probably would have been over the legal limit in America, but it energized me and driving through the valley and climbing the hill into Montalcino seemed an exciting prospect, and the slight buzz from the Rosso di Montalcino I"d consumed added to the pleasure.

The sun was arching toward the horizon since it was now about four o"clock, and the heat had relented a bit. I rolled down the windows on the car and listened to the engine purr. Releasing the clutch slightly I could feel the powerful gears engage and the Maserati pulled away from the parking space. The smooth transition from still to moving showed the strength of the machine, but it accomplished it without a roaring or whining sound. It was a display of subtle power, and with it the automobile proved itself.

The ride into Montalcino was short, with the fortezza and the two lone towers of the town always in sight. I pulled to a quick stop in the parking lot just inside the city"s walls, paid for a parking stub that I then left on the deck of the dashboard, and walked away toward the fortezza. I wanted to climb the walls to the fort"s battlements and take in the view of the valley while the shadows were not too long. Besides, I wanted to give the shops time to reopen before visiting them.

fortezzafortezzaInside the visitors" area in the main building of the fortezza is a wine bar. There they serve many of the region"s best wines, with a not-so-subtle bias toward the Brunello di Montalcino and Rosso di Montalcino from neighboring vineyards. I scanned the bottles on the shelf behind the bar and picked out a few of the Castello dei Trantini labels, two different vintages of our Rosso and one Chianti.

fortezzaThe Trantino estate had never produced a Brunello, and so I knew I wouldn"t find one of those there. Our vineyards were mostly in the hills surrounding the Castello northeast of Siena, which were legally in the Chianti zone and so we could only produce Chianti — or some other non-specific wine — from the grapes. Brunello di Montalcino and its lesser sibling Rosso di Montalcino were legally required to be made of Sangiovese grosso grapes grown in the district immediately around the town of Montalcino. When my grandfather decided to buy some vineyard land near Montalcino, he chose to make only Rosso, leaving the exalted Brunello to the estates that existed in the region. It was a nod of respect for his counterparts around Montalcino, and while it could have provided another revenue stream for the Castello dei Trantini, it ensured that our family would remain focused on Chianti and similar wines.

After purchasing a ticket to climb the stairs to the fortezza"s crown, I made my way up the old stone steps to the summit. There is a walkway that snakes all the way around it, with only three sets of steps hidden away in towers that would allow pedestrians to return to the ground level. I took my time, pausing every several yards as I made the circuit around the fortezza, taking in the view of the valley that spread before me. There were little villages and many farms, with a good share of vineyards planted among them. I could see the cars slipping around curves and across the broad expanse of the single highway in the region. Birds swooped overhead, and a slight breeze kept the flags on the battlements aloft.

fortezzafortezzaOn the other side of the fortezza, the town filled the view. There were narrow streets and tiny shops, intermingled with enoteche and trattorie, and more pedestrian and scooter traffic than cars. It was easy to imagine this town in its heyday when its population soared above thirty thousand, but now there were fewer than six thousand Montalcinese, as the town lost some businesses and kept only the vestiges of its former greatness. And this elegant decline may be what makes Montalcino so important. It maintains its claim as the city of wine excellence, the birthplace of the noble Brunello. As the town shed its other industries, its wine history came to the fore, and in recent years few people think about Montalcino as anything but the source of Italy"s vinous excellence.

fortezzaenotechetrattorieI descended the steps and stopped by the bar to sample a few of the Brunello. There was the Val di Suga and the Biondi-Santi, then the Castello Banfi, the estate owned by an American family but credited with making some of Italy"s best wines. With this little mid-afternoon pick-me-up, I was ready to hit the streets.

I stopped by the Enoteca Francia and spoke to Giovanni. His shop sold more Brunello by the glass and by the bottle than any establishment in town — and probably any in Tuscany.

“Sì, signore,” he said when I asked about the Trantini wines. “Of course, we carry them.”

SìAs Giovanni reached behind the counter to produce a bottle of the Rosso and one of our Chianti Classico, he cast a suspicious glance back at me.

“But you are Signor Trantino himself,” he said, as if he was suddenly surprised that he recognized me. “Signor Filippo, come stai?” he asked.

come stai“Sì, but I"m just visiting, and I wanted to check on our wines. How are they received here?”

Sì“Oh, very well! The people who come in asking for Chianti often ask for the Trantini wines, if they know Chianti at all. However,” he added, with a smile and a shrug of his shoulders, “people usually come here looking for Brunello.” This last comment was made with eyebrows raised, as if what he was saying was so obvious he didn"t think he needed to remind me.

“Yes, I know, and that"s what I expect. How about the Rosso di Montalcino? You must sell a lot of that, at least to the customers who don"t want to spend so much. Non e" vero?” I asked.

Non e" vero“Yes, it"s true. Rosso sells very well,” adding with a conspiratorial tone, “and we know it"s a better deal anyway, no?”

“Sì, it"s a better deal.” I paused, then Giovanni got that I was asking about the Trantini Rosso. Our Chianti and Chianti Classico and other wines from the estate are bottled as Castello dei Trantini wines, but the label on the Rosso di Montalcino says simply Trantini, to further disassociate it from the estate and the Castello that watches over the vines near our home.

Sì“Sì, the Trantini Rosso sells, but not as well as the Chianti. It"s very good,” Giovanni quickly added, so as not to insult me, “but your Chianti is magnifico and everyone thinks of it first when they hear the name Trantino.

SìFor good measure, I downed a short glass of the Trantini Rosso, then sampled a few more wines before taking my leave of Giovanni. He waved away the euros I held out to pay for the wine, a gesture without words that clearly communicated that he wouldn"t think of charging the capo from the Castello dei Trantini.

I visited a few more enoteche in Montalcino, asking most of the same questions and getting very similar answers.

enotecheWhen I checked my watch, I saw that it was nearing six o"clock. I needed to get back to the villa if I was going to shower and change for my date with Ilsa.