Southwestern Tuscany, namely the province of Grosseto in the Maremma area,  is not as well visited as the rest of the region but I was out here in April to pay a visit to a winery and found some great food and views along the way. This was our fist stop in a wine tour of Italy, and the highlights here include a visit to the Mantellassi winery, the walled cities of Pitigliano and Magliano and the best tortello of our trip.

We stayed at the Borgo Magliano which I imagine would be filled with families in the summer but as it was still cold, we had the hotel to ourselves. We had a fantastic spaghetti alla chimera for lunch here, which followed some smoked fish that we found way too salty for our tastes. The latter is a reminder that we were on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Before heading to Mantellassi, we made a stop in Pitigliano, which is a small medieval walled town known for its Etruscan caves and carved roads. Alas, I didn’t have a chance to walk along these narrow paths, but did have wander around town. The city also features a 16th century aqueduct built by the de Medici.

We were going to have a tasting of Mantellassi’s wines with dinner, but dropped in on the winery first from where there’s also a great view of the surrounding hills. Mantellassi, a relatively small producer by Tuscan standards, is best known for its Morellino di Scansano wine (red). Morellino is a variety of the Sangiovese grape found in the Maremma area. Also interesting is its production of red wine made solely of the Ciliegiolo grape. Ciliegiolo is normally used as a component of other Tuscan reds such as Chianti.

Dinner with our tasting of Mantellassi’s wines was at a wonderful traditional restaurant in Magliano called La Poventa. If you’re in the area, I think a visit to Magliano for a view of the sun setting from the city walls followed by dinner is ideal. From Magliano’s walls, you can get a view all the way out to the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Magliano is a fairly small city so finding La Poventa is straightforward – it’s just further down from the cathedral square.

Once again, the pasta was a stand out. One of the specials for the night was a tortello (like a ravioli) filled with spinach and ricotta and served with a wild boar ragu. This was probably the best tortello we had on our trip with the pasta being silky smooth.

It was very much a wild boar night as we also had the pappardelle with wild boar ragu and a braised wild boar. Also interesting, albeit not as good as the wild boar, was a pork shoulder cooked in milk.

The braised wild boar was accompanied with potato chips but these were home made chips and thicker cut. The extra bit of potato makes the difference. Really good!

Our meal was accompanied by a tasting of Mantellassi’s wines. I’ve had Mantellassi’s Le Sentinelle wine before – probably its most popular product (made of the afore mentioned Morellino grape). It’s a medium bodied red that’s nice with meat based or richer pasta dishes and most meat. But before that, we tried the Maestrale, the wine made primarily of the Ciliegiolo grape. This was a relatively young red wine with minimal aging and this gave it a light note. I’d put this in the cheap and cheerful category.

I’ve never been keen on Cabernet Sauvignon only wines – generally find these a bit too full bodied for my tastes (I prefer blends) – so I liked the Punton del Sorbo least. The Querciolaia, which is made of Alicante Bouschet grapes reminds me of Australian shiraz. We also had a bottle of the Mantellassi Lucomone, a crispy white made of Vermentino grapes with lunch earlier. So of the five tastings we had, I think good value can be found in the Lucomone and Le Sentinelle wines – nice bottles to have to accompany a casual meal that starts with seafood followed by meat.

Alas, I’m not truly a dessert person – I recall that this was decent but I can’t remember what we had. Probably the wine was having its impact but also because I was still salivating over the tortello. It was a great first day to our wine tour.

Mantellassi’s website: http://www.fattoriamantellassi.it/inglese/storia_ing.html