All of you food and wine enthusiasts, Capalbio offers you the perfect holiday. Ancient flavors, food traditions and genuine cooking combine with simple but tasty ingredients. This land, rich of food and wine traditions, have countless delicacies and typical dishes.
The quality of food and wine in the Capalbio area, and generally in Maremma, is alone worth a journey in this province.
It is not only crystal-clear waters, the wonderful Burano Oasis or the nearby hills. Tourists love enjoying food and wine in Capalbio, just think of the acquacotta soup, the most traditional Maremman dish, or the famous pappardelle alla lepre (pappardelle pasta with leper meat sauce) or tortelli filled with chard and ricotta and served with meat sauces and you’ll decide to plan a trip and a food and wine holiday at Terre di Sacra.
These delicious typical dishes tell the history of a territory, that is genuine and wild, reclaimed from the marshland meter by meter.
Ingredients are real, solid, raw and unchanged during time. DOC Capalbio wines accompany local typical dishes and enhance the unique flavors of local food traditions along with the valuable Tuscan IGP extra virgin oil.
Wine routes in Maremma
Maremma has three wine routes: Hills of Maremma Wine and Tastes Route, Monteregio di Massa Marittima Wine and Tastes Route, Montecucco Wine Route and Tastes of Amiata.
Following these itineraries, you will discover food and wine traditions of the Maremma region. Wine Routes are real journeys through the territory to highlight top-quality local products.
Hills of Maremma Wine and Tastes Route touches thirteen Maremma municipalities including Capalbio. The Wine Route crosses some cities of this area, such as Scansano where the famous Morellino DOCG wine is produced and Pitigliano, where you’ll find the fresh Bianco DOC wine.
The mild climate and its excellent terroir make Maremma the ideal territory for the production of mineral wines with a great character. In this area, wine farmers’ and enologists’ far-sightedness have caused Capalbio wines to grow in quality and fame over time.
In 1999, after a story going on for more than one year, the wine named ‘Capalbio’ was acknowledged as D.O.C. (Denomination of Controlled Origin). This acknowledgement is not only a guarantee for consumers as to the wine’s quality but also promotes excellent and typical products.
Maremma’s saffron
Historically, saffron origins from Greece and Middle East: it used to be called ‘red gold’ due to its very expensive cost. Saffron is not only known as a spice but also as a medicine and a dye.
It takes from 120000 to 150000 flowers to get 1 kilogram of stigmas (pistils). Their harvest cannot be sped up or mechanized and it must be carried out by hand and by experts, just like the drying process and packaging, otherwise the product might be damaged.
Saffron in Maremma was already produced in the Middle Ages. This spice was reportedly harvested and used mainly for fabric dying purposes: for example, traces of a red color has been found in ancient roman pools located at Pieve Vecchia in Campagnatico. There is also proof of saffron’s production and harvest in other areas of Maremma’s territory like Montecucco and Pari: a writing that dates back to 1300’s says “here a unique and autochthonous saffron was cultivated”.
Nowadays, a cooperative of producers cultivates, promotes and commercializes Maremma’s Purest Saffron (Zafferano Purissimo di Maremma), guaranteeing about its quality and origin.