|
The estate’s valleys have all the characteristics of the ecological niches that favour the delicate habitat in which prized white truffle grows. They offer an environment very similar to that of the nearby provinces of Siena and Arezzo: cool and ventilated, humid by the streams, ravines and the edges of the woods, the natural lakes and valley floor, a terrain composed of calcareous deposits, sandy, muddy and clayey, with oak, poplar, lime and willow trees in between which juniper bushes, dogrose and Spanish broom grow.
Recognising the habitat of a particular truffle species, which grows, or better yet, matures in a determined season of the year, means being in contact with nature: this is the most important thing, to be able to recognise where they grow, to identify the truffle grounds with those ideal conditions, that ecological niche where this precious fungus lives and multiplies under the ground.
It is a true thrill, a memory to be shared not just in a restaurant. An emotion that remains with us even if other truffle hunters, or more likely yet, wild boar, were there before us - it is a direct experience, an intimate contact with nature.
Most of the truffles found do not come from the Langhe, or even Monferrato, but from central Italy, the area at the border with Tuscany, to be exact.
It is from here that the truffles auctioned off at the most important international auctions, at record prices, come from.
There are some 16,000 known truffle hunters in Tuscany and Umbria.
At Parrano truffle hunting is a year-round activity: between October and December there is the White Truffle (Tuber Magnatum Pico), from December to March the Black Truffle (Tuber Melanosporum) can be found, from January through April the Marzuolo (Tuber Albidum Pico) are ready to be unearthed and from May to December there is the Scorzone (Tuber Aestivum).
Fresh truffle all year round: the best way to preserve them is to enjoy them immediately!
In a word, Parrano is where the finest gourmet ingredients reign, ingredients of the highest possible quality. It is also where tradition reigns through the history and the flavours of the land, where food and wine events and the sampling of fine products, selected by the most renowned chefs, represent their territory. The kitchen becomes a theatre where those who love fine cuisine are the audience as the stage fills with truffles, called upon to be the actors of the most important roles. Recipes and secrets of the great maestros of culinary art will be revealed in all of the various steps of preparation.
The Parrano estate covers a vast area that goes from the Chiani Valley, from Mount Nibbio di Ficulle to Mount Cetona, from Città della Pieve to Monteleone d’Orvieto, and from Montegabbione all the way to the highlands of Montegiove – some 1,200 hectares of uncontaminated nature, the ideal scenario for one of “the rarest and most privileged hunts in the world”: the hunt for the precious truffle is just one and a half hours drive from Rome, and not in Northern Italy, as still commonly believed.
To go truffle hunting means to be in direct contact with nature, it means leaving daily life and its stress behind: it is wellbeing in every sense of the word.
|
