- BY ISSIMO
- July 31, 2024
Like honey and olive oil, wine is a ‘living thing’ according to Marianna Ciancarelli, Hotel Il Pellicano’s Food & Beverage Outlet Manager. It’s something that evolves and changes every year, inspiring her to constantly keep expanding her knowledge. With over two decades of professional expertise in the hospitality industry, Marianna is a wine expert who leads a team of dedicated sommeliers at Hotel Il Pellicano. In her role, she loves encouraging guests to learn more about Italy’s diverse wine industry.
Read on to discover the special wine selections Marianna has curated for ISSIMO, and deeper insights in her career journey in the industry. This kicks off our new interview series celebrating a group of dynamic and inspiring women working in food and wine across Italy. Keep your eye out for a new conversation every month!
Let’s start with the special wine selection you have curated for ISSIMO! Can you take us through your list?
The wines I have selected come from some of Italy’s most celebrated winemaking regions including Tuscany, Umbria, Piemonte, Marche and Sicily. My team of sommeliers and I love considering each wine’s distinct characteristics, production methods, and flavour profiles, and being creative with how we pair them with particular ingredients and dishes. Guests are always curious to discover more about these wines once they try them.
RED WINES
Ameri Podere San Cristoforo 2022
This is a deep ruby red wine with a bouquet characterised by floral hints of violets and roses. It also has fruity aromas of ripe plum, dark cherry and black currant. Thanks to its special production method, Ameri has great structure and smoothness, with a long pleasantly spicy finish.
Castello Romitorio Brunello di Montalcino Filo di Seta Riserva 2019
Ruby red with garnet highlights, this is a broad and complex wine. It opens with aromas of ripe red fruits followed by hints of iris and peony, along with notes of citrus and dark spices. Enveloping hints of wood, tobacco and chocolate enrich the bouquet.
Kurni Oasi degli Angeli Montepulciano 2020
Considered an international brand offering an Italian artisanal product, this wine has no additives and is a masterpiece of nature. Its red colour is purplish, intense and deep. The nose has primary aromas of banana and vanilla, followed by red fruits and underbrush and tobacco, leather and oriental spices. It’s a balanced wine on the palette.
Pianpolvere Soprano Riserva Bussia 2011
The basis for making a great wine is a great grape. These grapes are obtained only in the best vintages when climatic conditions are favourable throughout the year.
WHITE WINES
Boggina B Trebbiano 2020
This is a full-bodied, soft and round Trebbiano Toscano-based white wine, vinified and aged for 24 months in pure Burgundian style. Its intense aroma of ripe fruit, flowers and vanilla emerge in succession, offering an enveloping experience. It has good minerality, freshness and elegance.
Andrea Felici Cantico Della Figura Verdicchio 2020
The grapes that give life to this great ‘Verdicchio’ wine variety come from the vineyard San Francesco, which has vines that are 50 years old. It ferments for two weeks on the peel or ‘skins’ and ages 12 months on yeast. It then stays in the bottle another six months after this.
Pietradolce Archineri Etna Bianco 2018
This wine is produced from pure Carricante grapes from vines cultivated on deep sandy soil in Milo (Catania, Sicily). Some of these vines are up to 150 years old, and this makes for a very high-quality grape. After a soft pressing, the wine matures in steel and rests in the bottle for 12 months.
Paolo e Noemi D’Amico Agylla Grechetto 2022
This is a pure Grechetto with a golden yellow colour and brilliant reflections. The nose is intense with strong hints of almond and notes of white flowers. In the mouth, it is fresh, intense and persistent with a good acidic backbone that gives it pleasant freshness. The finish is intense with delicate mineral notes.
Can you tell us about how you started your career in the wine industry?
I started my professional career in wine and hospitality working in a restaurant 25 years ago. This gave me many valuable insights into the food, beverage and hospitality sectors. Ten years ago I completed a sommelier’s course, which is how I expanded my specialised knowledge about wines from different regions across Italy. This course also deepened my appreciation for the artisanal and creative aspects of the winemaking and the wine industry more generally. So my start in the industry was a mix of professional experience and specialised studies.
When did you start working at Hotel Il Pellicano, and what inspires you most about your role as Food & Beverage Manager?
I started working at Hotel Il Pellicano in 2017 as an Assistant Restaurant Manager. My career progressed quite rapidly year after year from this point, and I was delighted to be appointed Food & Beverage Manager four years later. Part of my job includes selecting the wine for the hotel’s guests during the season. Even though I studied the sommelier’s course, I found my knowledge expanded so much once I started working at Hotel Il Pellicano because we have so many different types of wine here.
In regard to working with wine in particular, what I love most about my role is making recommendations to our guests. I can see they are usually very curious about our wines, and they want to learn more about a variety of wines beyond the more famous varieties like Brunello or Sassicaia. When they come to the hotel I help them to discover other smaller and more specialised wineries from the Maremma region (and from Tuscany more generally) that they might not be aware of. This is really rewarding for me.
What other types of wine experiences does Hotel Il Pellicano offer guests?
We have many guests who request to have a tour of our cellar at the hotel, and we do many wine tastings and events here during the season. We have around 1,600 labels in our cellar! We present wines that are unique to Maremma and Tuscany, and we also introduce guests too. If guests choose to have our ‘Viaggio in Toscana’ experience, they have an opportunity to taste many different wines that are produced across the region of Tuscany, discovering more about each of the wineries in the process. Of course we take great pride in our wine list here at Hotel Il Pellicano. In 2021 our wine list was recognised as one of the best in Italy for 1 Michelin Star restaurants – Ristorante Il Pellicano.
In your opinion, what makes a ‘perfect’ wine?
Wine is such a personal thing, so the ‘perfect’ wine is one that you like! For me, a perfect wine is one that is balanced and fresh. I love the mineral wines too. Like honey and olive oil, wine is a ‘living thing’ in my opinion – it’s constantly evolving and it changes every year. We recently opened a Barolo 2005, for example, and I thought it was perfect!
Why do you think it’s important that we see more women working in the wine industry across Italy?
I think it’s fantastic to see so many more women taking an interest in expanding their wine knowledge, and even starting careers in the wine industry. When I did my sommelier’s course there were twenty-five women and ten men, and all the teachers were female. I think we will continue to see women play an important role in many aspects of the wine industry in Italy, from production, to wine education and experiences, and far beyond.
“I think we will continue to see women play an important role in many aspects of the wine industry in Italy, from production, to wine education and experiences, and far beyond.”
What advice would you give to women who might want to learn more about wine or even to start a career in the industry?
Study and drink! Every day, every year…keep studying wine and keep drinking wine. If you try the wine, you remember it, and if you visit the winery you also remember the wine more clearly. It becomes so much easier to explain wine to guests when you have actually experienced the wine and the winery it came from. This is even more important for smaller and more specialised wineries I think.
What is one of your ‘highlight’ moments or memories associated with wine so far in your career?
It happened at Hotel Il Pellicano when I opened a bottle of Château Petrus 2006. Some external guests came for lunch four years ago, and they ordered fettuccine al ragu di cinghiale (a very traditional Tuscan dish of wild boar ragu), accompanied by a bottle of Petrus. This was one of the finest wines in our cellar, it’s very expensive and exclusive. When I opened the bottle I was quite overcome with excitement because I knew how special this wine is, and it’s definitely not the kind of wine you drink often. The guests however, were not as excited about it! They drank it, and of course they enjoyed it very much. But they were more excited when their affogato came out and we poured the coffee over their gelato!
I consider myself very lucky in my job here at Hotel Il Pellicano, because I can try these very special wines that people might not be able to drink very often.
