The Connected Table

Les Dames NOLA is collecting school supplies for local students. There is still time to donate and drop off. Sharing locations in the New Orleans area.

New Orleans, our kids need you. 🎒✏️

Les Dames d’Escoffier NOLA is running a Back-to-School Supply Drive through July 20. Every donation goes straight to the New Orleans Women & Children’s Shelter.

A backpack. A pack of pencils. A box of crayons. Small things that help a kid walk into the first day with confidence.

Here’s what’s most needed right now:
✏️ Clear or mesh backpacks
✏️ Composition + spiral notebooks
✏️ No. 2 pencils, erasers, crayons, colored pencils, markers
✏️ Glue sticks + plastic folders
✏️ Wipes, tissues, hand sanitizer, soap
✏️ Binders, calculators + more

Drop off at Bywater Bakery, La Boulangerie, La Madeleine Bakery & Cafe, Hen House, Nolita New Orleans, Tartine, Honeys, and the Purple Tiger Boutique,

More info:
https://www.lesdamesnola.org/event-calendar/back-to-school

Off on another adventure, this one is Family Focused and Familiar Turf. Delta Air Lines

The Colline Pisane Wine Trail (Pisan Hills) is a picturesque region of vineyards and olive groves south of Pisa. It was here that we visited Fattoria Uccelliera, a hidden gem of a winery and agritourism located in Crespina Lorenzana forty kilometers west of Florence. Antonio Bullieri and Maria Elena Poggianti acquired Uccelliera’s land in the 1960s. The property is 200 hectares and roughly 200 meters above sea level surrounded by dense forests, vineyards, and olive groves. Fattoria Uccelliera has a production of 70,000 bottles including wines from both the Colline Pisane DOC and Chianti DOCG appellations.

Today the estate is overseen Antonio and Maria Elena’s son and daughter in law, Ezio and Tiziana Bullieri. Uccelliera means “birdhouse,” and this visual can be found frequently in the wine estate’s labels and other appointments. Tiziana’s daughter, Benedetta, works in fashion and design and is developing some chic items for the winery gift shop. It's truly a family business!

Meet Tiziana Bulleri this week on The Connected Table Live podcast July 15, 2 p.m, EST. Watch on YouTube W4CY Radio or anytime on The Connected Table TV, Listen on the podcast channel of your choice. We recommend Spotify.

Mega Spileo Wine Estate is located in the Chelmos-Vouraikos National Geopark in the Northern Peloponnese.
Vineyards are surrounded by steep mountains with the Gulf of Corinth close by, creating an ideal microclimate.
The land was once part of the nearby Mega Spileo Monastery which we visited. Dating to 320 A.D. and built into a cave, The Mega Spileo Monastery is the oldest continuously occupied monastery in Greece and the second oldest in the world, after St Catherine’s Monastery on Mt Sinai. It was named after its location, built inside a large cave in the Vouraikos Gorge near Kalavryta.

Here the monks made wine for centuries. However, the vineyards were abandoned after World War II and as the monk population declined.

A new chapter opened for Mega Spileo in 1999, when brothers Giannis & Theodoros Anastasiou received a long-term lease on the Estate from the Monastery.

Since 2001, Stelios Tsiris has served as lead winemaker. Over dinner he shared his passion for working with both indigenous varities such as whites Lagorthi and Assyrtiko (the latter more commonly planted in Santorini) and reds Mavrodaphne and Mavro Kalavritino. He is also making high altitude Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon. Stelios is also experimenting with making Legacy wines using the monk's medieval cellar.

After tasting 18 different wines, we headed further up the mountain to visit the monastery and caves. We discovered it has a guesthouse on site called 1909 that sits on a cliff. Talk about remote!