Fermentation has a sound all its own, a particular lively and engaging melody, music accompanied by joyful and delicious aromas. Fermentation has been exalted by poets and storytellers, by musicians and painters, fermentation contains in the word the concept of fervor, which is activity, joy, dynamic pleasure.
Fervolato is a love marriage between the food of the Gods (theobroma cacao) and the drink of the Gods (theios oinos), between nectar and ambrosia, between chocolate and wine, but to obtain this product a simple union is not enough of the two ingredients. Fervolato requires following a complex and careful path through multiple fermentations, during which harmonious sounds and bewitching and compelling aromas are created, dizziness for the breath and whirlwinds of sensations for the flavours.
Fervolato has three fermentations in its family tree, that of the cocoa berries, that of the grape must and that combined in the process that unites them.
An innovative production process born from Alessio Tessieri’s experience on chocolate, from plantation to production with results of world-class excellence and which in this particular product is combined with one of the best names in Italian viticulture.
After a few years of experiments, even with different and different vines, the first example of Fervolato was finally presented on October 24th, a completely new product, obtained with an original process that combines aromas and scents of an exotic fruit, the cocoa plant, with the complex and intriguing ones of the fruit of the vine. It is not a simple assembly of ingredients, we are not faced with chocolate mixed with wine, a mixture that leads to banal gustatory results. Chocolate and wine, chocolate and oil, chocolate and spirits are part of a respectable but now predictable and almost banal praline With Fervolato we are faced with perfumes, aromas, tastes, textures that preserve the harmonies of the fruits of origin, filtering them through complex fermentation processes, new harmonies are obtained that sublimate all the potential of the character of cocoa and grapes.
In the “First Journey: Noalya-Caprai” the absolute protagonists are the best Criollo Cacao berries from Venezuela from the plantations owned by Alessio Tessieri and the grapes dried on racks of the Sagrantino di Montefalco variety from the Arnaldo Caprai vineyards in Umbria. In the past, the wine obtained from grapes of the “Sagrantino” variety was traditionally produced and consumed in the sweet version.
The vine shoots carved into the marble friezes of the Romanesque church of Montefalco bear witness to this long tradition. Furthermore, in the pairing advice for this wine it says “dark chocolate”: nothing better, then, than combining the complex structure of the Sagrantino Caprai grape with the strong personality of the Cacao Criollo from Venezuela Noalya. A love marriage. These two elements result, in normal conditions, in Noalya’s single-origin Venezuela cocoa and Arnaldo Caprai’s Montefalco Sagrantino Passito DOCG.
“We are two companies dedicated to excellence – declared Marco Caprai – who have come together to create something different and unique, but even more to get involved and understand what, of one and the other, could create mutual value . The result is this chocolate that brings with it not only our obsessive pursuit of excellence, but also innovation and technology.”
To fully understand the Fervolato product, it is sufficient and didactic to taste separately and in sequence a Venezuela Noalya, a Sagrantino Passito Caprai and then a Fervolato Acciaio, to then follow with the Fervolato Anfora and close with the Fervolato Rovere.
FERVOLATO finds its uniqueness in the mastery of the manufacturing process. After an initial fermentation which took place on the plantation in Venezuela, a spontaneous and expertly guided process which takes place immediately after the cocoa harvest and very similar to that of wine, the cocoa beans arrive at the factory. The subsequent infusion of cocoa into the must transforms into a partial fermentation, activated by the natural yeasts already present in the cocoa which had fallen asleep in the quiescence phase.
The subsequent refinement in steel, a notoriously inert material, keeps the aromas of FERVOLATO ACCIAIO more intact, preserves its flavors and protects it from oxidation. The result is an extraordinary and unique chocolate, soft, silky, with a sensation of red fruits that gently evolves into hints of toasted and slightly caramelized dried fruit.
FERVOLATO OAK, aged in small French oak barrels, allows for micro-oxygenation guaranteed by the pores of the precious wood, releasing tannins and aromas deriving from the toasting of the wood and cocoa itself, for a special aromatic evolution. The result is a chocolate that expresses the hints of ripe red fruits with a light and intriguing spiciness.
Terracotta allows intermediate oxygenation compared to steel and wood. Deliberately chosen not to be in the shape of an amphora to maximize the contact surface during maceration, it allows the two elements, grapes and beans, to blend, transferring their aromas to each other, accentuating their aromatic complexities. FERVOLATO ANFORA is a complex chocolate, with notes of dried grapes and praline dried fruit, slightly pungent, with a delicately spicy finish.
It is therefore a true experiential journey through ranges of perfumes, aromas and flavors that are gradually more complex and satisfying, and, when all five senses are involved, precisely then there is the sublimation of pleasure.
