Once known as Clusium, the ancient Etruscan city of Chiusi rises up above the Tuscan plain a few kilometers east of the Autostrada. The tufa cliff on which it sits is honeycombed with caves and secret passages, many of which date to pre-Christian times. Below the cliff spreads a graceless modern town of gas stations, quickie-marts, and modern apartment blocks, but the walled town up above dates from the medieval era and boasts an Etruscan museum crammed with funerary urns and sarcophagi, many with inscriptions that have helped archeologists disentangle the mysteries of the Etruscans. Up in the old town are several distinguished restaurants, foremost of which is Zaira, named after a tragic opera by Bellini, and serving Tuscan cuisine since 1959. A three-course meal might begin with a pickled trout from nearby Lake Trasimeno heaped with bay leaves, shredded carrots, and cardoons. The primi offerings include hand-rolled pici with locally dug black truffles shaved over the top, or a rustic lentil soup, thick as lake mud and entirely delicious. Third courses feature ossa bucco in a wine-laced tomato sauce, a guinea hen roasted in cartoccio, or--best on a sweltering summer day--a cold entrée of raw, thin-sliced Chianina beef "cooked" in lemon.
But one goes to Zaira not only for the fabulous food, but for the amazing wine list. Proprietor Renato Rubichi is the original wine geek, and often sports a sommelier's medallion around his neck. Now portly and balding, he has collected local wines from the surrounding countryside for decades, a countryside that includes the world-famous wine towns Montalcino, Montepulciano, and Greve in Chianti. His list of Chiantis alone would make any wine connoisseur swoon. While it's not unusual for a local osteria in these parts to have an incredible wine list, where Renato stores his wines is rather unique: in the Etruscan-era caves beneath Zaira. A ruined hip now prevents Renato from offering tours, but after a long afternoon meal there, in which he regaled us with a 1994 Lisini Brunello and a 1997 Tenuta Canale Chianti Riserva (the latter unavailable in the States) which was a smooth as a water nymph's derriere, the waitress took us on a tour of the wine caves. There we saw bottles that dated to the 1950s. There were Brunellos, of course, but also Barolos, Vina Nobiles, and many bottles whose names had long since passed out of wine lists anywhere. What, we wondered, was a Chianti, vintage 1963, with the brand name "Kosher"? Sometimes the bottles were thickly covered with green moss, or their corks had popped out, leaving the bottles stained and empty. And, as we slouched to navigate the low-ceilinged passages, we were slightly fearful that we might stumble on a mummified Etruscan corpse or two.
Ristorante Zaira 12 Via Arunte, Chiusi Citta (0578 20260)
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