Hunting Down the Home of Easter Eggs

Devouring a handful of milk chocolate Easter eggs or hunting around the backyard for plastic ones are two behaviors that are, well, all Greek to the Greeks. In Greece, where the practice of dying eggs for Easter originated, the custom continues to be a deeply felt religious ritual. The eggs (real ones needless to say) are dyed on Holy Thursday (the Thursday preceding Easter Sunday) and are eaten after midnight mass on Holy Saturday as a way of breaking the Lenten fast. In Greece, Easter eggs are always dyed a deep red, symbolizing the blood of Christ, while the egg itself represents life and regeneration. In some parts of northern Greece the eggs are not just dyed, they are also hand painted with figures, often of birds–a symbol of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. But be careful, you wouldn’t want to commit one of the seven deadly sins (of food and wine).

Of the following famous grapes from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northern Italy, which is not a white grape variety?

A. Vitovska

B. Ribolla Gialla

C. Schioppettino

D. Picolit

Schioppettino is one of the top red varieties grown in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, a region famed for its white wines. However, schioppettino nearly disappeared from Friuli in the wake of phylloxera. The owner of Ronchi di Cialla winery, Paolo Rapuzzi, rescued the grape in the 1970s when he collected 100 extant vines and clandestinely had them grafted to make them available for propagation (schioppettino was not an officially allowed variety in Friuli at the time). Wines made from schioppettino can be startling—hauntingly dry with sharp peppery, spicy, black cherry flavors and a tight, angular body. The word schioppettino comes from scoppiettio, to “crackle” or “pop,” a possible reference to the grape’s or wine’s fascinating texture.

“The inseparable connection in southern France between wine, food, and the earth reminds me that wine is a gift from God. In a visceral sense, drinking Châteauneuf-du-Pape and eating local sausages becomes a way of transcending time, of experiencing that which, though it may seem temporal, is, in fact, timeless.”

—Steve Edmunds
Co-owner, Edmunds St. John Winery, which specializes in Rhône-style wines made in California

Hunting Down the Home of Easter Eggs

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