Montalcino

One of the things we had been looking forward to the most about our trip was our guided tour of the wineries around Montalcino. Our guide, Silvio, picked us up about 9am and we headed off into the countryside. The montalcino region of Tuscany is famous for 2 types of wine - Rosso and Brunello. Silvio talked to us about the area and its history as well as about the grapes (Sangiovese) and what goes into making the world famous wine. The winemakers are monitored closely by a governing body and are only allowed to produce a limited amount of grapes for these special wines. Because of this the growers go out into the fields and pull down a percentage of the grapes at different times during the season. They find the grapes that are not up to par and toss them onto the ground around the vines. This allows the remaining plants to absorb all of the sugars from the discarded grapes. After harvesting the grapes are fermented and moved to barrels made of slovanian oak for 2 years and then into bottles for another 2 years before being released as brunello to the market. The rosso wines are only aged for about half of the time and have less strict standards than the brunellos.

We made our first stop at Castello Romitorio, which is owned by artist Sandro Chia. The grounds surround a 12th century medieval stone fortress which is now the private residence of the owner. The structure sits on top of a hill and has a view of montalcino. The Cellar is quite modern with large stainless steel barrels for maturation and hundreds of smaller wood barrels. There are also machines for the sorting of grapes and bottling the wine. We went into the guest house and were treated to tasting of 3 of the wines - Rosso 2006, Sant Antimo 2006 and Brunello 2004.

We then visited the Fattoi winery which is a family owned and operated small winery. The family does all of their own harvesting by hand. We tasted their Brunello 2003 and 2004 to see the differences in the same wine from differnet vintages. We also had the chance to go out into the vineyard and see the family harvesting the grapes. You could see the remnants of the earlier discarded grapes at the base of the vines.

We then headed to lunch. Silvio took us to an out of the way restaurant that was inhabiting a thirteenth century church. The restaurant has no menu. Instead the chef prepares a number of fresh dishes and places them out on a table for the patrons to try. The dishes are different every day based on what is available and fresh. We had a fantastic tomato soup, roast beef with a fresh green pesto sauce, greek salad with fresh olives, roasted vegetables, cauliflower souffle and fresh pasta with panchetta and a light butter/cream sauce. Everything was delicious. For dessert, we had small cookies made without eggs or milk (but with red wine) and a mixture of ricotta cheese and coffee - which was incredible. Silvio was nice enough to get us a bottle of Ferrero Brunello di Montalcino to enjoy with our lunch. It was fantastic. We were supposed to visit the Ferrero vineyard as well, but the husband and wife that run the vineyard decided to start their harvest that day, so unfortunately they had to cancel. The wine is a favorite of Silvio's though, and he didn't want us to miss out on it.

After lunch, we headed to Sant Antimo church which was founded by Charlemaigne and is now home to some gregorian monks. The church sits in a valley surounded by olive trees and vineyards.Unfortunately we weren't able to hear the monks chant as they changed their times due to a special anniversary that day, but the church was beautiful.

Our next stop was to the estate of Biandi Santi. This vinyard sits on "Tenuta Greppo" so we wanted to check out the place with Erica's family name. Unfortunately since it is harvest time, we were not able to tour the cellars or go out into the fields. Biandi Santi is kind of the patriarch of the region, as he developed the standards that are used for making Brunello. The property is gorgeous with large cypress trees lining the private road and ivy covering the residence.

For our next stop, Silvio took us to visit the totally organic winery, San Polino. The winery is owned and operated by a woman named Katya and her family helps her run the business. The winery is in an old tuscan farmhouse where the family lives upstairs and the wine is produced below. Katya was born and raised in London, but has lived in Tuscany for over 20 years. She took time to bring us into the vineyard and show us the vines and grapes, to taste the fruit and explain their process and methodology. They use no pesticides, fungicides or herbicides and pick all of the grapes by hand. We took a tour through all of the barrels, and then sat down behind the farmhouse for the tasting. We had a chance to taste the Rosso 2007 (which was just bottled - and didn't even have a label on it yet) and the Brunello 2004. We also got a sneak peek of the brunello 2008 straight from the barrel. The view from San Polino is absolutely incredible, it is completely unobstructed and you can see the valley and far away mountains for miles and miles. The land is sparcely populated and seems relatively untouched. Unfortunately my pictures don't do it any justice.

After leaving Katya, we traveled up to montalcino. It is a classic medeivel city similar but smaller than Siena. The streets are narrow and curve up and down throughout in steep hills. We spent some time at the fortress at the high point of the city and climbed the tower for a 360 degree view of the area.

After a capuccino, we headed to our last winery, Marco Lazzaretti. Marco is a young wine maker who has gotten a lot of praise from the wine community. Marco's first brunello in 2001 received critical acclaim and a 94 from wine spectator magazine. This is a testament to his ability as a winemaker. He has a small cellar with large barrels of slovanian oak and we sat down at a table surrounded by them to taste his wine. We tasted his rosso 2006 and 2007 as well as his brunello 2004. Tasting was accompanied by a selection of meats and cheese, and we had some conversation with Marco while Silvio translated.

We arrived back at the hotel after 9pm making it a very full 12 hours of wine tasting and site seeing. Silvio was a great guide and all of the wines we sampled were outstanding. We have a few bottles heading back to us after we arrive ,as it was hard to leave the vineyards empty handed. So far this has been the highlight of our trip!