Chianti wine tasting tour

Our chianti wine tasting tour was starting at 2 pm, so we went to Bar Impero for the lunch special - it was a lot of food. We've been there a few times over the last 11 days, and the owner is very friendly - photo to attest!

We met up for the tour at the train station; there were 15 people on the tour, mainly American. We chatted to a lovely lady from Oregon, Wendy, who was daytripping whilst her partner was at a conference. Wendy had studied in Australia.

We're not usually tour bus people, but it's pretty sensible when you're tasting wine!

Our first stop was Fattoria Lornano winery, a family run affair producing chianti and chianti classico. We learnt all about the wine classification system - the chianti classico is grown and produced in the chianti area only and to exacting specifications - look for the black rooster! Chianti wine is sangiovese, so if you're not a fan of sangiovese, this tour may not be for you. We tried four wines along with estate grown olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The estate itself was in a medieval stone building, and we got to look around their cellar. It was a mix of modern and traditional computer controlled, stainless steel tanks for fermentation and centuries old stone cellars.

Our next stop was the picturesque hilltop town, Castellina in Chianti, where we had some free time to wander around. We also stopped for a gelato, which we're really getting into. The surrounding countryside really is quite spectacular - rolling green hills with lots of grape-laden vines - it's like a Dante poem!

We then hopped on the tour bus and went to Agricola Poggio ai Laghi, near Monteriggioni, where we tried a number of estate wines. Apart from the chianti classico, we also tried a very nice super Tuscan (they grow and blend international varieties that aren't sangiovese) - we actually preferred the super Tuscan! The sparkling rose was really good, too.

A few people were starting to get a bit wobbly on their feet by this stage. Our last stop was the walled, hilltop town of Monteriggioni. There was a bit of a steep ascent to the town from the carpark, and it was amusing to see the tipsy tourists coping with the stone paths.

It was just after sunset by now, and Monteriggioni was quite stunning. We wandered around, taking lots of photos like the good tourists we are!もっと詳しく