Palazzo delle Papesse

This morning we were out the door by 8:40. We had to walk about 25 minutes to get to our tour meeting point. Promptly at 9:30 we hopped on our Mercedes mini man and we were off to Chianti Classico country.

Chianti Classico is a wine region of about 40 000 acres, only 20 000 dedicated to vines. There are 17 wine regions just in Tuscany and this is one of the most important. Most of the wineries are very small and family run.

On our agenda, we had three family wineries of different sizes to visit. Our first stop was the largest vineyard as they produce about 100 000 bottles a year. It was called Montecchio. We got a tour of the cellars before sampling three wines: a young Chianti Classico, a reserva, and a super Tuscan. First we learned how to correctly smell and taste wine, which was really neat as our guide was a sommelier. We also got to sample the olive oil they make as well. It was so good that we bought a bottle of both the reserva and the olive oil. I'm sure the oil will make it home, but I'm not sure about the wine!

Our next stop was the medium sized vineyard. Here we were greeted by a Vancouverite! We haven't encountered many Canadians, so this was a treat! He showed us the vines and the olive trees, as well as the French oak barrels (each barrel costs 1000€, about $1700 CAD) that the Sangiovese grapes are aged in. They can only use the barrels for four years and then they have to get rid of them. After the tour, we tasted three wines - all reds. We enjoyed these three and it was interesting to taste one that hadn't been in an oak barrel as opposed to one that had as you could really taste the difference.

Our last stop was the smallest winery, Casa Emma. We didn't get a tour here, but as you drove up you could see the vines. It's incredible how rocky the soil is, which is apparently very important for growing vines. Anyway, here we had lunch with our wines. We started with both a white and a rose, which were paired with bruschetta, salamis, and cheese. We also got a Tuscan bread and tomato dish that Evan compared to mashed potatoes. With our third wine, a red, we had a pasta course. It was similar to a bucatini with tomato sauce. We have been told that Tuscan cooking always involves tomatoes.

The wines and the views were both spectacular! Our drive back to Florence from Siena was beautiful and far more forested than one might assume. We learned about Chianti Classico and how it's not at all like Chianti, which we had not known. It was a pretty fantastic Mother's Day gift!Read more