Vino

Everywhere you go in the area there are vineyards with small hotels and restaurants as part of their building complex. There is literally one a soccer field down our street, so like good Italians we decided we should book a wine tasting. They are pretty expensive, 35 euros each, and sorry to say we really don’t know anything about wine. So when we saw an offer for a Secrets of Wine Making tour, we reserved that instead!

Thursday was supposed to be our first non-sunshine day, so it worked out perfectly and at 10:45 a.m. we walked to our vineyard. Our new Italian friend, Matteo, greeted us at the wine bar in this obviously very old building. He offered us coffee and told us a bit of history of their vineyard.

The Bacci Family owned Roy Rogers Jeans in like the 60’s and became quite wealthy selling American-style jeans to Italians. They invested in 700 hectares of a Tuscany vineyard, which has become a very popular wine sold in Italy.

Matteo showed us a band with a special stamp around the neck of the wine bottle. If it says DOCG, it is Denominazioni di Origine Controllata e Garantita which certifies the wine was grown and made in a certain region of Italy.

We walked toward the historical wine cellar, featured in the top photograph. Since we were already so interested and maybe since there were only 2 of us, he went back and got a key and unlocked the barred door. That part of the cellar was built in 400 AD by Romans. He showed us a square hole in the rock ceiling where monks would pull on ropes to toll the bells. I believe my mouth was hanging open at this point.

In the 900’s, the location and cellar were fortified and it was used as a castle during the Florence-Siena Wars. The wines stored in this cellar are the exclusive bottles for the family and special events.

Next we stood in the fields of grape vines that you have seen in so many pictures now. The vines in this field were planted in 1994. Two times a year, people work on each and every plant. In spring as the vines start extending upward, someone takes the vine and positions it within the wires above to ensure the leave provide optimal amount of sunlight to protect the bundles of grapes. The second time a person works on the plant is now, and we have seen them in the fields as each plant is carefully trimmed so that only the best vines remain.

Grapes are harvested by large machines that extend out on each side as tractors go down each row. The harvest used to be end of August or September, but Matteo said with climate change it is now in early August.

Vineyards are not allowed to use fertilizer in Italy and the laws about organic farming are strict. To fertilize the plants, beans are grown on the ground in every other row. They are plowed and crushed every year so the nutrients go into the soil. Each row has a plastic clip at the end which has a computer chip in it to document information about the grapes. Huh!

Since we asked so much about the farming of the grapes, Matteo took us to the back of the barn so to speak. There we saw the large tractors and plows. Matteo shared that when he was young and dumb he and his friends used to ride scooters underneath and between the two sides of the harvester agh!!!

He took us inside the building where the grapes come in and are pressed and skins removed in some cases. Some skins are used to ferment the wines; others are used to make the organic blocks used to start fires in your fireplace. Huuuuuge silver tanks were labeled with all types of red wines. A machine the size of a car can bottle 3,000 bottles of wine per hour!

Some of the wine is stored in another cellar in wooden barrels. He explained this is where they experiment with wines of make special wine that is better in wooden barrels. The oak wood comes from only 3 areas in the world: Italy, France, and North Carolina!

We learned that some wine is stored under water! This cage full of messy bottles just came back from the sea near Sardinia!

Matteo helped us select a nice bottle of Chianti for 35 euros which you can’t buy in the USA under that label. He said it was best with pasta so we made a plan for the evening. Matteo studied wine marketing in school and then became a sommelier (wine expert), which took 3 years of study. He lives in one of the apartments and seemed to really love his work!

The host had noted in her guidebook a nearby restaurant that is delicious, cheap, and only open for lunch–perfect! We found it down the road in a small cluster of buildings. There was one other table of locals and the owner showed us the menu on a chalkboard and said “No pasta today” haha. No problem we said and I pointed to Tagliatelle with Funghi which was a really nice noodle with mushrooms. Mike had huge raviolis with sage in olive oil. The restaurant overlooked a valley full of olive trees.

We decided to drive to a bank for get more cash. Our 12 mile ride was scheduled to take 44 minutes because like before it was the Blue Ridge mountains roadway most of the way, with switchbacks and hairpin turns, one-lane portions and houses inches from the roadway in little towns, all the while going up and down steep hills. Mike is getting plenty of practice with our Fiat stick-shift!

Two more days here with potentially chilly cloudy weather, so we started to plan a little over our expensive wine, which in fact was delicious! We are thinking maybe Bologna next. I have read about it in a John Grisham book haha and Katie confirms it is beautiful!