Wine on Down to Montalcino

                      

Today's Forecast....100% chance of wine!

Today, we are on the road!  We are going to be doing a few different wine tours with our driver, Monica Iris.  These are always fun days as we get to drink wine, tour some small Italian towns, and did I say "drink wine"?

Montalcino

Our first stop is the town of Montalcino.  Montalcino is the home to Brunello wine and it located about 90 minutes from Greve.

Montalcino sits on top of a hill and overlooks the many fields of wine grapes growing in the valleys.

The drive to Montalcino is a curvy one from Greve, but also a very pretty one.

The town itself looks like most small Italian towns.  Very narrow lanes, many stone roads, and stone buildings.  There are many back lanes to get yourself lost in.

Sesta di Sopra

After touring Montalcino we made our way to a private winery.  Our goal on this trip was to try a couple of new wineries that we had not experienced before.  Today, we were going to visit Sesta De Sopra.  It is a winery that is owned by a retired banker and the farm itself dates back to the 1200s!  The owner actually has found Etruscan tools and artifacts when working the wine and olive fields. These items would date between 3,000 - 1,200 B.C.!!!

The story of Ettore and Enrica

As I mentioned above, the owners of the winery Ettore and Enrica Spina are retired and Ettore used to be a banker.  They married in 1963.  On one of the walls in their home is a handmade sign showing the path their lives have taken from marriage in 1963 to a winery in 2013.

The day was quickly becoming a sunny and warm one.  We were able to tour the outside before it got too warm.  They had a very lovely outdoor patio/garden area.  They also had some wonderful views of the valley spread out around them.

For part of the tour, we were able to see their wine making processes including the barrels and storage area.










This winery really is a family affair.  Ettore store a few cases of the vintage birth year of each of his grandchildren as a future gift to them.

After touring the grounds and the wine making areas, we are ushered inside to begin our own wine tasting.  The tasting was setup in the couple's dinning room.  Along with wine, we were also able to taste their grappa and olive oil.  The olive oil was very good!  I think all three couples purchased at least one bottle of the oil.  Nice thing about wineries in Italy, the wines (and oil) can always be shipped back home.

Before leaving, we were able to get one of the farm hands to take a picture of all us outside the main entrance.  Left to Right:  Davin, Christal, Kelly, Tari, Enrica, Ettore, Duane, Monica, and Jamie.

Ettore and Enrica

Castello Banfi

After leaving a small family owned winery, we popped into one that is definitely not small, Castello Banfi.  Banfi maybe family owned, but it is also known worldwide and a common Italian wine on many restaurant menus.


After  leaving Sestadisopra, Banfi was quite different.  The grounds were very pretty, but you could tell the minute you pulled in that this was a business and a very busy one at that.  The tasting room was very large, but also very packed with people trying to do a wine tasting.

We did not spend to much time there as it was pretty crowded and we also did not have much time before our lunch reservation.  I guess we can at least check it off our list!

San'Angelo in Colle

Our lunch reservation was at Trattoria Il Leccio in a small hamlet named San Angelo in Colle. It was another picture perfect Italian town with a population of about 200.The town had two restaurants, one post office, one bank, and one small grocery.  This was one of those "off the beaten path" places.

Trattoria Il Leccio

Normally when Monica is planning our day, she will give us a choice of places to eat.  These are usually in two categories, places with beautiful views or places with great food.  Today we chose great food and ate lunch at Trattoria Il Leccio.

Since we were in Brunello country, our wine for today was a very good Rosso Di Montalcino and also a very good house Brunello.

                 

To start the meal, we had homemade bread and vinsanto jelly.  From there, we quickly moved into the antipasti.  The antipasti has quite the wide range of nibbles on it.

Of course, there is always the salumi, but this plate also had fresh fried veggies, zucchini flowers and two different types of dips.

For lunch majority of us went with a pasta dish, but a couple branched out and had a salad and sweet breads.

Davin is the one who lived outside the box and got sweatbreads instead of pasta....don't look too bad...

Wine Tour Part 2:  Poggio Antico

After lunch, we drove to our second wine tour of the day, Poggio Antico.  Four of us had been here a few years back.  For Duane and Tari, it would be a new visit for them.  Once we arrived at the winery, we had a view of San'Angelo in Colle in the close distance.

Since the last time we had visited Poggio Antico, it seems the winery has grown to be a good size winery.  They also had updated the welcome area and expanded where the wine barrels were stored.

A View from the Top

After we did the tour inside we were able to stand outside and take in the pretty view that seemed to stretch for miles.  One of the neat things about the outside view is that on a clear day you can see all the way to ocean in one direction and all of the Brunello grapes in the other.

The outside is also a great place to take some pictures

After touring the winery, we all made our way to the tasting room.  We tried a few wines and ,of course, shipped some home.

Everyone's favorite seat was the chair closest to the air conditioner....  The sun was certainly making itself known that afternoon.  It was HOT outside!

Tari is enjoying her time by the air conditioner

Davin and Kelly are all smiles

Goodbye Montalcino!

We made our way back through Montalcino to start the drive home.  We stopped to see the outside walls of the city and again take in the rolling hills.

     

Go to 6/13/17