Our Italian adventure began in Florence. After a restful night catching up on missed sleep, we woke early, took a morning stroll through the city and toured the Uffizi Gallery. Gazing out the upper floor window at the gold shops lining the Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River, we overheard a story being told about the WW 2 German commanding officer, who, during the retreat in advance of the Allied troops, ordered all the bridges to be destroyed save that one. Apparently he and his wife had honeymooned in Florence and despite the orders he had been given to cut all lines of transportation, he couldn't bear to see that bridge destroyed. It is the only bridge over the Arno to have survived the war.
We stayed for the next two nights just outside Florence in Chianti at a beautiful little agritourismo, Podere Dell'Orto in San Casciano. At the quaint and quiet hilltop farm, our little suite in the refurbished 15th century farmhouse was charming and very comfortable, with all the modern conveniences and a fully equipped kitchen. Our hosts Simona and Roberto were incredibly kind and helpful, giving us maps and directions to some great spots in the area, even making phone calls for us, trying to help us sort out a traffic violation (one of many challenges we faced with driving in Italy!).
Simona was the one who told us about the village of Montefioralle (the birthplace of Amerigo Vespucci), an adorable little fortified town just above Greve-in-Chianti, and of a superb little restaurant just outside the village wall, Ristorante La Castellana. Here, we found three generations of women producing and serving some of the best local food we enjoyed in Tuscany, in very cosy surroundings. We dined there twice in the few days we were in the area and highly recommend this place to everyone. One of our most memorable dining experiences in Italy!
There is so much to explore in this area, we stopped at a few majestic historic wineries; Castello di Gabbiano, Castello di Verrazzano, (the ancestral home of Giovanni da Verrazano, for whom the New York City bridge is named after) and just over the hill from Montefioralle, Antinori's Badia a Passignano. We would return to Badia a Passignano a few days later, to dine at the fabulous Osteria di Passignano, more on that later...
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Early on day 3, we drove west from San Casciano to Bolgheri for the first of the winery appointments that I had set up through Canadian wine representatives weeks before. What started off as a cold and foggy day in Chianti, cleared and brightened into beautiful sunshine as we reached the coast and the Antinori Guado al Tasso estate. The vegetation and open landscape here was so different from Chianti, reminding us more of coastal Southern California.
Turning into the tree lined drive at the entrance to the estate, we knew we had arrived at very special place. Originally part of a 4000 hectare estate owned by the Della Gherardesca family since 800AD, the 1000 hectare Guado al Tasso estate was inherited by the Antinori family in the 1930s. We met our guide, Luisa, at the winery office and spent the next couple of hours with her, touring the estate, meeting with the agronomist in the vineyard and the winemaker (Luisa's husband) in the winery. Luisa told us the details of the Antinori family history and how this property came into the family through dowry and inheritance. We learned about the relatively recent plantings of Bordeaux varietals and how despite beliefs to the contrary, they have done very well in this coastal terrior. 300 hectares of the estate are planted to vine, the other 700 hectares of the estate are set aside for wheat, sunflowers and olives. Cinta Senese pigs forage in the forests while Mrs. Antinori's race horses exercise in the vineyards on a customized track, all part of the Antinori family's holistic approach to viticulture.
From Spannochia we visited two very important Tuscan wineries. Our private tour of Antinori's Tignanello estate provided us with fascinating insight into how modern technology and tradition have been brought together here to produce not only the best wines in Italy, but to search for ways to continually improve through advancements in viticulture and winemaking techniques.
The winery tour was a great example of how Antinori has literally built on their past to improve their future. The tour of the cellars took us through the recently completed ultra modern new winery down the cellar stairs to the centuries old cellar, still in use, cleverly incorporated into the heritage footprint the company was required to observe in renovating the facility.
The Villa Antinori, Chianti Classico Riserva Marchese Antinori are made here, as well as the Super Tuscans Tignanello and Solaia.
In the vineyards surrounding the winery, rows of grapes destined for Tignanello and Solaia are rooted in white limestone, dug from deep in the soil beneath, providing the plants with additional minerality, drainage and warming the soils to advance the harvest. Antinori leads the way in working to constantly improve Italian winemaking. The winery partners with the nearby university to study ways to improve grape quality and production, not just for Antinori's wines, but for all Italian wines.
We finished our tour of the Tignanello estate with a tasting of 4 wines, the 2009 Villa Antinori, 2009 Peppoli, 2007 Marchese di Antinori and the 2007 Tignanello. Although we were already familiar with all of these wonderful wines, tasting them at the source, in the house of Antinori was a fabulous experience. Topping our already great morning off in style, we said goodbye to our gracious hostess and headed down the road just a few minutes to Badia a Passignano and lunch at the renowned Osteria di Passignano.... to be continued
you're on your way...
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