Well I swore last year would be my last, but Annette is working today and so rather than sit at home and twiddle my thumbs I decide to go anyway, surely it can't be as bad as last year, can it?
Oh yes it can! At all the other wine festivals in Tuscany you pay an entrance fee of between 5 and 10 euro and you can taste whatever you want... Everybody is serious, nobody gets drunk and goes home happy. Here in Greve you buy a card for 8 euro, ok, sounds fair. When I enquire, the assistant assures me that you get eight tastings, ok so that's 1 euro per taste, not too bad. When I ask whether that includes all the wines, she again assures me it does. When I go to start tasting the sommelier punches a hole in my card. The only problem is, at the 'riserva' tent, they insist on punching two! Thereby giving you a miserely 4 tastes and when I say tastes, I mean a mouthfull... That's 2 euro a sip... On the ticket there is an extra row of circles that nobody seems to know what to do with! When I return to the 'cassa' to ask her why they are punching two holes she looks at me like I've gone completely mad! A few other people have noticed this too, so I stay by the cassa and listen... they are telling people that they have 8 tastes, "or 4 if you have riservas" I add! So basically people are being tricked! Playing on the fact that most people are tourists and won't really notice...
Greve - Shame on you!!!
The Cappella della Madonna di Vitaleta on the road from Pienza to San Quirico d'Orcia
Showing posts with label Greve wine festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greve wine festival. Show all posts
100. Greve wine fiasco and Camillo a Gabbiano
September is officially the month of the wine festival here in Tuscany and it begins here in Greve-in-Chianti with the 13th 'Rassegna' of Chianti Classico. Next week the show is in Panzano, then Impruneta and it finishes in Mercatale. This is only our second edition and after last year's happy initiation we're excited about coming back...
The festival goes from Friday to Sunday, but as we remember from last year it's best to come early as they do begin to run out by the Sunday!
As usual they have two long booths one with the normal Chianti Classicos and Super Tuscans and the other with the riservas. I arrive an hour after the start at 5 pm and within an hour and a half they are starting to run out of some of the more popular wines! Apparently they have rationed 2 bottles per day and again have under estimated by a long way! Anyway I have the chance to sample some superb wines including Castellare's wonderful '98 I Sodi di San Niccolo and Terreno's '97 Momento Massimo.
I return with Annette on the Saturday afternoon and the wine has all but dried up... and some of the wines I've recommended to Annette, she can't try! Very disappointing... Also their ticket system has changed, whereas yesterday you bought a ticket for 10 euros and got ten tastes. Now you only get five! I'm not sure what they are playing at, but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth...
To drown our sorrows we book a table at Camillo a Gabbiano, a restaurant we've passed many times in Mercatale. The restaurant is part of Castello di Gabbiano, the food is great and, yes, they have wine too!
http://www.castellogabbiano.it/en/
50. Greve Wine Festival
So nearly a year after my first wine festival in the centre of Florence, we discover that Greve has its very own wine festival and it's held every September. So I must have just missed it last year as we didn't arrive until November. It is actually only the 12th edition, so it must have only started in 1990.
It's a weekend festival starting on the Friday evening and going on to the Sunday. There are lots of different activities planned and we come down to the square on the Friday evening, where they have set up two huge booths, with the bottles all numbered. We pick up 2 glasses, a ticket which allows us to have 8 tastes and a small booklet where all the wines are listed. I have no idea what I'm looking for! But with about 120 wines on show we're only going to get an idea of what's on offer.
To be honest they are all pretty impressive. I'm tending to go for the 'Riserva' wines as they are usually made from the estates best grapes, aged for 1 year to 18 months in huge Slavonic Oak barrels and then aged for an extra year in the bottle. The Riservas are a little fuller bodied than the basic Chianti Classicos, with some more interesting scents of violets and toasted vanilla. There are wines called 'Super Tuscans' here too, sometimes made with Cabernet Sauvignon grapes instead of the usual 'Sangiovese' which is the local grape variety in Tuscany. I'm still getting my head around all this new information...
My top 7 wines at the festival are:
1. Chianti Classico Riserva 1998 - San Andrea
2. Chianti Classico Riserva 1998 - Carpineto
3. Chianti Classico Cetinale Riserva 1999 - Tracolle
4. Chianti Classico Riserva 1998 - Buonasera
5. Chianti Classico Riserva 1998 - Castello di Meleto
6. Chianti Classico Doccio a Matteo Riserva 1999 Carpasa
7. Farnito Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 - Carpineto
(For my tasting notes on these wines see my wine blog )
We have a few tastes left on our ticket and return on the Sunday only to find that they've almost run out! Thank goodness we came on Friday! However if this happens every year then it's a date that I will have to put in my diary!
(Original journal entry 13/9/02)
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