233. Red Night

It's been raining for three weeks solid now, but we have the perfect remedy to turn the heat up a notch - a 'red' hot night, courtesy of 'La Martinicca' restaurant and the 'Saigricola' wiine association. A follow up to our 'white night' earlier in February. It's a themed dinner of eight courses accompanied by five different wines...

A sensational evening ensues... We are tucked away in a cosy corner of a packed restaurant -the waiter remembers us from before and the Saigricola director and oenologist prove wothy hosts!

The risotto with champagne and truffles and pumpkin pie are outstanding and the Colpetrone Sagrantino from Montefalco and La Poderina Moscadello a perfect combination. We are a little bit rushed, but with this much wine to get through...

226. Vin Ar and La Guide de l'Espresso release at the Stazione Leopolda

Well, just when I thought I'd seen it all... I find myself at the 'Vin Ar' exhibition at the Stazione Leopolda. It'a a kind of five senses journey into the world of wine. A wine Auction and seminars on the Saturday and Sunday and of course tasting. However the serious action is on the Thursday, when one of the top Italian wine guides, L'Espresso, is being nationally released, with tastings afterwards of the top 127 wines chosen. It's by invite only, but a few phone calls to the Florentine newspaper and the organisers and I'm in!

The place is absolutely packed, I pick up my free guide and settle down for the release. There is an amazing free buffet lunch and afterwards I have about three hours to try some of the finest wines in Italy...




This is the crème della crème, wines that I could not possibly afford to buy! I get to try some very special wines, the memory of which linger well on after this day...

Some highlights include;




Ferrari's 110 euro Riserva della Fondatore Spumante, arguably the best sparkling wine made in Italy.


Avignonesi's 185 euro Vin Santo, very rich and concentrated.


Gaja's Barbaresco retailing for about 250 euro.


Giacomo Conterno's  250 euro Monfortino Barolo.


Tua Rita's 250 euro Redigaffi


Roberto Voerzio's Cerrequio Barolo


Ornellaia's 2002 Masetto




The list is endless... it is one of those unforgettable days!


(23/10/05)

194. Piemonte in Viareggio

I always say to people here that Viareggio is like the 'Brighton of Tuscany', even though I've never been there! Well today  that changes as we pay the Tuscan riviera our first visit...

A Sunday afternoon bathed in glorious sunshine greets us at the 'Principe di Piemonte' hotel on the 'lungomare' promenade. The wine festival we are indulging in is actually in the congress centre wing of the hotel and we get to take our glasses outside on the beautiful lawn while admiring the inviting swimming  pool, although it's not quite warm enough to swim yet.

Annette sits by the pool taking in some rays, while I ply her with glasses of Barolo and Barbaresco, two of Italy's most famous and prestigious wines from the this Northern region of Italy. The wine is fabulous and I even get to meet and chat with the man himself, legendary Barolo producer, Elio Altare. As well as the Barolos and Barbarescos there are some other interesting wines from the Langhe and Roero areas of Piemonte.

After the festival we take a long 'passegiata' along the enormous promenade and have a walk down on the sandy beach. The sea is a bit rough and not that clean here, so not great for swimming, however we enjoy a relaxing coffee 'shakerato' on the seafront before heading home from Viareggio... Brighton? Well, not quite!

(Original Journal entry 15/5/05)

191. Wine Lovers Delight

There is a new weekly newspaper being published in Florence, called 'The Florentine'. It'a a free paper and is run by an American couple. In the second or third issue I spot an advert for 'writers wanted'. They are interested in all subjects based around Florentine and Tuscan themes, including wine. It catches my eye and I have the idea of maybe writing something about the wine festivals. I write an email to them and they ask me to send them a 1,00 word article. So I get scribbling, send it off to them and what do you know they publish it in the May 5th issue! I am now a published writer!!! I am very excited when the paper comes out and make sure I pick up a dozen or so copies to give to friends and family. Everybody is really happy for me and seems to enjoy the article.

Here is a link to the digital version of the article:


http://www.theflorentine.net/articles/article-view.asp?issuetocId=1423

(Original journal entry 5/5/05)

161. Vino e piacere - wine is pleasure 2 - Impruneta

And so on to Impruneta as our weekend wine festival double header continues. Although we actually come on the Friday evening to get started and with over 600 wines on offer, you can see the dilema! So we spread ourselves over two days. As well as red wine, there's also white wine, spumante, dessert wine and grappa and of course cheeses, salami olive oil, biscuits and cakes. All for a 10 euro or £6 entry fee.

The setting is wonderful, amongst the cloisters of the Basilica of Santa Maria in the main square. We start off with the dry Spumantes of northern Italy and move onto the cool crisp white wines. There are some very expensive wines here to taste, the most expensive being the 249 euro 'Il Caberlot' from Podere il Carnasciale. There are a dozen or so Brunellos and a dozen Barolos and Barbarescos to try before finishing off with the very sweet dessert wines. I have to try a few grappas. I haven't really taken a shine to these very strong digestive spirits as they are usually tasteless, a bit like vodka, however my mind is changed by a 10 year old golden grappa riserva from Udine in the Veneto which is quite sublime and I buy a bottle!

Battle of the Bands

On the Sunday we pop into Florence and there is a marching band competition in Piazza Signoria. It is a somewhat 'noisy' experience as different bands try to outdo each other... we have our ears blasted for a truly bizarre evening.

160. Vino al Vino 2 - Panzano -in-Chianti

After the fiasco in Greve we move up the hill to Panzano for our second editition of this year's wine festival and this is how it's done...

A memorable visit here last year is followed by an even beter second year. We come on the Saturday afternoon after work in the morning and enjoy a lovely drive through our beloved Chianti arriving in Panzano by about three o'clock. The tiny square is already packed and the booths are stacked with wine. There is also a four piece jazz band playing and adding to the heady atmosphere.

There are some fabulous wines on offer and we manage to prize some hidden 'specials' from under the counters. The sublime 110 euro D'Alceo from Castello dei Rampolla, Villa Caffaggio's San Martino and Annette's favourite Cortaccio and the wonderful  100 euro Tzingana. We buy some pecorino cheese and prosciutto ham and salami from a local bar to accompany these great wines and have a very enjoyable afternoon... We love Panzano!

In the evening we are at work colleague Jane's for a party and I drink no red wine!

158. Greve wine fiasco - part 3

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!!!

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)

7. Montalcino

                                   “And so we opened another bottle of Brunello…”

Those were the unforgettable and slightly irritating words from Frances Mayes’ novel ‘Under the Tuscan sun’ that I always like to remember as I’m pulling a cork out of this very expensive wine. This is the book that inspires thousands of American tourists to visit Tuscany every year and come and block our driveway trying to take photos!

That was probably the first time I’d heard of this prestigious wine, although at the time I don’t think it really meant anything to me. So after a month of being exposed to Chianti Classico and seeing this rather expensive ‘Brunello’ everywhere, I decide to go and see what all the fuss is about and that means our first trip to the place where it is grown, Montalcino.

The drive south on the Chiantigiana, through to Siena is one of the most spectacular roads I’ve ever driven on, it’s the spine that runs through the heart of the Chianti and now right on our doorstep! A coffee stop in the pretty town of Asciano gives us some energy and we continue on through the gentler rolling hills of southern Tuscany. As we approach our destination signs at the side of the road let us know we are driving through the ‘road of the wines of Brunello di Montalcino.’

The vines are pretty empty though, having just been harvested. The 2001 harvest will be a 5 star year, although we won’t be able to taste it quite yet, as Brunello wines by law have to be barrel and bottle aged for 5 years prior to sale!!!

The small town of Montalcino is perched high on a hill overlooking the Val d’Orcia.We park up and enter the medieval walled town through the ‘Porta Romana’ which joins onto the huge fortress and houses, surprise surprise... a wine shop/museum!

Inside there are hundreds of bottles lining the walls. Where to begin? On the counter they have half a dozen bottles and ask us if we would like to taste some? Sure! why not? So we are treated to some Brunelli from 1996 and the latest vintage 1997... very nice! Austere, ripe dark fruit and full-bodied, a bit like Barolo. We dig deep into our pockets and decide to buy a bottle of the ’96 San Carlo, which cost 36,000 old lire, which is about 18 pounds. Quite pricey for poor English teachers with not much work yet!

We enjoy a stroll through the narrow, winding streets, which all seem to be lined with wine shops selling Brunello. It’s like

Disneyland for wine lovers! Unfortunately it’s getting late and we have a long drive home, but rest assured...

I will return!

(Original journal entry 1/12/01)

5. Toscana Slow

My first ever wine festival!!!

It doesn't take me long to stumble upon my first wine festival in Italy! On a crisp, but bright Thursday morning in November as I am between job interviews in the centre of Florence, I spot some people crowded around makeshift booths here in Piazza Repubblica and go to investigate...

It turns out to be a 'Vino Novello' (new wine), food and 'old' wine festival. I thought that French Beaujolais nouveau was the only 'new wine' variety. Mistake number one! So I follow everybody else and pick up a free glass and pouch and get started...

Although I like wine, I don't really know much about it and the Vino Novello is a bit rough and ready for my palate. The festival continues on round in Piazza Uffizi, by the famous art gallery. There are stands with lots of different cheeses, salamis and cakes. Everybody is in very high spirits, I'm not sure whether they knew about the event, or like me they have stumbled upon it by chance, I even bump into the guy we are staying with.

As you can imagine the reality of free food and wine makes for a very jovial atmosphere!

The 'non' Vino Novello wines are very interesting, especially one new to me, the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. It's so good that I decide to save some in my glass to take home to my wife Annette, which I keep in the pouch!

Afterwards I have to go to another job interview and so walk in singing and swaying with my glass half full of wine!!!

Not surprisingly I don't get the job...

Street artists in Piazza Repubblica

(Original journal entry 29/11/01)