Today got off to an early start. Our tour started at 8:45 and we weee told not to be late. We headed off extra early in case we couldn’t find it. Walked right to the right place but they weren’t set up yet. The bus was there and they told us to go over to the table by the arch. There was an arch but then that led to a tunnel under the highway and then to the train station. So that wasn’t it then we walked back and now there was table set up by the “arch”. It was right across the street from the bus I am not sure why he didn’t just say it wasn’t there yet. Would have saved us some frustration.

All was good and we were the first on the bus and took the back seats. There was only 16 on the tour so plenty of rom to spread out.

The driver was fun and things got off to a good start. The first vineyard, Viticcio, was about 45 minutes out of town so not too bad on the bus. This was my favorite of the tour. The place was beautiful and the wines really tasty.

The tour is all taking place in the Chianti region so most of the wines are Chianti Classico but all three through in a rose or sparkling to lighten it up.

We learned quite a bit about the region the grapes and the growing season. There are many rules to be able to claim the DOC or DOCG label. They basically cannot do much to help the grapes along. They cannot water, which is why some years are better than others. They don’t use pesticides only natural insect repellants. The grape vines of the newer varieties ( not the Sangiovese which is native to the area and can produce for more than 50 years) last about 15-20 years and new ones take 5 years to begin producing grapes so they rotate and always have some of various ages in the fields. The older plants produce less grapes but they have the most flavor. So they say it is a balancing act of deciding when to take out a plant and start with a new one. As long as they are not using the plant to make wine they can water so the new plants get to drink while the others do not. It was all very fascinating and I am surprised they are able to produce wine every year. Some years they say they don’t have enough really good grapes to do the Reserve bottles but can usually make everything else.

From Viticccio we headed into Greve for a short stop. Kelle and Jeff had stayed in Greve on there last trip so they knew the area pretty well. Greve has a great butcher shop that was really fun. Prosciutto and sausages hanging from the ceiling, cheese resting in the cheese cave. A very Italian experience. I picked up some prosciutto and salami for back at our apartment and wish I would have gotten more. (Next trip)

We had lunch at the second vineyard Casa Emma. Lunch was simple but tasty. They had a nice sparkling rose that Faye and I had shipped home. We don’t really get a tour here just explanations of the wines we tasted. Casa Emma was a smaller producer than the other two stops on the tour but still nice.

The last stop of the day was San Michele a Torri. We toured more of the production spaces at this stop. They were a pretty good sized vineyard. They had several outside tanks and then the wine could either go into barrels or concrete holding tanks. The concrete tanks were quite large and lined a hallway with a lovely red tile work. The wine tasting was lovely but a little heavier reds than I like so i didn’t buy any from there.

The walk back to the apartment didn’t go as planned. I think we were on the car route and we ended up somewhere we have never been and weren’t sure how to get home. Google Maps was letting us down with various routes that we couldn’t all agree on. Several people were dying for a bathroom break and the only thing in the area was the Four Seasons hotel. They almost didn’t let us in but I think they took pity on us and led us to the bar. We had several drinks and everyone took a turn in the bathroom before we asked directions and headed off again for our Florence home.

After that misadventure we just stayed in and ate snacks and had wine. It was another great day in Tuscany.