Wine Tour, Chianti, Tuscany
May 2005

Fonterutoli

The first stop was Fonterutoli a small town with 200 people that is owned by the winery.  All the workers, owner and winemaker live in this medieval town. The buildings are so old and the walls so thick that it is not necessary to have underground cellars. There are no windows on the buildings that contain the wines thus keeping the temperature and humidity perfect for cellaring wines.

A private tasting of Fonterutoli premium wines including their Super Tuscan Sensei was enjoyed by the group.

Ricasoli

The next stop on our tour was Ricasoli.  www.ricasoli.it  Ricasoli is a much bigger producer and much more modern then Fonterutoli. It is the oldest winery in Italy and the 2^nd oldest winery in the world. Established in the 1700’s they developed the "recipe" for Chianti. Most of the wines in the region are made with minimum of 70-80% Sangiovese grapes or a clone of the grape. 

The winery was well set up for our private tour of 14. Ricasoli had made up custom tasting sheets in a very elegant tasting room complete with Riedel glasses it truly was a wonderful setting for tasting. The wines reflected the attention to detail and quality that is so important to Ricasoli. As we were preparing to leave the winery (loaded down with wines to cellar at home) we met Baron Francesco Ricasoli. The Baron took the time to talk to us about his family run winery and to reminisce about his visit to Ottawa 3 years ago.

We returned to our villa that evening and prepared a classic Tuscan/ Umbrian dinner complete with our favorite Chiantis from the two wineries.

Santa Croce Winery 

The last weekend in May is set aside for an open house tour and tastings of the wines in Umbria and Tuscany.  Each winery prepares local cheeses, procuitto and breads to be tasted along with their signature wines.  All tastings are free and open to the public on this weekend.

We decided to tour some of the small family run wineries in the Chianti hills. Our first stop was the lovely Santa Croce Winery. The owner/winemaker Cesari and his son Christiano greeted us and were both charming and thrilled to be able to show all of us their family run winery.   We had a chance to taste their 2003 Chianti straight from the old concrete barrels.  Cesari introduced us to a wonderful white varietals that is grown in the area called Vernaccia. Vernaccia is quite fresh with lots of lemon and citrus flavors, quite a crisp and refreshing wine!

Pietrafitta

Our next stop was a gorgeous winery called Pietrafitta. www.pietrafitta.com This winery was well set up for guests, with a beautiful patio, linen and great regional foods served with the wines.

We had the opportunity to try their version of Vernaccia, along with local parmesan Reggiano and Pecorino cheeses.  Then we were served the 2 Chiantis that the winery produces along with local sausages and prosciutto . The table was then cleared and Biscotti and Vin Santo, the local dessert wine was served.

The winemaker Andrea Vallani has been with the winery since 1982. He was pleased to have Canadian visitors and took great pride in giving us a private tour of the cellars, bottling area and the room where the grapes are dried to make Vin Santo.

We left impressed with the generosity and passion that the people in the area have for their regional wines and the local produce. 

Castello Banfi

Touring Tuscany would not be complete without tasting the famous Brunellos! Our first stop was Castello Banfi. After 3 hours of climbing back roads, and weaving though miles of beautiful country side we finally reached the beautiful Medieval castle that is Banfi.

The entire facility is set up like a California wine bar…very classy. The owner has Italian roots but spends most of her time living in New York. The winery is elegantly set up with gardens and Pergolas that look overlook the area of Montalcino.  After a very expensive lunch complete with wines from their portfolio we left a little disappointed in the “slickness” of the winery and the marketing of their wines.

Fattoria Barbi 

Our next stop was Fattoria Barbi. www.fattoriadeibarbi.it

What a wonderful contrast to the commercial Banfi, here we were greeted by Tommaso a Sommelier and grower of grapes.  This is a wonderful family owned winery. The cellars have wines dating back to 1962.  The winery is one of the oldest family owned wineries in the Montalcino area dating back to the 1700’s. Tommaso was great at explaining how the Sangiovese grape is like a family, all slightly different genetically depending on the growing area, soil and climate, Brunello is part of this family.  Barbi made the first Brunello in 1892. 

There are 3 different Brunellos at Barbi. The regular blue label which is available in Canada, spends a minimum of 2 years in oak and then is bottled for a total of 4 years. The Red label Reserva uses the best grapes during the best vintages only . It spends an extra year in oak for a total of 5 years before being released. The third Brunello is the White label. All the grapes come from the same vineyard, a single vintage produced every year and called by the locals Vineyard Fiora- Vineyard of the flowers.  Brunello is stored only in Slovakian Oak barrels. We learnt that vineyards cannot label the barrels “brunello” until production which takes place after the February “Welcoming of the Brunello” Festival. During the festival, the grapes that have been aged for a year are tasted by a panel of judges and sommeliers and are evaluated to be of the quality to call them Brunellos. In the meantime the barrels are labeled “Becoming Brunello”.

Brunellos continues to develop and mature in the bottle for 15 –20 years. After a wonderful tour it was time to taste! The Brunellos were wonderful, very smooth, well balanced and elegant.  Tommaso told us that the 1997 Reserve was the best Brunello that the winery had ever made.  He agreed to sell us 2 bottles to take back and share with friends in Canada. All of us left Barbi with a new appreciation for Brunello and huge fans of the winery!