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| Tom & Deanna, at Teatro Del Sale |
Road trips are
fun, especially when they are in the Tuscany!
And so it was two weeks ago when three dear friends and I piled into a
Mercedes B200 and ventured forth to Montalcino,
home of the famous Brunello di
Montalcino wine. The friends in
question were Tom & Deanna, who were visiting me for 5 days before heading
south to Amalfi, Calabria (to visit family), Sicilia, and then Basilicata and
Pulia. Roger W from New York City was already
in Italy for a holiday with his husband Michael, and he finally arranged for
the weekend in Firenze before heading to Switzerland for work.
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| Roger, at Teatro del Sale, Maggio 2012 |
Our sunny Saturday drive commenced about 09:00hrs when we left the city and headed south for Siena. We zipped along the autostrada, admiring the countryside, and landed in Siena 50 minutes later. Like most towns and cities in Tuscany, Siena is not “car-friendly” but we managed to find a great parking spot about one block from the Il Campo – Siena’s main piazza and site of the annual Palio. After a washroom break and some café and dolce, we walked the ancient streets admiring the architecture, the shops, and the history that surrounded us.
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| The Three Muskateers, in Siena |
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| Palazzo Pubblico (City Hall), Siena |
Our next stop was
San Giovanni in Poggio, a very tiny
town south of Siena where Tom had arranged to meet the owners of a villa which
was recently renovated into 5 apartments for rent. The owners had done a first rate job on their
property and the 360 degree hilltop views were spectacular. How to market the
property was the question of the day and, quite naturally, we all had opinions
about the answers.
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| A lovely bank, in Siena |
The next stop was
Montalcino, another hilltop Tuscan town, where we only had time for a quick
lunch at a very local trattoria. Yummy food, great views, then back in the car
for a 20 minute drive down into the valley to our final destination – the Castello Banfi wine estate.
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| Banfi's Enoteca |
Until about 35 years ago, the region around Montalcino was poor and forgotten – that was until the Mariani family (wine importers from Long Island, NY) bought 7,000 acres, planted vines, and started making wine. The rest, as they say, is history (read all about it by clicking here) and today Banfi produces some of the finest wines in Italy, which are exported around the world. Through a long-time friend of Tom and Deanna’s, we had a private tour of the production facility and, naturally, got to taste some truly delicious wines in the enoteca.
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| Castello Banfi |
The tour was
particularly interesting for me since it was my first one. Wine making is a bit
like fundraising – lots of science, lots of process, but sometimes in the end,
chance wins out and you’re just surprised with the results. Wine making is also
very complex process and the number of variables that go into making a good
wine is staggering. It was fascinating
to learn about the French oak caskets, how each casket is marked with the name
of the forest where the oak comes from, the very important role nature plays in
wine making, and how the final results are not known for many months (and
sometimes many years) later.
Castello Banfi
was the highlight of a spectacular Tuscan road trip, and I could not have done
it without Tom & Deanna. Thank You!
The day was capped off by me making a funghi porcini risotto for dinner, and
T&D packing for their early morning departure. We all crashed into bed
early, happily exhausted from the day’s adventure. Such is the Tuscan road
trip!
P.S. I would have taken more pictures, but my camera battery died on me.
