Montalcino and the Beauty of Brunello

The last leg of our wonderful Italian sojourn was three days in the hilltop town of Montalcino, the focal point for all things Brunello. We drove to the town on a typically lovely Tuscan day, with a stop at a memorial for civilians killed after WWII by discarded ordnance where we dined on salad, wine and other basic victuals, before arriving at our B&B in the mid afternoon.

We stayed in the "Painter's Room" at the lovely three room "Locanda Franci" in the heart of the town of Montalcino with a view of La Fortezza (the fortress). Montalcino is packed with tourists during the day but largely quiet at night as it seems most tourists stay in the countryside or just visit for the day.

As we arrived later in the day but were eager to dive into the Brunello experience, Christos made contact with a nearby winery that our sommelier in Chianti had suggested to us the small but amazing "La Fornace". The owner indicated he was only available today as he was out of town for the next couple of days so we dashed out of the room and off we went on the walk to his winery!

We hiked the 45 minutes down to the winery, working up a good sweat in the late day sun, where we met the Fabio the owner and sampled his wares.

Of course we bought our first bottle of Brunello Riserva at La Fornace which we ended up liking so much that we returned two days later and added to our inventory! We ended up buying the later two bottles of wine over the phone from Fabio and then picking it up from his grandparents (who spoke on one jot of English) at the winery.

That night we had dinner at "La Sosta" where we enjoyed the nest meal of our trip! Lisa had an excellent tartar and an amazing swordfish main while Christos had a good carpaccio and an amazing pici with chanterelle mushrooms.  We washed it down with a lovely Brunello from Casanova Di Neri before retiring to our B&B where we sat out on the private back deck and listened to the tail end of a classical concert going on somewhere nearby before turning in for the night.

Our first full day in Montalcino was one of touring the local countryside although the day started with a quick trip to a local artist's store in Montalcino to purchase Montalcino t-shirts.

The road trip started with a trip to the town of Buonconvento and a visit to the amazing "Pianigiani" leather store where both Christos and Lisa ended up with new handmade leather bags!

Then it was off to the nearby monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore. The monastery was lovely but we missed the open hours so we only toured the exterior, visited a quaint chapel, and enjoyed a stroll through the ancient gardens surrounding the monastery's buildings.

.The rest of the day was devoted to Brunello hunting! We visited the wineries of Santa Giulia, Innocenti and Val di Suga where we added to our growing Brunello collection. We tried to visit a couple other wineries but as our methodology was simply to show up (having checked google to see if the establishments were open), we were unable to access a couple places.

That night we dined at the restaurant attached to our B&B. While the service was excellent and the food was good, we preferred our previous night's dining experience (particularly given the price point).

Our final day in Montalcino (and alas in Italy and Tuscany as well). As it was a Sunday, we decided to visit the nearby Abbey Di Sant'Antimo some 20 minutes away by car. The picturesque place is famous for its Carolingian era origins (and chapel) as well as its natural beauty.

We arrived just after noon and the road leading up to the place was packed with cars!

While we had been told the place was a bit touristy, the line of cars was far beyond what we had expected but soon it became apparent that the cars were there because of a Church service and not just for tourism. We entered the church just as the final parishioners were departing and the last wisps of frankincense drifted lazily out of the Church.

While the place is a bit touristy (with the 6 euro audio guide and up sell to the full tour for another 6 euros), it was well worth the price.

We payed for the whole tour which lasted about an hour and provided access to most of the Abbey as well as wonderful tidbits of information on its history.

After our tour of the Abbey we drove back to Montalcino and rested for a bit before heading back to La Fornace to pick up a little more Brunello!

Dinner was once more at La Sosta and while not as amazing as our first night it was still an excellent meal accompanied by fine wine. We wandered Montalcino after dinner and while our time in Italy was coming to an end we were ready for a return to our home in Toronto.

The Heart of Chianti!

With our three nights in Gargonza done, it was time to travel to our next Tuscan locale, the land of Chianti!

We left Gargonza on Tuesday morning and undertook a meandering drive to Castello di Tornano with stops at two wineries, a gourmet food store and a giant welcoming rooster (the Chianti symbol) on the way, finally arriving at the hotel around 4pm.

Dinner at the hotel was quite good but very expensive (mixed grill for one being 18 euros with no steak versus mixed grill for to at Osteria Cacciatore being 20 euros with steak!). Over dinner, we struck up a conversation with an English couple (Simon and Eileen) at the adjacent table and we ended up hanging out with them until the wee hours. Sadly, it was their last night at Tornano soother than a brief sighting at breakfast the next morning we did not see them again.

The next day we opted for a trip to Siena, a town we had last visited in 2007 (we tried to visit in 2010 but the traffic scared us off) with a stop at the lovely Monte Chiaro winery on the way (where we purchased two bottles of Chianti Reserva).

We wandered the hot, tourist filled streets of Siena for about 2 1/2 hours, stopping for overpriced (13 euro) bruschetta (at a tourist place near the town center) and reasonably priced ( 7 euro) salad (at a local place on the way out of town) and while we enjoyed seeing Siena again we both agreed that the Italian countryside and smaller towns are more our thing now.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Dievole winery, where we had stayed in 2010, and noted the massive changes that had taken place. When we had last visited Dievole it was a family run operation and had a quaint rural charm about it. Now Dievole is a much larger operation, with five separate wine producing estates in the region, and it no longer has the feel of a family run business but part of a foreign owned business concern.

The wine store was overrun with loud, obnoxious American tourists who monopolized the time of the attendants and we felt somewhat ignored at first but fortunately we managed to get the attention of an employee who helped us purchase a bottle of their top shelf Chianti.

When we returned to Canada, Christos noted that Dievole was now available in the LCBO, confirming our opinion that it is now a larger business concern. Ah well, the wine is still quite good even if the atmosphere is not the same!

That evening we dined out at the nearby "Ristorante Malborghetto", which was quite good, and then returned to the castle for some fun with the castle walls and lighting before retiring for the evening.

Our final day in Chianti was filled with several winery visits and a hike along the lovely Elsa river (the Sentier Elsa trail) near Siena.

The hike was wonderful and only ended when it started raining (trust our luck that it rains in Tuscany when we are 45 minutes hike from the car!). The trail is a secluded path that criss crosses the river and seems popular with the Italians but relatively unknown to tourists. The water along the trail is an amazing aquamarine hue!

After the hike we visited "Il Castagno" where the fiery red headed sommelier named Chronos gave us advice on Brunello wineries to visit (our next stop being Montalcino) and suggested a visit to Brancaia in Chianti. After purchasing two bottles of Chianti we took him up on his suggestion and took the long and windy road to Brancaia where we purchased more wine and some prodotti tipici!

We finally made it back to the hotel in the late afternoon and opted for dinner once more at the castle as we were a bit tired from our day of touring. After a good dinner it was time to rest with dreams of Brunellos to come dancing in our heads!