Chianti in Toscana

We were up and out by 8.30 this morning to join our day trip to the Chianti region. This meant that we missed our breakfast as this was conveniently served between 9am and 9.30am - how ridiculous.



We met our tour guide Guiseppe and our other tour mates (4 Americans and 2 Aussies from Petersham!! Small world!).

Our first stop was at Impruneta where we had a look around a small Terracotta (cooked earth) factory. Nearly all of the buildings are made with terracotta roofs and we were shown how they make pots etc. Everyone was surprised to discover that the clay is actually a bluey gray and not the red colour you would expect.

Our next stop was at a 11th century castle up in the hills. The buildings were beautiful and we walked the cobbled narrow streets and the place was full of flowers. Our guide knew his history as he talked about the region and its architecture.

Our next stop was at Greve, a small market town on market day. We had some free time here to walk around and Jo and I took the opportunity to eat our first meal of the day (which was delicious!). The square in this town was actually a triangle and was full of stalls selling clothes, food and the usual bags, belts etc.

We headed out from here to our first winery and Guiseppe gave us a great tour of the cellar and took us through the entire wine making process. We stumbled upon barrels of wine as old as 1971. We tasted 3 reds here, including the Chianti Classico made from the local San Geovasse grape. The wines were nice, but very dry but in the hot sun we made sure there was none left!
The next winery (Casa Emma) was much nicer and we had the chance to all sit round a table of bread with local olive oil while the lady gave us an explanation of their wines. We sampled 4 reds here (white wine is produced more northern Italy) and they were all excellent. Jo and I both loved the last two, a Chianti Reserve 2000 and a 100% Merlot 2003. We debated about whether we should buy some but we decided against it on budget/luggage limitations.

We took a drive back on the expressway as we were running late and we arrived back about 6pm. We said we might catch up with the Aussies and 2 Americans to watch the Italy vs USA game on later that night but after dinner (I had ravioli and Jo had risotto) we were so tired we went back to the "B&B" to watch it there. Can you believe that the channel that was showing the football was the only one without a decent reception so we tried to concentrate on the ball but after half time we were both fast asleep!