I know it appears that we have been mostly freezing, eating, and drinking great wine, but in truth we have been working. It’s just that I have thus far been reporting only on our extracurricular activities. Fabrizio had a very full schedule for us when we reported to work last week. Our first task was to stand in for him and Carolyn at a special tasting at a winery in Montepulciano. This week is a very big week in Tuscany as they are hosting wine tastings to introduce the new vintage in three separate regions. The Chianti Classico tasting was in Florence on Wednesday, unveiling the 2007 Classico and the 2006 Riserva. Next Monday is the debut of the 2006 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (unfortunately we are flying out early that morning so can’t make that one). And of course the reason we came in the first place is Benvenuto Brunello, the inaugural event for the 2004 vintage of Brunello di Montalcino.

This traditional property near Castellina was created by uniting four ancient hamlets, one of which was named Castellare.  Paolo Panerai, a media mogul from Milan, bought the properties in the early 1980s and decided to keep the vineyards planted with their original varieties.  This meant a unique clone of Sangiovese named Sangioveto.  Castellare is one of the few wineries in Chianti that use this clone and it seems to thrive on their property.  They also decided not the join the pack of producers who were blending their Sangiovese with Cabernet and Merlot.  Instead they continued to use Black Malvasia.  The cellar itself is very old and contains a great library of older bottles, including some of the old straw covered flasks that were popular back in the 70’s.  The underground cellar has been slowly expanded but retains its original flavor.  Somehow they have cobbled together enough capacity to produce almost 17,000 cases a year, so they are no small estate.  Their basic Chianti Classico makes up almost half of their production and it is a very stylish, very smooth wine.  The Riserva is, as expected, much fuller and more complex.   It is made from grapes from a single vineyard, Il Poggiale, and is considered one of Chianti’s best Riservas.  But the jewel in their crown is I Sodi di San Niccolo.  They call the easiest cultivated vineyards “campi” and the hardest to cultivate are called “sodi”.  This vineyard surrounds the owners home just below the winery and is made from Sangiovesto and Black Malvasia.  It is perennially one of Tuscany’s best wines (one of their first vintages, the 1984, made number 4 on the Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list).  This wine is truly magnificent, elegant, powerful, and complex.  One thing you will notice on the label is the bird.  Each year they choose a new species from Tuscan birds who are threatened.  The winery is organic and uses no herbicides or pesticides.  The winemaker, Alessandro Cellai, says “It is better to lose some of the crop than to ferment the grapes with poison.”

Fontodi is located in one of the truly prime spots in Chianti—the famed Conca d’Oro located in the south of the village of Panzano.  The name means “the golden slopes” and is also the home of one of the best wines in Chianti (Georgio Primo from La Massa).  The estate was already famous before the twentieth century, but in 1968 the Manetti family purchased the small estate and over time bought other nearby properties until it reached its present size (around  25,000 cases).  The Manettis have for centuries produced terracotta and bricks in Chianti and still do to this day.  But the winery is the focus of the family now.  There are still some old elements of the cellar and olive oil area, but the winery has been enlarged and modernized.  There barrel aging cellar is a thing of beauty, reminding you more of a French Bordeaux cellar than an old Tuscan stone cellar.  They have over 1,000 French oak barriques.  We had a very brisk, quick tour along with 4 Canadians who were staying in a nearby agriturismo, so it wasn’t the warm, personalized tour we had hoped for but at least we got to taste their phenomenal wines at the end.  Their Chianti Classico is one of the better Classicos produced in Chianti, full-bodied yet featuring that sharp, tannic edge that younger Sangioveses have.  Their next wine is a Riserva Chianti Classico from a single vineyard, Vigna del Sorbo.  Whereas the Classico is 100% Sangiovese and is aged in barrel for 12 months, the Riserva is 85-90% Sangiovese with the balance being Cabernet Sauvignon and the wine is aged 18 months in barrel.  The result is a much more complex and opulent wine, with the Cabernet contributing  additional color and texture.  But their best wine for me is the Flaccianello, which they started making from a single vineyard in 1981.  It is 100% Sangiovese, is aged in barrel for 18 months, then another year in bottle before its release.  This is simply one of the best Sangioveses you’ll taste.  Big, full-bodied, intense, and sensational.  The only problem with Fontodi is that I haven’t been able to figure out where to get it.  Our tour guide got me the name of their importer, so when I get back that will be one of m projects.

By Wednesday we were ready to resume our wine touring.  For years now we have driven by the sign for Casa Emma, which is near San Donato.  Finally we decided to call and set up a tour.  I had thought that the winery was relatively new, but in fact it has been around since the 1600’s.  But it wasn’t until the 1970’s that it was restored.  The name refers to a noblewoman who once owned the property.  Our tour guide Daniele spoke just enough English to make himself understood, but not enough to prevent some charming versions of English phrases.  The winery is fairly small (around 7,000 cases) but is well regarded in Italy.  Their consulting enologist is Carlo Ferrini, who is one of the most famous in Italy.  So they are no lightweight winery.  Their vineyards surround the property and are planted to some interesting varietals.  Besides the obvious Sangiovese, they also have blocks of Merlot, Canaiolo (one of the traditional Chianti blending grapes), Malvasia Nero, and Gamay.  I have never seen a Tuscan winery with Gamay grapes, so I was waiting to see what they did with them.  They had just been harvesting the Merlot, which only left the Sangiovese still to be picked.  Most of the places we have visited are still waiting to pick their Sangiovese and hoping that the dry weather, sunshine, and breezes continue.  After walking through their cellars, we went back up to taste their wines.  Their Chianti Classico is light and fruity but very nice, while their 2004 Riserva is a full-bodied, complex wine that stands up to most of the other Riservas we have been drinking.  Their third wine is called Vigne di ???? (I can’t remember, but it sounds almost like Buttafucco, as in Joey, but I’m sure that’s not it).  Anyway this is the wine that has the Gamay, as well as Sangiovese and Malvasia Nero.  It was very soft and fruity, but I’m not sure I’m sold on blending Sangiovese with Gamay.  You lose all of Sangiovese’s sharpness and edge.  The final wine was their SuperTuscan, Soloio, which is 100% Merlot.  I thought it was excellent.  I may like Italian Merlot more than California.  We haven’t been able to get Casa Emma wines, but I got the name of a distributor in Oregon who imports the wines so when I get back I’m going to start the process.  I think you will like their wines.

Casanova di Neri’s winery is located just a couple of kilometers from the famous Il Greppo estate of Biondi-Santi, the inventors of Brunello di Montalcino according to most accounts.  The farm was founded in 1971 by Giovanni Neri, who bought a large estate in the Montalcino territory and grew grapes.  Things were much simpler in Montalcino in those years.  There were very few actual producers of Brunello and it had yet to achieve the elevated status it has today.  Giovanni continued to buy property that he considered had good potential for high quality grapes.  One of his key purchases was the Cerretalto vineyard, which had been planted in 1961 and was one of the older vineyard parcels in Montalcino.  Finally in 1978 he began producing and bottling his own wine at the farmhouse (called Casanova) in the original property.  In 2001 Giovanni’s son, Giacomo, began constructing a new cellar at their Fiesole vineyard.  That is where we were to meet Luigi, the manager of the winery.  All of the cellar is below ground, so the profile of the winery is completely obscured.  When we walked out on the top of the cellar, they had just completed sorting a load of grapes and dropping them into fermentation tank below.  Everything is gravity flow and they simply move the sorter around the ceiling of the cellar and station it over the hatch to the correct tank.  There were two bins of grapes sitting there and Luigi said those were ones that had been rejected for Brunello but might possibly be used for their Rosso.  The only flaws were some raisined grapes within the cluster of good grapes.  But he also pointed out the difference in a couple of clusters.  Most were very tightly bunched, but some were bunched much looser and had some space between the berries.  He said the latter were a special clone of Sangiovese that they had discovered in the Cerretalto vineyard.  The loose structure meant that the grapes could dry out much more completely in the event of a rainstorm and also that the yield would be less than other clones.  This clone has proven so much more successful that they will gradually replant their other vineyards over the coming years. Luigi also said that even though they had heavy rains the week before, right after that a cool, dry northern wind came that dried out the grapes (this was also the cold wind that accounted for our unusually cool days since we arrived, but if it’s good for the grapes, it’s okay by me).

We have some customers who have been to Castello di Verrazzano before and have raved about it.  We love their wine, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to convince us to book a tour.  Everyone said we should do the winery tour and lunch “executive” program, so that’s what we set up through our importer (which means we didn’t have to pay for it, so don’t even ask me what this cost).  The winery is on the way to Greve and is in a ridiculously beautiful setting.  The castello dates back to the year 1000 and the winery is over 800 years old (838 to be exact). And yes it is named after Giovanni di Verrazzano, who was the first to discover the harbor that became New York and hence has a bridge and a strait named after him.  The property sits atop a hill overlooking some of the best vineyards and properties in Chianti.  Our tour guide was Gino Rosi.  We have been to many wineries and have experienced many wine tours, but this was unlike any we have had.  Gino was incredibly funny and passionate.  There were around 25 people on the tour and he wanted to engage each and every one and explain why Verrazzano is so special (he actually lives in an apartment in the castello…call that a perk?) and why wine is so much a part of a Tuscan’s life.  You didn’t hear much explanation about how wines are made and what percentage of which grapes go into a blend, but you did hear about how wine, olives, fruit, and wild boars were the basics of life in Chianti.  Verrazzano takes its name from “woods of the wild boar” and Chianti gets its name from the noise (chaos?) that happens when hunters march as a cacophonous herd to drive the wild boar into the range of the archers or shooters.  As wine was a source of nourishment and sustenance in the Etruscan times, so it is today in Chianti, according to Gino.  He led us through the castello, including the barrel rooms that housed the large “botas” for the everyday Chianti Classico, the smaller botas for the Riserva, and the small French barriques for their SuperTuscan, Sassello.  We also got to see the Vin Santo room, except in this instance not only did we see the small barrels, but we also saw the grapes hanging from the ceiling to dry before they were put in the barrel for 4-5 years.  Oh and then we got to eat and drink…what a great place!  We first tasted their basic Rosso, a very fruity and easy-drinking wine, then their Chianti Classico  which was very true to form and reflected the pure Sangiovese character, then the Riserva which was fuller and more complex.  Finally the Sassello.  This is Sangiovese blended with Cabernet and aged in French barrique.  All of this was served with very typical Chianti cuisine, all of it found on the grounds of the property.  We had to leave as the Vin Santo was served (we hadn’t planned on a 4 hour tour and tasting).  Once again, I don’t know the cost but if you are ever in Chianti, book this and ask for Gino.  He is a treat!  This is one time I was happy we were part of a larger tour, since I think Gino thrives in a large group.  He is an entertainer.

Jeannie got us to Avignonesi, even without directions, only 3 minutes late.  Those of you who have seen Jeannie navigating in Italy would not be surprised at that.  Once again this was not a private tour, but instead one of about 25 people on what turned out to be a couple of different tours.  One was a bike tour of about 8 people (poor things had to drink a bunch of wine and eat tons of food, then get back on their bikes and pedal God knows where).  However the leader of the tour was a good-looking Italian, so Jonalyn thought seriously about ditching us and joining the cyclists.  The other group was led by the owner of a wine shop in Cortona, a pretentious guy (his card identified him only as Sommelier Marco), who felt the need to jump in and add to whatever our perfectly able tour guide Alessia had to say.  One problem was that he got several things wrong, including the years when Europe’s vineyards were devastated by phylloxera. That’s just what we needed, an egotistical wine shop owner.  Wait, did I just say that? 

Our afternoon tour was at Castello d’Albola, which is just 3 km up the road from where we stay. Despite its being so close, this is the first time we have been there. When we got there we discovered we were part of a large tour (around 20 people), so this was a little different than the personalized attention we got from Antonio. Albola is a fairly large winery by Chianti standards (around 85,000 cases, which makes it about the size of a Ste. Chapelle but with much better wines). It is owned by a large Italian winery named Zonin, which has wineries all around Italy, especially in the Veneto. They own the vineyard that is just across the road from us at le Selvole. We got a nice tour through the cellars and the Vin Santo room, then headed back to the reception room to taste the wines. They had a passably good Bianco, a nice Rosato, and 3 excellent reds. Their Chianti Classico is our featured wine at Vino Rosso and is our basic house wine (for Jeannie and I) and the Riserva is excellent. It was the 2004 vintage, which is the first of 3 excellent vintages in Tuscany. They also poured a wine the firm makes from the Maremma, Rocca di Montemassi. I don’t think they make it Castello d’Albola, it’s just one of their related wineries. Also a very nice wine and one that we carry from time to time. Jenni decided to take the leap and try their Grappa, just to say she had. At least it didn’t kill her and she can leave Italy knowing that she tried the dreaded grappa. Dinner that night was back at the apartment with cheese and salami we had purchased from Porciatti’s Alimentari the night before.

After a wet and cold Friday, we awoke to a glorious Saturday.  Blue sky, sunshine, and although still a bit chilly, it promised to be a beautiful day.  We were going to meet Antonio Sanguineti in Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast, about a 2 hour drive away.  The route took us through Volterra on a winding 2 lane road, perfect for encountering large trucks, slow moving Apes (little 3-wheeled vehicles, prounounced “AH-pee), and really slow moving tourists who inevitably  travel in tightly bunched packs of 3 cars that are impossible to pass and always take the same turns you are taking.  But driving through Tuscany on a sunny day…it’s still a pleasant way to spend the morning.  We met Antonio promptly at 10:30 and were joined by Doumina, who owns a touring company out of Seattle that specializes in Italian tours and has joined forces with Small Vineyards, our favorite Italian importer (Antonio is a principal in the firm and also makes some outstanding wines of his own).  We are working with Doumina and Antonio to put together a wine and food tour of Tuscany next May (more about that later)

Antonio Sanguineti not only makes some of our favorite wines (elegant, expressive wines from Montalcino and Montepulciano as well as an incredibly affordable Super Tuscan - Nessa Dorma), but he is also one of our favorite people in Italy. Even though he had just barely returned from a trip to the US, he agreed to take us to see some of the properties that we get from Small Vineyards (the importer out of Seattle of which he is a partner). Since two days of winery tours was a bit much to ask of the kids, we decided that Travis and I would do the touring and Jeannie, Trina,and the kids would meet us for lunch and maybe a tour. We met Antonio at Bar Orso, a great hangout just off the superstrada near Monteriggioni. Since Antonio was driving his "scooter" (it looked like a pretty big honking motorcycle to me), he decided he would drive Travis’ Alfa Romeo. After the first 15 minutes, I decided that no one will ever accuse me of driving too fast or passing too many cars. Antonio took off, got a call on his cell phone, then proceeded to shift with his left hand (this conveniently left no hand to actually steer with) while he was passing a car in front of us just before a curve. All of this was repeated several times throughout the day (he gets a lot of phone calls, since he not only coordinates Small Vineyards contacts with all of the 65 different estates that represent, but also makes his own wines and consults on several more). At one point I commented to Travis that Antonio drives like a race car driver. Turns out he was. In his 20s he used to race Porsches. I guess that’s why we never really felt there was a problem…he just drives really fast. All the time he was driving, when he was not on his phone, he told us about the properties we were going to see and their owners.

Not too far from Monteriggioni is a castle that dates back to the 9th century. This was during the time when the "Francigena" was developed. This was the ancient road that connected Rome to France and as such was an important part of the Roman empire. During the wars between Siena and Florence, the castle was an important defense for Siena. But finally after peace broke out (it only took a few hundred years) the castle evolved into an estate. Over the centuries it became more of an agricultural and residential castle. Today it has not only the winery, but also a fairly thriving "agriturismo" business. The day we were there, two or three Americans were going to a yoga class. But the original Fancigena still runs through the property and the original dungeon of the castle is still there.

Our drive to Capannacce took us down the road to Grosseto, which usually moves along pretty well. But some construction slowed things down so much that Antonio finally muttered "this is a pain in the ass" and took a back road short cut to our next destination. The Maremma is kind of the new frontier in Tuscany. For many years it was mostly ranching and farming, but in the past 20 years or so it has become one of the most dynamic wine areas in Italy.

After visiting Capannacce, we ventured just a little ways towards Montalcino. After passing Castello Banfi, we reached the small hilltop village of Montenero. This is where we were meeting Jeannie, Trina, and the kids, who had spent the morning in Montepulciano and Pienza. We were all supposed to meet at a restaurant in the middle of town, but Antonio has discovered it was closed, so he had arranged lunch at another restaurant on the highway just before you turn for the town. In a quick phone call, Travis found that they were only about 10-15 minutes away and told them that the restaurant was before you reached the town. But evidently he didn’t mention that it wasn’t the original restaurant.

Antonio is one of those rarities who make great wines without having a winery or vineyards. He has made Brunello for years by leasing some of a winery’s vineyards and making wines in their winery. Years ago the winery he was working with decided they needed all of their vineyards so he remembered Harald Schwarz, a Brunello producer he met on the race track. While Antonio was racing Porsches, Harald was racing Lamborghinis. They soon reached an agreement and now Antonio uses a section of Harald’s beautiful Montalcino vineyard overlooking Sant Antimo and uses Harald’s very modern winery. They use the traditional big wooden fermenters for their wines and the more modern French oak barrels for the extended aging that Brunellos must have. We currently have Antonio’s 2001 Brunello, which is a rich, intense wine from an excellent vintage. Don’t expect a 2002. The vintage was so poor because of cool weather and rain that many producers refused to make a Brunello that year, instead moving their best grapes into their Rosso di Montalcino. The result is that, as in most subpar vintages in Montalcino, the 2002 Rossos are actually better than usual. So hopefully we can stretch out the 2001 Brunellos until the 2003 comes onto the market.

Unfortunately as we made our way to Bolgheri the skies got cloudier and the temperature kept dropping. By the time we got there, it was downright chilly and it was obvious it was going to rain. Oh well, you have to remain flexible.

We had one more winery tour scheduled after the kids left, but this required considerably less driving. Capannelle is just over the hill from Radda in Gaiole, just 15 minutes away. It is a small winery, producing less than 7,000 cases, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the modern equipment. It was founded in 1975 and situated in a 400 hundred year old villa. The name comes from the hill it occupies. I think it was probably pretty well-equipped from the beginning, but in 1995 it was purchased by James Sherwood, who is the head of the Orient Express. I think he probably is responsible for a pretty significant upgrade. They have stainless steel tanks for fermenting and wine is pumped only through stainless steel pipes, something I have never seen.

Having said goodbye to all of our friends and having marshalled the Italian team (the “Azzuri”) to victory in the World Cup, we were now free to engage in the hopefully tax deductible part of our trip.  We had set up tours with some of the wineries we met in Las Vegas at the Wine Spectator Grand Tour.  Monday was the first and we could not have chosen a better winery to begin our “research” of the wines of Tuscany.  For the past few years we have been coming here, I have looked forward to drinking Fonterutoli (for our staff, the pronunciation is Fawn-tay-ROO-to-lee).  Mostly I knew that I really loved their Chianti Classico and their Riserva.  A few months ago I found a source for it and we have carried their wines in Vino Rosso ever since.  But having now been to the winery, it has moved up a couple of notches in my esteem. 

Monday we had gone to one of the historic wineries in Chianti, Fonterutoli, so Tuesday we had arranged a tour of one of Montalcino’s most historic wineries. Whereas the former has been making wine for over 600 years, in Montalcino, it’s a little different. The first production of Brunello was in the late 1800s by Biondi-Santi. He was the only producer until after World War II when the peasant sharecroppers fled toward the factories in the cities and the nobility abandoned their properties. The Communist government in Tuscany privatized the noble holdings and the "contadini" became landowners. Eventually enologists showed the new vineyard owners how to make great wine and Montalcino figured out how to market the wine and the Brunello phenomenon was born. Now it is the best wine in Italy along with the Barolo and Barbaresco wines from Piemonte. This just leads me to say that Altesino is an old winery by Montalcino standards, but not by Chianti standards. Altesino was founded in 1972.

One of the reasons we were happy to head to the Pyrenees was that we hoped the weather would be a little cooler and a little drier. The drier part I think we have received, but until today not the cooler. When we left Cadaques, we skirted around Barcelona and stopped at the Torres Winery in the Penedes. It is the largest producer of table wine in Spain and I thought it would be cool to see, especially since it was kind of on the way. Unfortunately we did not have a special tour set up, only the general public tour. Talk about lame! How does the public do it? First there was a 15-minute film about the Torres history, then a totally stupid multimedia "tunnel" that supposedly gave you a year-round look and feel of the vineyard, then we all boarded a little "train" that took us around the property ("and to your left is the grape receiving area"…). Finally we got to get out and see some of the barrel aging facility and a little of the fermentation area, along with the very basics of winemaking ("does anyone know how a rose’ is made?"). No one knew and we certainly were not raising our hands!! Finally back to the hospitality room where we all got to try their cheapest white wine. Oh well, at least I think all of our tours in Rioja are industry, personal tours.

 Usually when you try to set up tours of wineries, you’re not really paying much attention to winemaking philosophies. You’re more interested in where the winery is, how great the wines are, and whether you think you can get a great tour. We let Rioja go until a little late in the planning process, so we could not get tours in some places and others responded after we had already left. We completely screwed up one tour, Bodegas Bilbaines, because I somehow failed to write it down. But miraculously, we ended up with three tours that managed to mirror the three winemaking styles that are causing all the talk and controversy in the area. Plus we also got some incredibly detailed tours, so we lucked out in that regard as well.

Out time in Piedmont was great. The weather cooperated fully--mid 60's, sunny, and beautiful. We stayed in a villa in the hills overlooking Alba   We had heard much about the cuisine in Piedmont (supposedly the best in Italy) as well as the wines (arguably the best in Italy), so the few days we were going to spend there were much-anticipated. Alba is the unofficial capital of the wine region, lying between the legendary villages of Barolo and Barbaresco. The main grape there is the Nebbiolo, which really has no counterpart in America. It is named after the persistent fog that lies throughout the area for a good part of the day (fog is "nebbia" in Italian). Actually when we were there it appeared to be more of a haze that burned off in the afternoon, not like the thicker fog you get in Napa and Sonoma in the mornings. It has a bit more romance to it than the haze you see over Salt Lake or Boise, mostly because you don't see centuries-old towns poking through the haze in those cities.