Wine Tasting in Tuscany

Tuesday, November 6 today is our tour to Tuscan wineries with Grape Tours a husband and wife team of people that understand the area and are also winemakers. To get to our meeting point we cross Florence's Ponte Vecchio one of the world's most famous bridges. Rebuilt after a flood in 1345, it was the only bridge across the Arno that the escaped German destruction in World War II.

Ponte Vecchio Bridge

The Tuscan countryside is very similar to our area in Northern California. The major grape is Sangiovese with other varietals for blending. We learn about the designation system for their wines as well as the super Tuscans blended for international palates. 

Tuscan countryside

Our first winery is the vineyards of the Fattoria Corzano e Paterno lie on the steep and stony slopes about 15 km from Florence. In 1969 the property changed hands for the first time in seven hundred years and today the seventeen hectares of vineyard produce more than 80.000 bottles. Century-old olive trees mixed with newly planted olive groves flank the vineyards and produce the highest quality of olive oil. The cheese has been produced by hand with traditional methods since 1992 using exclusively the milk from the farm’s Sardinian sheep. We try it all, incredible.

Super Tuscan

Sardinian sheep cheese

No visit to the Chianti region in Tuscany would be complete without a visit to one of the most famous butcher shops in the world, Dario Cecchini, butcher of the Antica Macelleria Cecchini who rose to fame during the mad cow disease crisis when eating a ‘bistecca fiorentina’ or t-bone steak was prohibited. We had a 6 course lunch with beef from many parts of the cow. 

Butcher Shop

Bistecca alla Fiorentina

About the steak. Traditionally, the meat for Bistecca alla Fiorentina comes from an ancient breed of Tuscan cattle, called the Chianina. This breed of cattle is known for their incredibly flavorful meat. The perfect cut is not less than 2/2.5 inches up to 4 inches. This is a huge cut of meat. We shared it with 6 people. We both thought it was just a little over the top. Hopefully the leftovers can be put to use.

Wine cellar

Wine tasting

Lastly we visited Renzo Marinai in the Chianti Classico region. It’s a small winery with about 15 acres of vines and about twice that in olive trees. The majority of the grapes are Sangiovese and we taste 4 wines with paired cheese. The wines were great so we bought some to see if when we got home it was really that good. Stuffed we rolled home. At dinner we were still full from lunch.  What a day.