We had an awesome day with Donatella, our guide, and the other guests (Michele and Jeff, from North Carolina and Cara and Chris from Adelaide, Australia)
We got up this morning and headed over to the Piazza to meet Donatella for 9am. We drove for about an hour to the first stop on our tour an Agricamppegio (organic farm with camping) for sheep and goat cheeses paired with honey, also made on the farm, and chutneys and a mustard. And, of course, wine.
Sandra makes and exports her cheeses to gourmet shops and sells them at local farmers markets as well, which is where Donatella met her.
After this we were off to an organic winery for the Brunello Di Montalcino, as Donatella describes it, the King of wines. (Donatella is a sommelier and very knowledgeable about wines in general, but obviously has a passion for this local treasure). Brunello is the Sangiovese grape, but in order to be called Brunello it has to be grapes from the Montalcino area, a vine at least 10 years old, be aged at least 5 years, of those 5 years 3 must be in oak casks. They are restricted to replacing aged vines when they die and can not plant new plants and are also restricted to the amount of grapes they can harvest by weight per acre.
Katya served 2 lovely wines and some bread with olive oil, which they also grow and press on the premises. Most of these smaller wineries (she produces 18,000 bottles a year) do olive oil in the off season and are between 10-25 acres. Donatella met Katya at a wine festival, she likes to find "hidden gems" to show her tourees!
After this we went to Alberto's home for lunch and more wine. Lunch was a mixed antipasto followed by a fresh pasta with meat sauce followed by a thinly sliced beef in tomato sauce and baked with mozzarella cheese on top (oh my god) and a side of delicious thinly sliced zucchini in olive oil. Donatella met Alberto by happening on his place and knocking on the door! He does have a little restaurant there, but there is no sign and it is reservation only and he doesn't speak any English and doesn't feed any other tour but Donatella's. We were very lucky to have the opportunity to eat here.
After lunch we raced down to an old church to try to hear the gregorian chants by the monks there, but we just missed them. There is a photo of the church attached...it sits on it's own down in the valley.
From there we went to just outside Montalcino, to a small winery called El Fornace run by Fabio, who works with his father and grandfather before him on the farm. Again, he has a passion for Brunello, he says "it's in our DNA, to think of raising another grape other than Sangiovese is outside of our mind". We sampled 3 of his wines and 2 of his Grappas, which were terrible, but apparently good as far as Grappa goes! We bought 2 of his bottles of wine, which were beautiful. Donatella met him through a friend of a friend. Mom said "it's a good thing he lives on a farm and not in the city because he'd have too many girlfriends". He was a charmer.
Now we're back in the hotel and not hungry and not thirsty...we'll probably have gelato for dinner...or Gelusil.
Attached again the ridiculous random placement of photos that I'll rearrange and label when I can get back to my MAC.
Everyone complained there were no photos of me, so there are some today!
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