Wine trip to Tuscany by Chalfont & Amersham Wine Club

I assumed this would be a light meal of meats and cheeses and a couple of tasting wines but we were amazed to find a huge table laid out for us with five tasting glasses at each place.

Dr Rossi then appeared and hosted a wonderful lunch provided by the Enoteca and talked us through his wines. We tasted the Con Vento, Rondinaia, Castello del Terricio, Tassinaia and Lupicaia. The food was superb; bruschetta to start, some pasta if I remember correctly, followed by a main course of our choice then home-made tiramisu. Heaven! He paid for the entire lunch (including our coach driver and guide). Extremely generous!!!!

The Enoteca Tognoni is a fantastic place to visit. Situated in the medieval village of Bolgheri you can sit amongst the hundreds of bottles of wines and enjoy true Tuscan fare. They even have a machine that allows you to taste a glass of the top Super-Tuscan wines such as Sassicaia by using nitrogen gas preservation technology. Nitrogen replaces the wine as it is tapped glass by glass. Unfortunately we discovered this machine as we were leaving our second visit. (Not realising that Dr Rossi would take us there for his tasting we had already booked lunch for our last day – what a shame!)

In May 2005 we organised our first wine tasting trip abroad in conjunction with the company Tastes of Italy. We spent three glorious days tasting wines and sampling the local food whilst soaking up the culture and history of the area.

Over the course of the three days we visited five vineyards including Sassicaia, the most famous Super-Tuscan. Here is a brief description of what we got up to!

The trip got off to a pleasant if horrendously early start on the Saturday morning, some us leaving our warm beds at 3.30 am! Our first stop was the Castello del Terricio estate which is famous for its cult wine Lupicaia, retailing at around £40 per bottle. This estate was present in 2001 at the Decanter Rising Stars Fine Wine encounter, designed to showcase emerging fine wine producers.

After being shown around the vineyard and the cellar, we were invited to taste their wines at the Enoteca Tognoni in Bolgheri, as their tasting room was undergoing renovations.

We then headed for our hotel in Volterra. Volterra itself dates back 3,000 years and we stayed in the best hotel in town which was formerly a palace in the 1700s. Before dinner we had a tour of the historic town and visited an Alabaster workshop courtesy of Anna who is an expert on Volterra’s history. Dinner was at the historic Ristorante Etruria in Volterra which dates back to the 19th century.

After breakfast we headed off to the gorgeous area of San Gimignano to taste the excellent Vernaccia di San Gimignano, the first wine to receive DOC status in Italy in 1966. First stop was San Donato. In sharp contrast to the slick Castello del Terricio estate, San Donato is a small medieval village next to the town of San Gimignano. And when I say village, I mean five or six buildings. Most are ramshackle and I’m pretty sure there were chickens running around but the welcome very warm. The owner of Fattoria San Donato, Umberto Fenzi, took us into his cellar and, in a very thick Italian accent, told us about his wines and a bit of Tuscan history. I’m not sure I grasped everything but it was enough.

Besides producing wine, the “estate” also grows olive trees, makes honey and grows saffron. We were treated to a most delightful lunch in their garden where we found a table groaning with home-made Tuscan delights – bread with Truffle pate, Bruschetta, cured meats, pecorino cheese and honey, marinated peppers….the list is endless. Umberto opened up 5 wines – his fizz, a Vernaccia, a Vernaccia Riserva, a Vernaccia which was fermented and aged in oak and his red wine. His wife periodically popped over with more food. She then appeared with a flagon of white wine which was straight from the Vat – her favourite tipple – and it was delicious. Then the cantucci biscuits came out accompanied by grappa and vin santo. I don’t know how we managed to walk out of there but we did!

Next we visited Montenidoli, a larger estate focusing largely on Tuscan varieties which take the DOCG label and other, mostly Italian, varieties which take the IGT label. The estate practises organic farming. It is now one of San Gimignano’s most successful wineries. In addition to three Vernaccia-based wines, Elisabetta also produces a rose wine from the Cannaiolo grape, a white wine called Vinbrusco (made from Trebbiano and Malvasia) and Templare (from Vernaccia, Trebbiano, Malvasia, Semillon, Verdicchio and Grechetto). There are also three reds – Garrulo (Trebbiano, Malvasia, Canniaolo and Sangiovese), a Chianti Colli Senesi and Sono Montenidoli (100% Sangiovese) which has earned several plaudits.

We were given a guided tour of the winery by Sergio and Ricardo, their assistant winemaker, and then a glass of the rose which I had tasted at the Decanter Italian Fine Wine Encounter. I asked if we could taste any more of the range and that we were willing to pay. We were taken through their white wines (at least four) and then their reds (three, I think!)

Food was brought to the table (as if we hadn’t eaten enough at lunchtime) and the total cost was 7 euros per person. That evening we dined in the Enoteca Del Duca – the chef is called Genuino del Duca and runs the restaurant with his wife Ivana. He cooked for Prince Charles at Slow Food and he was awarded best restaurant in the province of Pisa 2006 by the Espresso restaurants guide.

Our last day! After checking out of the hotel we made our way to Sassicaia. Sassicaia is widely regarded as one of the world’s best Cabernet Sauvignons and retails about £90 a bottle. It is the only single wine in Italy to have its own DOC. We had a tour of the winery and watched the bottling and packing process. And then, the moment we had all been waiting for, a chance to taste Sassicaia and the second wine of the domaine. Heaven!

After lunch at the Enoteca Tognoni again we headed for Michele Satta whose wines are always mentioned in the three glasses or tre bicchieri awards, the most powerful awards in Italy. After the obligatory tour of the winery we had a tasting of his wines which used local grapes and international varieties. Sadly, we climbed aboard the coach for the long drive to Pisa where we just had enough time to take photos of the Leaning Tower, have a quick drink and some dinner before flying home. A truly memorable trip!

Julia Belton