Falling in Love with Tuscany
It’s not hard to fall in love with Tuscany, it’s a pretty perfect spot if you ask me. Good weather, rolling green hills, spectacular hilltop villages, good food and some of the best wine in the world. It’s also covers a gigantic area, so the biggest challenge is figuring out where to go and what you want to see. We didn’t do a very good job of narrowing it down (too much wine, not enough time!) so this will be a long post. Settle in!
Our first stop was Greve in Chianti for a few nights at Vignamaggio, a 14th Century Renaissance villa surrounded by Italian gardens and vineyards. Fun fact: the 1993 Kenneth Branagh version of “Much Ado About Nothing” was filmed here with Keanu, Denzel, Emma Thompson and the like. No celebs knocking about when we were there, unless you count the Wonderdog, who’s fame seems to be growing daily, and it’s clearly going to her head. She’ll be asking for her own trailer next.
On our second day, we decided to brave the crowds and head to Siena. Being a Tuesday in April, we figured we’d dodge the worst of the crowds. Fat chance. As we were just talking about movies, you may know that Siena was used as a location in the James Bond film ‘Quantum of Solace’ - remember the one with the horse race in the piazza when they are interrogating Mr White? (I make no apologies for being a massive Bond fan). The movie fame, along with the horse race, the UNESCO Heritage designation, and the fact it is an incredibly beautiful medieval city make it a magnet for tour buses. If you come here, come in an off season, come early and come prepared.
That said, if you go a couple of alleyways off the main drag, you’ll find you have the place almost to yourself. We put away the maps and just wandered with no place to go, up cobbled streets and down back alleys, through little squares, admiring the interesting things to see on every corner. You have to keep your eyes peeled in Siena, and make sure you look up. On almost every building, there are plaques, motifs and statues to see, flags waving and thick wooden doors opened just enough for you to peek inside. It’s a lovely way to spend an afternoon. Siena is utterly charming, but if you come in Summer, god help you, you’re in for a battle. Good luck my friends.
We spent a fair bit of time in Greve which is a rather lovely little town, with a nice main square and some delightful shops including an outstanding butcher, which seemed to always have a line out the door. Outside the town hall, there’s a rather eye catching statue, you can’t possibly miss it. Who knows who it’s supposed to be, or what relevance it has, but the official Greve website simply references it as “a bronze sculpture in dubious taste.” Ouch! Clearly they’re not a fan, but let me tell you it draws in the crowds, almost every tourist I saw stopped for a selfie (one can only wonder what the caption would be!)
We were lucky enough while we were in Greve to visit our friends Douglas and Matthew at their villa just around the corner for a smashing lunch and a few bottles of great local wine. There’s something to be said for sitting in the sunshine, three dogs running around, surrounded by stunning countryside - the Italians really have it cracked. We were on top of the world when we left Greve to head south to Montefollonico.
And you know what they say about riding high - sooner or later you're headed for a fall. And a fall is always better with an audience, so enter this week’s special guest stars Aaron and Kat, friends from California now living in Lugano, Switzerland. We were staying at the stunningly beautiful Follonico guest house, which is a peaceful haven surrounded by countryside, a few minutes outside Montefollonico. That peace was shattered within five minutes of us arriving, when our well behaved, can-do-no-wrong WonderDog happened to come across a chicken that had gotten loose. Just imagine what Mr T came across when he rounded the corner after unloading the car. Picture, if you will, a scene out of “Tom and Jerry,” with Shadow racing after the chicken, me racing after Shadow, and the chaos that ensued.
After a sprint that Usain Bolt would be proud of, I caught hold of Shadow, who thought this was the grandest game ever, and bundled her out of the way. I went to find the poor chicken who had taken a dive into some long grass head first. All you could see was her white feathery bum sticking up in the air. I gave her a cuddle as she clucked indignantly saying something like “bloody dog’s a menace, here I am trying to mind my own business and WHAMMO! I need a sherry and a lie down." I went on bended knee to report the incident to the ever gracious owner Susannah, who whisked the chicken off for a once over in the hen house. I am happy to report that the chicken was fine, there was no damage other than a few loose feathers, a few of my hairs and my pride and dignity. Shadow was well and truly in the dog house.
We only had a moment to recover before we headed off to a wine tasting at Il Macchione, a winery a few minutes drive away from Follonico. Brothers Simone and Leonardo took over the winery in 2007, although a winery has stood on the property since 1750. When they took over, they pulled out all the vines that were not indigenous to this area and planted 100 percent native Prugnolo Gentile, or Sangiovese, depending on your naming preference. These lads are doing something really remarkable, they are quietly and carefully going about making some of the best wine I’ve ever tasted without fuss or fanfare. They don’t really do tastings and definitely no tours, they do a couple of events per year, but that’s it. They know that every day they spend away from the vineyard is a day they aren’t listening to the land. And it pays off, half of their wine doesn’t even make it outside Montepulciano - the Italians know a great wine when they taste it and they don’t let it go elsewhere.
Simone is a philosopher at heart, listening to him talk about the winery, about nature, about working the land, is to fall in love with a way of thinking about wine making and earth itself. As with most people who work the land, he doesn't suffer fools and will tell it to you straight, whether you like it or not. In other words, he’s a man after my own heart. He’s the kind of chap you’d be thrilled to go down the pub with, and we left the farmhouse feeling like we’d made great new friends.
And then, as was always going to happen on the road at some point, I got sick. Not a little sick, but full on bed rest kind of ill which was miserable. While the team hiked off to Montepulchino, I was laid up feeling very sorry for myself. I think I was more annoyed at missing out on all the great wine than anything else. I was off the vino for three whole days so you know it was serious!
Once recovered, for my first meal back on deck, we went to see Roberto in Montisi. His restaurant, Da Roberto, is actually in his house, and you’d better know up front that when you’re in his house, you play by his rules. If you don’t, you won’t get past the front gate. He cooks all the food himself, he goes to the farm shops every day to get the ingredients, serves each table, does the cleaning up, the bills, everything. In return, he asks simply for good manners and honesty. I knew I was going to love this place when I saw the sign on the terrace that said “If you’re smoking on the terrace, you’d better be on fire!” Then we met the mighty Roberto himself and thankfully, we passed the test and were invited in.
Roberto likes to humbly describe himself as a “countryside cuciniere (cook), whose only claim is to feed myself honestly.” This man is king of the understatement! What he doesn’t mention is the food he cooks is absolutely wonderful, his taste in wine is impeccable, and his outlook on life, wonderfully refreshing. When you go to lunch or dinner at his taverna, you can expect comfort food, epic wine hand picked from his cellar and a lesson in how to not give a damn about what people think of you. He’ll encourage you to read his Trip Advisor reviews and he says start with the bad ones. “They're all true,” he tells us with a glint in his eye. Not long ago, Roberto had not one but two heart attacks and as a result, he’s even more fiercely protective of the energy created in his restaurant. If you come with a lack of manners, you too could be writing a Trip Advisor review about his “rude” or “arrogant” behaviour. But if you come with a smile and a craving for good home cooked food, Roberto will welcome you with open arms and a great bottle of red.
We spent the rest of our time relaxing at Follonico, mooching around the little hilltop towns between Montalcino and Montepulciano, listening to the church bells ring enjoying tremendous wine. We managed to visit the lovely little village of Monticchiello during the Slow Flower Festival, which was a very happy coincidence. The whole village was adorned with blooms of every colour, I’m still not sure what slow flowers are, but it certainly was very pretty.
Pienza was our final stop which, according to my research, is “the touchstone of Renaissance urbanism,” whatever the heck that is! For the regular folk amongst us, it’s a wonderfully charming hilltop village with lovely old buildings, palazzos, cute little shops and a lot of great wine bars. It was a great spot to say farewell to old friends before heading off to our next stop, San Quirico d’Orcia just down the road, our very last stop in Tuscany. I’ll tell you a little more about that next time, for now let me hand over to Mr T for some recommendations on great wine from Tuscany.
Mr T: Tuscany is really the land of Sangiovese. We visited the 3 main regions (DOCs) producing the best of Sangiovese.
Monteraponi farms organically and makes some of the more refined wines from Chianti. Their Chianti Classico is excellent and combines the rustic nature you’d expect, with elegance and balance. For a bit more of a special wine, Baron Ugo, is a single vineyard wine with great complexity and the structure for long ageing.
Il Macchione near Montepulciano (see Nat’s excellent write up above) farms organically (and is biodynamic although not certified) and makes richer wines, while maintaining balance. Their Vino Nobile de Montepulciano is aged 30 months in oak, which is far more than typical for Vino Nobile. It’s an amazing wine and one of the better values in the region.
Brunello di Montalcino is considered by many to be the best wine from Italy (I might argue for Barolo). It typically makes dense and powerful wines. Two of the best we had were the 2002 Il Paradiso di Manfredi and the 2012 Baricci. After 15 years, the Il Paradiso was drinking beautifully and showed the tremendous complexity that comes from ageing. The Baricci had all the power you’d expect from Brunello without being over the top. Both showed there’s so much more to Brunello than richness and power.
It's Nat again! Til next time friends, I'm off for a glass of red after all that talk of wine. Pass the bottle!
