Monday, November 4, 2019

Tuesday, Oct. 29th, 2019

Today we met our tour guide. Roberto, at 10 am at the top of our drive.  He began by giving us some background info about the area and its history.  The van was so noisy, that I decided to just sit back and enjoy my surroundings.  In seemingly no time at all, we arrived at our first stop.


Capanna is a small, family run boutique winery.  The grounds are spectacular!  We were met by Danielo, who took us on a tour of the actual winery.  The aroma of fermentation took me right back to my father’s wine cellar…  Danielo explained how they have to keep the barrels optimally full, and gave us detail of how the vines are carefully maintained.  He said some wine is made in the barrels (through chemistry) and some wines are made in the field.  Capanna wine is made in the fields.  The wine from this region is called Bruello.  Certain restrictions must be observed to qualify a wine as Brunello.  What we sampled was very delicious and intoxicating!  The winery bottles about 70,000 liters of wine per year, making export pretty limited.


Next stop, Poggia Grande.  This is an even smaller family winery, making blended wine from the san giovese grapes.  It became obvious to us, that this wine was made in the barrels.  About 27,000 bottles are prepared yearly for sale.  They also make their own olive oil and pasta from everything grown on their land.  During the wine tasting, great platters of prosciutto and different cheeses were brought forth, much to our surprise!  The food was appreciated and scoffed down in an effort to enhance (or absorb) all that wine!










We met a group of young women from all parts of the world – England, Canada & Palastine.  They were having a great time as were we, and emails and numbers were exchanged!



The intended next stop was lunch – OMG – A farm-to-table experience.  Multiple courses were served, melted cheese (pecorina), dripping with honey and topped with a walnut, purple cabbage that tasted like butter, alongside a tasty morsel of pork.  The main course was a type of pasta – a wide parsley  noodle. Naturally wine was flowing through the whole meal. Dessert was a fruit flavored sherbert, with chocolate shavings.  I could barely get up from the table!










Somehow, we got a little behind schedule, and Roberto was hurrying us back to the car for yet another stop.  He was willing to take us to Montepulciano and Pienza.  We opted for Pienza only.  What a quaint little town!  We took a walk along the mountain overlook drinking in the view.  Honestly, by now, we were beat and ok with just going back to our lair.
Roberto heeded our request, and got us home by dusk.  The six of us went to separate corners, and snoozed, read, puzzled or caught up on life at home via devices.  The thought of “dinner” was abhorrent. I did manage to curl up with a cup of tea and reveled in the comfort of the home which was ours for these few days.

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