Silvio's Wine Tour

Yesterday started pretty early for us as Silvio (from the cooking class) also runs wine tours, and we wanted to have him show us around.  He doesn't advertise his tours right now as his jeep broke down recently.  We offered up our vehicle, and us and another couple from the class made plans to meet up at Silvio's again for the tour.  He warned us not to make plans for dinner as he had never done a tour that was shorter then 12 hours.  Plus all the wineries Silvio was taking us to were all very small family owned and run, and would likely provide meats and cheeses to taste the wines with.  All of which received over 90 points.  Each winery opened new bottles for us of all the wines (most of which we drank).

Our first stop was at the la Fornace winery.  The father walked us through the vineyards, told us about his wine, took us through the cellar, and answered our questions.  He then brought us inside for a tasting of his three wines (Rosso di Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino and the Reserva) with some meats and cheeses, and bread with his olive oil.  All were great.  We bought a bottle of each wine.  His son Fabio came halfway through the tasting to tell us a little more with a few words of English.  Here they produce about 10 000 bottles every year that are only available at restaurants here in Italy.

Our second stop brought us to Assunto at the top of the hill of Montalcino.  Assunto is the name of the winemaker (meaning to rise).  The wine recently changed it's name from Bellaria as they received a letter from Ernest and Julio Gallo (massive producers) that it was too close to one of their names.  Here we tried the 2004 & 2006 Brunello.  We decided to go home with a vertical (2003-2006) of the Brunello.

Trev with Assunto

We then stopped for lunch at a slow food restaurant, and moved on to our third winery, Fattoi.  Here we tried a Rosso and a Brunello.  Neither of which any of us really enjoyed.  Silvio warned us this would likely be the case before we went, but he wanted us to see the spectrum of different wines from the same grapes, grown in the same area, producing similar amounts each year.  We bought one bottle of the Reserva here just to be able to try that at home.  We figured they deserved a second chance.  Plus we didn't actually get to taste the Reserva at the tasting, so it will be something new.

Our fourth winery was Montecarbello.  Gianni had to come in from the vineyards to talk to us.  He produces about 10 000 bottles/year under someone else's label (such a shame).  In fact this label he sells his wine to was voted the #1 wine in the world 2010!  He keeps a few to bottle and label himself.  This is was we tried.  We had the 2006 Brunello.  It was awesome!  Definitely the best stop so far.  He only had 71 bottles left of the 2006, Kevin and Colleen bought a couple and we bought four.  He opened up one of his last 2 bottles of 2005 for us as well.  I asked Silvio how this is worth it for him.  He opens up 2 bottles of wine, puts out cheese, and takes time away from working for us to buy 6 bottles.  Silvio told me there is no monetary value to him for us going there.  He prefers to do it as he has a lot of pride in what he does.  His comment was "if you travelled around the world to come to Italy, and then took the time to come to my winery I want to show you my wines."  Silvio said it shows him all his hard work pays off when people enjoy his wine.

The property here was beautiful.

Our final stop brought us to Marco.  This was the BEST!  Here we tasted the 2009 Rosso and 2006 Brunello.  Both of these were so great that we, or should I say Kevin and Colleen, bought a bottle of the 2004 Reserva for us to drink there.  Marco's olive oil was also the best.  We bought 4 750ml bottles.  Marco bottled and labeled them for us while we were there.

Oh yes - and Trevor corked the oil for us.  

The scenery here was also stunningly beautiful.

The interesting thing was that both Gianni and Marco did everything themselves.  At the other three wineries there was an entire family, but at these last two one guy did everything.  Absolutely amazing!

A successful trip, and a beautiful drive home.

After a 12.5 hour wine tasting, and a 15 hour day, I was sure we were headed for Hangover City this morning, but somehow we didn't end up make a stop there!