Chianti to coast (Tuscany, Italy - Day Three)

So far on my journey it’s been a wonderful experience meeting people from each winery and discovering their similar but also different philosophies. Peoples’ philosophies may relate to the management of their vineyards, such as whether they use sustainable practices, are organic or biodynamic. In the winery they may change how they use equipment and additives, what their maturation program is, and how they have designed the layout of their facility. Wineries have different approaches to how they brand and communicate their wines, and also how they welcome visitors to their wineries. The thing to remember is that no one philosophy is the best or right one, as every country, region, producer and audience/market is different. What is most important is to select the right approach for that winery and place, and this is how I have determined to assess whether the philosophy has been successful. Within the space of one day I visited four wineries that had similar but different philosophies, but were all successful in themselves and offer something different. Between the first and last winery I had covered a fair amount of ground, leaving very early and finishing late.

The Black Rooster greets every day in Chianti Classico

Drawing blood from a stone (Tuscany, Italy - Day Two)

It becomes necessary to attempt to remove all expectations and pre-conceived notions when arriving into a new region and new producers. There is always going to be some flow-through from the previous region, we naturally compare an experience to the most recent one. Thus on my journey I am constantly having to readjust to each new place I visit and make no assumptions nor judgements about such things as production volumes, estate sizes, yields, varieties or practices. What the important (and difficult) thing to ascertain is whether or not the philosophies and subsequent practices are right for that particular place. Whilst the nebbiolo grape is ideal for the elevated and cool hills of Piedmont, it is the sangiovese grape which performs exceptionally in the undulating and warmer landscape of Tuscany. Further to this, nebbiolo is a grape that necessitates small yields and small volumes to produce great wine, as it is notoriously difficult to handle both in the vineyards and in the cellar. Sangiovese needs a careful eye to be sure as it has very high yielding potential, but similar to the syrah grape is quite adaptable to site and you can easily make great wine in more generous volumes. The fact that I am visiting wineries that annually produce approaching one million bottles should therefore not mean they are not great wineries; they just couldn’t be great in Piedmont. After a very restful night and a couple of café lattes with breakfast, I adjourned to the winery of my hosts for the previous night.

Budburst has most definitely begun

The heart of Italy (Tuscany, Italy - Day One)

One of the things that I have realised since arriving in Italy is that it is so difficult to categorise it in a certain way, and no single image does it justice. One of the most indelible images that spring to most people’s minds when they think of Italy is the classic image of gently rolling hills covered in grape vines, olive trees and villas. Tuscany perfectly lives up to this cliché. As I drove south from Florence (which is simply stunning, but is kind of a sinkhole when it comes to money), I became more excited at a place that seems so familiar, as you see it on travel and cooking shows, on calendars, promotional material of Italy, you name it. Tuscany has a number of unfair advantages over every other region in Italy. The first is its location close to the centre of Italy, where the weather is neither too hot nor too cold. It has some of the most beautiful and diverse natural scenery in Italy, from the hills all the way to the coast. The diversity also helps with viticulture, and they have the ability to produce a wide range of wines. It is a very large province, and also has a very long history, with families going back over 1,000 years. Tuscany is very wealthy, and is arguably the most visited province in the country. The food is great, the people are great. If this were the USA, Tuscany would be California. And like cabernet sauvignon is the most important grape (but far from the only one) in California, the king of varieties in Tuscany is sangiovese, and I am spending five days here to become more familiar with it.

Dante Alighieri once owned these cellars