Sorry to be so late posting these, work got crazy busy when I got back.
We established our base camp in Florence, and did day trips from there. Our hotel was the centrally-located Hotel L’Orologio (Piazza di Santa Maria Novella, 24, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy -
Hotel L'Orologio Florence | Official Site | Why The Best Hotels), with a great shoulder season rate booking directly on the website. Rooms were well-appointed, and included an extensive breakfast on the top floor, with a view of all Florence.
The bar on the first floor had an amazing happy hour spread of small bites, complimentary with a glass of wine – it could easily have been dinner.
Wine Highlights –
We did two days of tasting visits, one in Chianti and one in Montalcino. The downside of staying in Florence was that each required a decent drive, with our guide Giovanni.
Day one, stop #1 was Antinori, which was on the way to our first scheduled appointment. The architecture was the most interesting part of the visit, which was otherwise a sterile ‘belly up to the tasting bar’ and was relatively expensive. Best was the Solaia – disappointing that they didn’t have any Tignanello to taste. And the start of a continuing trend, the wine is less expensive in New Jersey than in Italy.
Stop #2 was Fontodi, and the experience is best described as perfunctory. Granted, it is off-season, but they seemed surprised to see us (despite an appointment), and one of the office staff led us through a quick tasting.
The tasting room was beautiful, and the Flaccionello was superb, but we were in and out within about 30 minutes.
Stop #3 was hands-down one of the highlights of the trip – La Massa. Giorgio Primo is one of our favorite wines, and we were delighted to be able to schedule the visit. A bit off the beaten path, Giovanni had to backtrack a few times to find the right way. It is a beautiful property, nestled on the side of a hill and into a valley. We spent nearly two hours there, walking part of the property, getting details on everything from geology and soil types to the different grapes used in the blends.
The owner has two children – Giorgio and Carla, hence the names of two of their blends. He is also a Ferrari fan, as we learned from the design of part of the cellar. Two rows of stainless steel tanks are meant to mimic the pistons in a sports car, the black-and-white tiles on the floor a checkered flag, and the other colors part of the plan as well (http://www.lamassa.com/gallery/index.html). Very cool.
We caught the sun setting from the top of the hill, and Giovanni rushed us to the car because he was concerned about wild boars crossing the backroads at darkness. Apparently, they don’t see well, and his brother had an accident with a boar a few years ago.
The second day was in Montalcino, and we started with a bang – Valdicava, another of our favorite wines, literally in the shadow of Montalcino itself. The land has both wines, the cellars, and an extensive horse farm, where they train horses for endurance events. We were taken on the tour by the great-grandson of the founder, who had trained as an engineer and then returned to work at the family business. Despite describing himself as the intern, he was both knowledgeable and exceptionally proud of his legacy. As we walked the vineyards, he pointed out the house that his great-grandfather was born in, and the differences between the old vines and the new ones, and how they plan to use the horses for some of the vineyard work when they retire from competition.
The tasting itself was from giant casks, and we were able to taste through the entire lineup, including the Madonna del Piano. The wine was amazing, the Madonna even more so – it was our first time trying it.
We ended the tour watching a group of workers applying the Madonna del Piano labels – they were very proud of the precision required in getting the labels straight by hand, and rightfully so.
The next stop was at Ciacci Piccolomini, which was more commercial and sales-y – the rep seemed like she was just moving through the line-up quickly and looking to see whether we were buyers or not. We tasted the entire line-up – good but not great, and have to say they and the experience suffered greatly by comparison to our just having visited and tasted Valdicava. The wines were less expensive in New Jersey, but we did ship back some olive oil.
Other highlights –
Taking the advice of a few WB posters, we scheduled the tasting lunch at Enoteca Pitti Gola e Cantina (http://pittigolaecantina.com/) in Florence, and it was a true highlight of the trip. The food was superb – two best for me were my chicken liver terrine on toast and tagliatelle with veal ragu – the others in our party were equally impressed with their choices. All accompanied by a great selection of wines curated by the sommelier, from a beginner of prosecco to Chianti, Brunello and Barolo. Our group included my wife’s niece and nephew, plus their mother – we hadn’t had a chance to really visit in nearly a year, the nearly three hours we spent together were priceless.
Officina Profumo - Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella – Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella Since 1221 - the world’s oldest pharmacy and perfume shop, and just around the corner from our hotel. In doing research, I found out that they have an outstanding men’s shaving soap, and when we got there were amazed at the building itself – literally a museum. And the shaving soap is awesome, and half the price at the Farmaceutica.
Truffle day – my wife arranged the entire day, and it was also spectacular. We took the train from Florence to San Miniato, where we were met by our guide, Massimo. A tax accountant by day and truffle hunter in his spare time, Massimo took us to the forest to hunt for truffles. We met up with his friend Marco and faithful dog Pepe, an 11 y.o. mixed breed who we were told was his best truffle dog. I have to admit I was skeptical, figuring we’d be finding some ‘stunt truffles’ – but after about 20 minutes Pepe did his job, alerting on a truffle and digging furiously to unearth it. He found one white and one black truffle.
After we finished, Massimo took us back to his modest apartment, where his sister made us a truffle-themed lunch. First course was a chickpea soup with truffle shavings, second course was homemade ricotta cheese-stuffed ravioli with a bit of olive oil and truffles on top, third was egg whites baked in small crockpots, with egg yolks and truffles added at the end and covered to cook. Dessert was homemade white chocolate and truffle candy, with homemade limoncello.
It felt like we were guests in their house, it was a fantastic experience.
From there we headed to the small town of San Miniato itself, for the annual truffle festival. Imagine an entire town with purveyors devoted to all varieties of pecorino cheese, with everything from pears to truffle flavoring. Add to that every form of sausage, salami, prosciutto and ham possible, and then on top of that include the freshest olives you’ve ever tasted. Oh yes, and there was amazing bread and olive oil too. And fresh roasted chestnuts. And fresh pasta and pasta sauces. And truffles - upon truffles - upon truffles - in every form you can imagine.
There were probably a dozen pavilions with the food from local farmers, cooks, butchers and cheesemongers, showcasing their respective wares. For local color, there were marching bands and tastings from local wineries.
Just an amazing day.
Happy to share any more details if anyone wants them, we will be going back to Tuscany.