Friday, August 22, 2014

Tuscany: Wine Tour~ Part 7

 
Wine tasting in Tuscany has always been a dream of ours.  Since we were staying on the Tuscan coast, we knew we needed to take a tour.  We drove about an hour and a half or so toward the quaint and charming hilltop town of Montalcino.  Before reaching that town, we visited the Poggio Antico Vineyards where we had a reservation to take a tour, do a tasting, and eat lunch.  It turned out to be an even more spectacular day than we could have ever imagined. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Driving on the grounds of the vineyard
The trees are Italian Cypress trees

 
The weather was perfect!


The vines

 
The hilltop town of Montalcino in the distance

 
Montalcino

 
Love the different shades of green

 
Italian Cypress trees


 
My honey & I

 
Family


 
The wine casks

 
In this temperature controlled room, the vineyard saves bottles from every year along with notes on what the weather was like for that particular year.   They can predict that if a older vintage created an excellent wine due to certain weather, then a more recent vintage with similar weather will also be excellent.    In this region, no irrigation is allowed. 

 
Labeling

 
Delicious wine

 
Winetasting
 
We tasted the following wines:
Brunello di Montalcino 2003 Riserva
Brunello di Montalcino 2004
Brunello di Montalcino 2004 Altero


 
These 2 boys were excellent while the adults did the tasting.  They hung out outside and waited very patiently. 

 
The gentleman giving the tour said that 2004 was one of their best years ever; producing some very highly rated and coveted wines by international collectors. 2004 was also a good year for us because our two little guys came along that year. So in honor of these two facts, we bought both the boys their own bottle of 2004 Brunello reserve and will save them for the night of their 21st birthday at which time we'll enjoy them with a great meal and reminisce about a wonderful day!
 

 
At the vineyard's restaurant

 
What a great lunch!

 
Auntie Claire loving up Colin!!

 
So so fun!

 
We had the best table in the house!

 
We enjoyed watching the Mama with her kitties.  Here was a cute photo of one of the kitties loving up Mama.

 
We had a merry 'ole time! 

 
Wine will do that to you!  ;)
 
 
Next:  Montalcino

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