Trip To Italy Day 4 - Montalcino And The Veranda

We’ve had to make a few changes to our plan as Keith did not make the original flight with us due to a passport issue so he had to wait until Monday (we left on Sat), go to Minneapolis to get a valid passport then fly to Italy on Wed, getting here on Thursday.  As a result, we moved forward a day to Wed for our trip to the Montalcino wine area to try one of Italy’s great wines – Brunello.  Before leaving home, we had a typical breakfast.

The winery we chose was Azienda Agricola "Santa Giulia” Montalcino located near the small town of Torrenieri which required an hour and fifteen minute drive from Castellina thru the county side with these views along the way.  If it weren’t for the vineyards, I’d think I was driving thru the hills and roads of West Virginia.

As usual, the winery was located a ways out a dirt road from the nearest paved road.

When we arrived, we were greeted by our hostess Mariangela who gave us a tour of their winery.

Then we went into the tasting area for the wine and lunch.

She first poured the four wines to be tasted - IGT Toscana Rosso "Quarto Giro" Merlot 100%, Red of Montalcino, Brunello of Montalcino 2020, Brunello of Montalcino 2019 – the difference in the last three is the aging time.  Then we were served a meat and cheese board, a salad, and a palette refresher.

Finally, we were served a pici pasta dish and lemon cream dessert with dessert wine.

On our way home, we stopped in a very busy Siena to locate the bus stop for picking up Keith the next day.

When we arrived home, it was finally a dry, sunny day so we sat on the veranda sipping our wine and having a Kathy-snack but first is a shot of the farmhouse from the road above it.  Our apartment is below the small shrubs between the farmhouse and the large evergreens on the right.

The one vineyard looks steep enough to be a ski slope.

During our cooking lesson we were told that the olive trees were pruned so that the branches grow down is because the ones that grow up bear no olives.  Seems as many of the grape farmers also grow olives for oil.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

4/16/25 event dates