I can not believe I haven't talked about my amazing wine tasting experience yet. Please forgive me for depriving you. A little while back (i think 2 weekends ago) our school set up this amazing vineyard tour for us at a place called 'Fattoria Lavacchio' which is a Tuscan farm (vineyard) as well as an olive grove. Incredible.
When we first arrived there we were met by an employee who gave us the tour, because it was a Saturday we pretty much had it all to ourselves. It had poured the previous day so they couldn't work in the vineyard (no live action) but we still got the concept pretty well ourselves. Luckily the day was gorgeous. We walked past the vineyard on our way to the warehouse type area to see the process. There were these gianormous cylinders in which they started the process of slowly crushing the grapes, and then looping it back through and doing it a few more times. Then he talked about the barreling and the significance of the wine being stored in a big barrel vs a small barrel (whites are always in small barrels, reds it depends), and wood barrel vs not wood (adds different flavor to the wine, most of their wood is imported from France). From there we went on to see an area where they work on their white wines in an open air sort of room where they let the grapes dry out. The guy who was giving us the tour is actually the man in charge of tasting the grapes to determine when they are ready and so on. I asked him if I could apply for the job and what sort of qualifications you needed.
After this educational part we headed back to the main house and their private restaurant area. This place is set up to be a Bed and Breakfast as well, that offers everything to guests. We had our 'snack' outside by the pool area under the gazebo and indulged in chicken liver on toast, chips and more with our first wine taste. Everything was delicious. Once we had achieve a base layer on our stomachs we then went into the restaurant for our full lunch and continuation of wine tasting. The food was unbelievable. The farm has it's own old windmill to grind their own flour. We found out after lunch that because their windmill is still made out of wood (modern but with wood) that they can't sell it but can use it for their own baking. The bread…well there's nothing quite like it and I was sad to discover there was no way we could purchase it. Everyone will just have to go there and try it for themselves. The food continued to impress us, although the wine may have helped our opinion along. Let me enlighten you on something, in Italy wine tasting (at least where we were)isn't so much swirls and sips, but glasses and gulps. That's a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea, there was a lot of wine and all of it was very good... That's at least what I'm told, maybe once I'm 21 I'll go back and enjoy it ; ) (that one's for you Dad). I had some of the best wine there and also one that was less than delicious. Apparently there are so called 'dessert wines' which are practically a syrup. That one was not a hit with our group….blah, but the other ones made up for it.
In true Italian style, after we finished our lunch we sat along the pool side gazebo area again as we finished the feasting with espresso. We checked out the windmill on our way out which was pretty spectacular, but everything that day was spectacular.
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| These things are massive! one of them had a wine glass perched on it, so they can 'check on the wine periodically' |
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| The big guns |
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| See the weird brown, gross looking thing? I ate it and it was good |
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| The good life |
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| From inside the windmill |
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