wine cellar – Dave and Kay's Travel Adventures

Friday, June 16, 2023

After breakfast the owner gave us a tour of his property, Torraccia di Chiusi where we had been enjoying our stay. He and his wife have renovated the agriturismo (farmhouse) and the buildings on the property into their personal home, a hotel with rooms and suites, restaurant, a small spa, and also made their own organic wines.

The owner talking to us on our tour of his property.

Below was one of the buildings on the estate that wasn’t renovated. The owner told us that the building below demonstrated what all of the buildings on the estate looked like when he and his wife purchased it in 2002!

The building on the estate that our group stayed in was about 500 years old. They did an excellent job with the renovations.

The Tower was over 1,200 years old and the home of the owners. Our tour included their home.

At the top of the tower you could look out over the countryside and see anyone who approached along the Via Francigena, the route from Canterbury to Rome and onto the seaside city of Apulia, Italy.

From the tower I was able to take a great picture of San Gimignano!

Stefano, the owner spent a lot of time showing us around and explaining the history here. When they were doing repairs to a sewage treatment plant on their property his wife saw something and had the workers stop and she dug and found an Etruscan bronze statue that dated from the 3rd century B.C.! It was speculated that an Etruscan temple was once here. The statue was now in a museum as well as the other items that they have found. Below is Donatella, the wife of Stefano, and a picture of the poster with her and the statue.

There also was a chapel on the property.

Stefano took us to the ancient wine cellar that he accidentally found. It was covered by layers of soil.

After our tour we wanted one more chance to visit San Gimignano. It also had been nicknamed “the Manhattan of the Middle Ages” because of its many towers!

Today we explored other areas of the city and past the main square, Piazza del Duomo.

Along the border of San Gimignano there were some fantastic views that looked out over the countryside.

On our walk we found a local woman sitting outside her home just relaxing.

One of the quiet side streets.

When we left San Gimignano we stopped at a winery for one last tasting. Pietraserena Winery was the fourth generation of winemaking by the Arrigoni family.

The wine tasting patio had wonderful views of the vineyards and the surrounding Tuscan countryside.

When we got back to the villa we enjoyed some time at the pool.

At dinner we had the sparkling wine because we were told by our chef at our cooking class how Torracccia di Chiusi was known for their sparkling wine and how delicious it tasted. Julia opened the Goccia D’Pro Spumante Classic Method.

Julia opening the spumante or sparkling wine.

None of our group were champagne drinkers but we all enjoyed this sparkling wine.

It was our last dinner at the villa and Bruno, the chef, came out to serve us our last shot of Grappa after our delicious meal that he had prepared! Grappa was an alcoholic pomace brandy from Italy that had a high alcoholic content. It was served to help with digestion after heavy meals.

Cheers to our amazing meals and time together!

We will miss the hospitality, delicious meals, outstanding staff, and owners at Torraccia di Chiusi!

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Today we had booked in advance a wine tour and 4-course lunch with wine pairings at the Banfi Winery. It was an hour and a half drive from our B&B to the winery.

The entrance drive to Banfi Winery Estate south of Montalcino.

We arrived early so we parked our vehicles and had time to look around the castle.

The Castello Banfi was originally the castle of Poggio alle Mura and was reconstructed in 1438. It was dated back much farther, between the 9th and 13th centuries. They also believed it once was a settlement of the ancient Etruscans because excavations have found some stone urns and ceramic vases that dated to that time period, so even further!

It was damaged during WWII and when it became part of the Banfi estate in 1983 it was restored to its beauty. The estate had a hotel, 2 restaurants (one with a Michelin star), an enoteca (wine shop), the Balsameria, and a glass museum.

The hotel and restaurants were very expensive. One night at the hotel would be over $1,000.00. Definitely out of our budget. But the grounds were beautiful and the buildings elegant, even in the wine cellars!

We met our guide and followed her to the Balsameria!

When we walked in the Balsameria building we could smell the balsamic vinegar!

12 years of aging balsamic vinegar, different types of barrels and sizes

The balsamic vinegar barrels are made from different wood and as the vinegar ages it goes from a larger barrel to a smaller barrel. The order of the barrels were oak, chestnut, cherry, ash, and lastly mulberry. The entire process took 12 years. We had some of this balsamic vinegar at our lunch wine tasting and it was delicious. A small bottle sold for fifty Euros ($56.20)!!!

We then went to our vehicles and followed our guide to head to the processing plant and wine cellars. The view from the estate was beautiful.

Brothers John and Harry Mariani founded Banfi in 1978. Banfi got its name from the brothers great Aunt’s name. The estate included 7,100 acres of land. One third was single vineyards and the rest was made up of olive groves, fruit trees (mainly plums), woods and scrub.

It took about fifteen minutes to get to the plant and cellars.

When we got to the winery processing area we were quite impressed with its state of the art technology.

There were 7,000 customized barrels here. We saw beautiful chandeliers and glass displays as we walked among the wine barrels.

After our tour we drove back to Castello Banfi for our 4-course tasting menu in the La Taverna restaurant. It was located under the vaulted arches of the former barrel cellar of the castle.