Chianti Classico

Today, we woke up to beautiful fog over Tuscany and got our lesson on the Chianti Classico wine. After two winery stops and a two hour lunch, what was suppose to be a 6 hour tour, ended up being a 10 hour tour.  We had our first taste of wine at 11 am and didn't stop drinking until 6 pm! We were seriously drinking wine like it was water. I didn't mind it one bit because the wine was so good! On the tour with us were seven Canadians from Toronto.

Our first stop was Colle Bereto, where we got a tour from our guide, Franco, and the director of the winery, Bernardo. 

We started off seeing how olive oil was made and bottled. Colle Bereto still bottles and labels each olive oil by hand.  I can now appreciate why good olive oil is pricier than the mainstream ones. Afterwards, we toured the family's wine cellar and production facilities ending with a 5 glass tasting of all their different wines. Along with the wine tasting, we enjoyed some olive oil and balsamic vinegar with fresh bread, picked up by Franco from the local bakery in Siena on our drive over. So good! This was by far one of the most intimate winery tour I've been on.

After the first stop, we went to a local trattoria for lunch. We spent two hours here eating and drinking like we were part of an Italian family. The grandma even came out and greeted us!

The afternoon was almost over and we still had another winery to go to. The second winery was called Castello d'Albola. As the name suggest, it was housed in a castle! We did this winery tour a bit different, starting off with our tasting first and then headed downstairs to the cellar and production rooms. By this point, I was pretty much wined out, so took to enjoying the beautiful views around the castle grounds while Gerald was still sipping away. Franco led us around the castle, showing us the beautiful cellars that dated back to the 12th century! 

We were now at the end of our tour and couldn't have asked for anything more from our wine lesson in Chianti. I learned that the black rooster is the logo for the Chianti region and thought that was pretty cool. Makes for a good label on their wine bottles. Franco went above and beyond and treated us like friends rather than tourists and that made a world of a difference. Grazi Franco!