Montalcino - Some Wine and Church

We've heard great things about this wine, I mean, this town and we can't wait to do some tastings, I mean, sightseeing!   The home of Brunello, we are here! 

                                                        Approaching Montalcino

Montalcino has a sophisticated air, I'm guessing it's all that pride in the Brunello.  Brunello is the name of the wine made from the Sangiovese grape grown here.  The Brunello wine-making area is restricted to the communal territory of Montalcino.  It is often considered to be Italy's best wine.

 

     The Fortezza, a fortress built in 1361, is remarkable and the kids loooove exploring it.

We spend a lot of time on top of the walls, dashing around the parapet and climbing the towers...

                                                       (that's Quinn in the purple on the wall)

                                                     (Dad and Quinn on top of the tower)

                                                        (Reese & Avery on top of tower)

...checking out the views of the village and vineyards below and imagining the many battles fought here.

   We love the feeling of being inside a castle!  (That "Castle Air" even smells and feels old)

And there was a cool, unexpected (whoa), and sorta disturbing art installation inside one of the towers.

               There are beautiful shops housed in lovely medieval buildings.  And lots and lots of enotecas:

enoteca:
1.  A wine shop giving visitors the opportunity to sample locally-produced wines and possibly to buy them.

We had lunch outside on a small piazza.  We had panini's and I had a great salad nicoise.  The server here was a very cordial, formal man that helped me pronounce the menu items correctly.  I  appreciate the fact that he can no longer bear the butchering of his beautiful language and insists on proper pronunciation.

After lunch, we bought a couple bottles of wine from the shops and drove 10 minutes to do a tour of Poggio Antio, a winery that makes Brunello.  The tour guide gave us detailed explanations about the special grapes, extensive restrictions/rules in making Brunello and the entire process from growing the grapes, to harvesting, processing and aging.  We learned about the effects of the different types of wood in the barrels, the sizes of the barrels and the weather conditions.  It was very interesting to learn that the wineries are not allowed to irrigate their vineyards or interfere with the natural weather conditions for the grapes in any way.  It's one of the "rules" for making  a wine that will be labeled, "Brunello."  So there's always lots of talk about the weather during a particular year and how it created the taste of that year's vintage. 
 

The girls struck gold with a litter of kittens to play with at the winery while we did a little Brunello tasting.

After the winery tour, we drove about 20 minutes to Abbazia di Sant' Antimo, the former abbey of Sant'Antimo.  They started building it in the 9C - WOW!  It's gorgeous and set out in the open countryside, beautiful.

           There were people laying around the grounds, napping, picnicking, painting - very peaceful.

Home, James!  We head back to the farm....of course, more scenery along the way...

and the girls take a dip.

                                                  Another very fine day in the Val d'Orcia :)