Adventures in Wine Country

Newly 21 and a pretty much a wine virgin, what better way to test it out than a tasting in Tuscany? One of the worlds most prominent wine producing regions, Tuscany is famous for its unique reds and rosés. The girls and I decided to spend an afternoon touring the Chianti part of the region, stopping at a winery for a tasting and visiting Castellina, a small municipality in the Chianti Hills. We joined a bus tour that took us about half an hour south of Florence to Sant' Appiano Cantina nestled high up in the hills. The tour guide was hysterical. She was an older Italian woman who added an "a" to every word she spoke in her heavily accented English. She kept us entertained on our way to "have a delicious-a glass-a wine-a." Even though it was raining on the drive there, the views were beautiful. I knew we were in the wine region when I saw sprawling fields of olive and grape trees. There was so much green that I felt like I was back in Ireland, but they don't need trees in their fields to make Guinness right?!

We made our way up a narrow road to the cantina where we were greeted by a woman from the family who owns the winery. She showed us the oak barrels where the wine ages and explained the process of creating the wine all the way from the planting of the grape seeds up until the bottling and distribution. Sant' Appiano is a small wine company but they still produce over a million bottles of vino per year. After showing us around the production area, we were taken to a sampling room where tables awaited us set with wine glasses and snacks on plastic plates...not exactly the classiest set-up but it was alright. We sampled four different kinds of red wines; wine that was sweet, wine that was spicy, wine that was aged, wine that was young. Honestly, it all tasted the same to me. I guess I haven't acquired a taste for wine yet! 

When the tasting ended, we walked outside and were happy to see that the sun had come out. Everyone began taking pictures to capture the scenery in better light before heading off to Castellina.

After a quick photoshoot, we hopped back on the bus and drove about half an hour to our next stop. Castellina is a teeny town located way up a winding road on the side of the Chianti Hills. It was nearly deserted, as it was Sunday and nearly everything in Europe closes on the day of rest. We had a half an hour to putz around, which was more than enough considering there were a total of two shops open. I was a bit disappointed with the town but I am sure it would be more charming during the week when everything is open and there are actually people around.

We left Castellina around 5PM and headed back to Florence, which had become two hours away by then. I slept on the way back until we reached the city center and headed back to the hostel. We ate dinner in the dining room there and went upstairs early to get organized  before our early wake up the next morning. Florence had been beautiful and not as touristy as Rome or Barcelona which was a nice change of pace. So far I had been wowed by Italy and was very excited to see what Venice had in store. Ciao Toscana!

Love and vino,

Haley