April 1, 2019
Wine and Val d'Orcia
April 1st started with a scenic drive to yet another village to tour
a very old monastery. From there we had a wonderful lunch at a
working farm and then visited two
wineries. We spent a couple of hours at the
farm where we had a spectacular all natural freshly made lunch. The
lasagna was as tender as mashed
potatoes. I've never had pumpkin lasagna, but it was out of this world.
We had balsamic vinegar which was 12 years old and
tasted like molasses.
We then visited the
Capanna vineyard and the Nostro Vita
vineyard. Lou had tasted Brunella wine at a restaurant our first
night in Siena and really enjoyed it. The Capanna
vineyard was as on a hill side in the Montalcino
region where Brunello is the local type of red wine. Delicious! We took
our time walking through the beautiful pathways overlooking the Tuscany
countryside.
We then toured Nostro Vita. This is a vineyard like no one
Lou had seen before. It is a rather small
vineyard bottling around 10,000 bottles a year. What makes this vineyard
so amazing is that it doubles as an art colony. The vineyard is owned by
one family since the 1970s. Friends of the family volunteer to create
art work that is then left on the premises for us to enjoy. The symbol
of the vineyard is an old oak tree shaped like the letter 'V'. Hence,
there are various pieces of wood sculptures throughout the property. We
met the father of the family who owns the vineyard. He showed us his
collection of books where the covers and spine are made from tree
bark collected on the property. Later we learned that all the
labels for the wine bottles have printed material such as name of
winery, vintage, etc. However, the logo on the label is hand
done by the father thus essentially each label is a piece of art!
We were amazed by his creativity and thanked him very much. We spent
time with his family who made us feel very welcomed. A great time was
had by all!
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The monastery. Lou accidentally rang the bell, startling us all.
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The murals on the wall depict the life of St. Benedict.
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This is the villa where part of the film, Gladiator, was shot
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Europe 2019
