Chianti

Back to the wine. No trip to Tuscany would be complete without Chianti. The Chianti DOC area is much larger than Brunello di Montalcino allowing for more producers and production therefore the reason it is more well known. Our first stop was to the southern area of Chianti to an old village property, as old as 900 years old, which now belongs to a German insurance company. We had a tour of the Borgo San Felice, which was a bit reminiscent of the luxurious all-inclusive resort in Creta. Full of fall's orange yellow and reds climbing the walls of the buildings, it really was beautiful. 

Because of natural evaporation, it is necessary for the wine maker to know how much wine is in the barrel so that there is never any oxygen. With the glass bottle on top, the wine maker is able to see the level of wine and which barrels need more wine. The wine almost overflowing/contained within the glass bottle indicates that the barrel is completely full of wine. This was a creation of Di Vinci.

After our tour of the hamlet and the wine cellars, we feasted on some warm Tuscan soups, regional salami and cheese - of course - and chunks of crusty white bread drenched in florescent extra virgin olive oil just recently made. 

 The next stop on the Chianti tour: Rocca di Castagnoli. As opposed to San Felice's 1200,000 bottles produced every year, Castagnoli makes 330,000. It is another medieval village/hamlet.

we tried a really fascinating chardonnay which is completely unusual for the area.

the red stains on the barrel are from the overflowing wine. when refilling the barrels, the overflow indicates that the barrel is completely full of wine and zero oxygen. 

old wine making machine.