Greve in Chianti
Trip Start
Feb 07, 2008
1
33
35
Trip End
May 03, 2008
Greve,
Italy
Sunday, April 13, 2008
The Tuscan countryside will never cease to amaze me. The ingredients for a beautiful setting are all there: rolling hills, random stone villas, cypress trees, the occasional stream, wide open sky with passing clouds - making the sun's rays dance around beautifully - but there is also something there that I can't describe. I would love to be able to tell you what it is, believe me, but I can't.
Greve in Chianti was/is a very small town; we were dropped off in the middle (?) - it is a very small town. I'll put it this way; my book's description covered half a page. There was a restaurant near the bus stop so we went in to ask for directions. Actually I sent Gina in to ask because while we all need practice, she NEEDS practice! The host told her the winery we were looking for was just two blocks up and to the left. As he finished he held out his hand and Gina - not knowing what this meant I guess - proceeded to slap his hand in a "high five" sort of motion then slide into awkwardly bumping their knuckles together.
Greve in Chianti
Immediately after all of this she wanted to walk to the winery but as smells floating over from pizza oven reminded Chris and me we hadn't eaten, we wanted to stay. Plus Chris noticed they had 4 Euro Pizza - never happens in Florence. We took our seats and ordered our pizzas and Gina ordered Spaghetti Carbonara. The portions were huge and the food was really tasty; after a while the waiter asked if we would like anything for dessert and we declined so it surprised us a few minutes later when he brought over a plate with three slices of cake and three glasses of Limoncello - a "gift" he said. We decided Gina's handshake had caused this wonderful "gift" to appear so we joked about that for a bit and were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves...until the waiter dropped off the neighboring table's "gift"... I had not tried Limoncello yet so I was still excited and the cake he had given us was delicious, it was more like a torte, nice and light. We finished up and because we thought we needed to ask for the check - as in every other place we have eaten since we've been here - sat at the table for another 30min before the waiter told us we could pay at the counter if we were done. The wine tasting place was right where the host said it would be, called Le Cantine di Greve in Chianti, it is a modern tasting center with an area dedicated to the history of wine in the region. The set up is very relaxed and we were very intrigued by the directions for tasting. Using a newer vacuum-valve technology we were able to taste as many as 150 types of wine.
Free Dolce
The types of wine available for tasting ranged from typical table wine (red), Supertuscans (still not sure what these are), Chianti Classico, DOC and DOCG ("wines approved by the wine board in Tuscany" is the easiest way to explain them), Grappa (extremely strong), Brunello (expensive wine), and Moscato (dessert wine). The price of each taste depends on the type you would like to sample and goes from about .60 cents to 3 dollars. We purchased our tasting cards (in denominations of 10, 15, 20, or 25 euros and walked around to get a feel for the selection (not that we had any idea what we were "selecting").Once we selected what we wanted to try - I chose Grappa, start strong right (?) - we had to figure out how to get it in our glass. I inserted the card in the slot near the top of one of the bottles and the buttons above all of the bottles lit up, once that happened I just pushed the one above the bottle I had chosen and a small amount was dispensed into my cup. The read-out above the card slot then displayed how much money I had left on my card. It was simple, so we split up and bought tastes of what we wanted to try next. When you were finished with your taste there were sinks for pouring out any remaining wine and sinks for rinsing your glass or filling up with some water. We also discovered there was an Olive Oil tasting station and card process was the same if you were interested in tasting them but we quickly figured out that the tastes were free as your remaining balance never changed.
The Enoteca
Chris and Gina both enjoyed this station - Gina bought a few bottles as gifts - and as I already found an Olive Oil I loved I had a few tastes but focused on the wine. So back to the Grappa tasting, it soaked up any saliva in my mouth and tasted like distilled rubbing alcohol, but it wasn't too bad if you gave it a minute. When producing wine there are certain leftovers - grapes and what not, I guess - that would make the wine too strong if you were to leave them in. When these parts are removed they are then used to make Grappa. It is what I imagine White Lightning/Moonshine would taste like - only it's legal. After Grappa I moved on to some of the Brunello - if I can't afford a bottle I might as well drink all I can when it's cheap! They were really good and going from that to the table wine station made the latter that much more "regular" tasting. Then I tried some of the dessert wine, Moscato, and it was sweet and fruity and fizzy and really good. Each of us went back a few times for another taste and Gina and Chris both ended up buying bottles as gifts. There were appetizers offered just in case you came on an empty stomach or if you wanted to see how the wine paired with a meat or a cheese. It was so much fun and really relaxed so we took our time and then finished up and the girls made their purchases and we left.
On the way out we heard what sounded like a marching band, the sound was funneled through the all the narrow streets so we followed them and found the main piazza - full of locals and a few tourists and a big band in the center of it all. We weren't quite sure what was going on but everyone seemed to be having a really good time and it was pretty much all locals so we watched for a bit. All of the older men in dress uniform had very elaborate head gear - a giant plume of feathers sprouting from the center of very small hats. I asked if they would take a picture with me...a few moments later, I was sporting one of the aforementioned head pieces, and then yes I got my picture. :) One of the men asked us where we were from and Gina told him California, he told us Schwarzenegger was only good for "horror" films and not politics.
The crowd was beginning to disperse so we wrapped up our photo session with the men and headed back to the bus stop, all in all a very nice Sunday.
