During our last visit to Florence, we went on a wine tour and it was delightful. We departed Florence bright and early from the Oltrarno neighborhood, and under the direction of a supremely overqualified tour guide named Bernardo, we ate and drank to our heart's content, arriving safely back to Florence with new memories and friends. It will be hard to beat. Some highlights from our trip are enclosed...
Winery #1: Corzano e Paterno
Our tour group in the vineyard of our first stop of the day: Corzano e Paterno, a family-run winery located midway between Florence and Siena.
The wine is aged in various barrels.
Bottles on bottles on bottles, awaiting their labels at Corzano e Paterno. The day we were there, they were labeling bottles for export to Florida!
We were invited into an underground cellar to taste wine, sheep cheese, and olive oil -- all made at the winery. Salute!
Lunch stop: The Crazy Butcher of Panzano (More formally known as Dario Cecchini's Antica Macelleria Cecchini)
We were welcomed into the deli with a glass of wine, and a buffet of foods to try. This place takes meat to a whole new level. Case in point: that mound of white stuff? Lard. Served on toast.
Our lunch menu at Dario's restaurant, across the street from the deli, called Solociccia. This translates roughly to "only meat".
During our first course, our tour guide, Bernardo, taught us how to prepare our olive oil and perfumo del Chianti (a special salt blend) for dipping the crispy vegetables in. After this it was all meat.
To end the meal, a delectable olive oil cake was served...the best way to end the rich feast!
Winery #2: Renzo Marinai
Our second winery of the day was a slightly larger, more mature winery, with a great father-daughter team running the day to day operations. The father gave us a tour of the winemaking process and showed us the cellar.
The daughter explained the wines to us while offering hefty pours of their Chianti delicacies in a beautiful tasting room.
Salute!
We ended our tour of Renzo Marinai with a photo op among the rolling Tuscan hillside filled with olive trees behind us. What a day!
The final stop: Greve in Chianti
On our way back to Florence, we stopped in Greve in Chianti, where we were brought back to 2016 with an automatic wine tasting booth.
Next spring we will be visiting Italy again! And this time around we're looking to take part in another wine tour, but the questions mount...what area should we explore? How long should it be? How big or small of a tour do we want? One thing is for sure...this tour will be hard to beat.
While we have no affiliation with them, we highly recommend Bernardo and the Tuscan Wine Tours!