A Wonderful Find In Tuscany

Talking to a mucker recently, I was reminded of one of my favourite places in Tuscany, Le Cantine, in Greve-in-Chianti. But first impressions were not so good!

On our very first tour of Tuscany, years ago, we’d arranged to visit a vineyard on our 2nd day of cycling, Monday, on the way to Greve in Chianti. I was hoping to emulate exactly what we do in France – choose a really good vineyard (with the help of Tim Syrad, of Tim Syrad Wines), meet the owner, explore the vineyard and taste the wines in the cellars.

Unfortunately, our first scheduled vineyard cancelled on us at short notice, so I asked our first Italian guide, Lorenzo, if he could organise something for us, at very short notice. Lorenzo booked us into Le Cantine on Monday morning. Whew! Well done Lorenzo.

Except, when we arrived at Le Cantine my heart sank. It was a wine shop! This was our very first tour of Tuscany, I had spent a month the previous year researching around Tuscany, and I’d taken our first group to a glorified off-licence!

It was brilliant – I should have trusted Lorenzo (as I learned to). I’ve visited many, many times since, and I look forward to every visit.

If you’re interested in Tuscan wines, it really is a must-visit place. Unless you’re driving!

The wines are arranged on dispensing islands, about 16 bottles on each island. For example, there is an island of Chianti Classico Annata – these are subject to strict DOCG (denominazione di origine controllata e garantita – you can fugure out what that means, it’s basically the same as the French Appellation system) and must be aged a minimum of 12 months.

Next-up will be a collection of Chianti Classico Riserva – matured for 24 months.

There’s an island devoted to ‘Super Tuscan’ wines. The beauty of visiting the Cantine in a group, provided you know what you’re doing, is that we get one of the staff to take us round, and they know everything!

So we’re advised about the best examples of Annata, Riserva, the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, and of course the Daddy of Tuscan wines, the Brunello di Montalcino.

We learn from an expert about how Chianti became devalued, and how they rescued themselves; why the Super Tuscans evolved, and why they’ve mostly disappeared; and all about the fabulous Vini Nobili and the Brunelli. If you’re going to spend a week in Tuscany, this is a wonderful introduction to the rich story that lies behind Tuscan wines.

We’ll know if they’ve done their job if I don’t have to choose the wine for dinner after Sunday night!

The prices are all displayed ‘per measure’, and you press a button to pour a tasting measure into your glass. Inevitably, people are drawn to the hair-raising prices among the Super Tuscans and the Brunellos.

The Chain Gang pay the tasting fees at the Cantine, and the bill can be quite spectacular if we’re a group of 12, tasting wines at 15€+ a pop for 2 hours! It would be possible to nudge people away from the top-end wines, but here is a simple measure of how much I enjoy the experience of visiting Le Cantine – I don’t care!

It’s a wonderful place, I’ll be back there in September, and I can’t wait. We don’t need to discuss the hill that follows our visit – not yet.