Chianti Wine Tasting

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Last weekend the group of us from school took a bus trip out to Chianti with our program director, it was an arranged trip, we left early and about 2 hours later pulled up the mountains into this gorgeous castle type building. Immediately after walking off the bus we see this truck pouring grapes into a large basin and in front of us there are fields beyond fields of gorgeous vineyards, its like out of a movie. We went to Castello di Verrazanno, The Castle of Verrazzano, made in 1716, it’s a gorgeous Etruscan building and believe it or not owned by the Verazzano’s, yes the guy the New York bridge is named after. So its this huge winery that harvests grapes that they make into wine. They showed us the process where they ferment the grapes into red wine, and store them in large barrels in the cellars of the castle that ages and gives them their quality. This is their Chianti Classico- years 2001 and up, It was amazing to see the process that they all put into making the wine. After the tour we went up to the restaurant area where we had a wine tasting and tried a couple of their red wines, our guide showed us how to place the class against a white surface (like your table napkin) and examine the pigment of the wine, then you have to swirl it from the bottom of the glass and smoothly sniff the wine then you take a sip, let it sit in your mouth for about 15 seconds and really examine the flavor. It was absurd how much thought these people put into the wine, and I now have a whole new appreciation for wine. After the tasting they served us some of their home salami and prosiucutto, balsamic and olive oil which is an antipasti, and then we had “il primo” our first course which was pasta- very simple yet extremely fresh like homemade pasta and sauce it tasted delicious, after came the ‘il secondo’ that was more salami and meat, and to finish it off we had their grappa which is an Italian brandy made from distilled grape skins after the wine has been produced, its used as a desert wine, it was soooo sweet and so stong, kinda gross, but you’re not really supposed to drink it, instead you just dip tons of biscotti in it. All in all it was SO much food-but all delicious! The Tuscan countryside and Chianti was absolutely breathtaking, words don’t give it justice, and it was like out of a magazine, so beautiful.

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