Wine tasting - Chianti style
Trip Start
Dec 11, 2010
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22
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Trip End
Jan 26, 2011
Greve, Tuscany, Italy
Thursday, January 6, 2011
In the afternoon we drove in to Greve in Chianti to see the Museo Vino, which was open in spite of the public holiday. What a find it was. We had only seen it in passing, and had not seen any advertising, so didn't know what to expect. It was located in a renovated wine cellar, and comprised a good collection of implements used over the past century. It also told us a bit about the local history and the terrain, and was well worth visiting.
Then it was off to a Cantina, set up in an old basement where you could taste over a hundred different types of wine, divided into white, four different types of red, and fortifieds. Proper Chianti is red, and as this area concentrates almost entirely on this style, whites had very little shelf space. You purchase a prepaid card, in 10, 15 or 20 Euro amounts, insert it into a machine, put your glass under the desired bottle, press a button and get about 30mls. The amount deducted from your card is dependent upon the value of the wine, and ranged from around 0.60 to 3.50 Euros.
Wandering around with such an enormous selection was overwhelming, and in the end we only purchased two bottles.
Our first incident happened this evening. The light bulb over the dining table blew. Within 10 minutes of calling the manager, Jens, he was there to check on it. A quick phone call and 10 minutes later Monia, the owner, was there with a new bulb. What service!
