Six months ago grapes looked like this...
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| Fattoria Le Vegre - 28 April |
And now they look like this...
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| La Dole Vigna - 08 September |
And the harvest has begun.
What better time to do a retrospective wine blog going back to April and coming forward through August, right? Our wine adventures this past Spring and Summer included visiting sixteen wineries (two of which we had been to before); one Vicenza Spring Bizarre, where we got to taste wine from two new wineries, and an annual wine festival where we tasted wine from twelve wineries, one of which we'd had before. It also included a fun girls' day and a trip to Tuscany for Tom's birthday weekend. All total we went to, or had wine from 30 wineries. We've been busy!
We started with
Fattoria Le Vegre, a recommendation from my friend Nancy. I've mentioned Nancy before. We worked together in Germany and she lived in Vicenza while we were back home in Arizona. She moved back to the States late last year and before moving she gave me all her tips on places to go. When I visit one of her recommendations I tag it on my
Instagram page as
#nancyitalybible
We really liked Fattoria Le Vegre, a family-run winery that is not too far from the house. I was introduced to what is probably one of my absolute favorites so far -- their Frizzante.
You can also buy wine in bulk (sfuso), which you gotta love. The thing though with buying fresh wine like this is you have to drink it quickly. This wine is not for aging!
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| Getting a fill up before heading home. |
Our next winery was another Nancy recommendation -
La Pria. A great winery to the west of us in the Berici Hills. The boys came along too and gave their approval.
The next weekend we went to the
Vulcanei Wine Fest -- another Nancy recommendation. This was a great event that we really enjoyed. I think they probably had close to 40 wineries there. We did our best and visited twelve of them, including our friends at
Maeli. This is definitely an event I would make an annual must.
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| Elisa of Maeli |
For reference here are the wineries whose tables we visited. I've linked to their websites:
Sassotondo
Cantina di Venosa
Maeli
Giacomo Salmaso
Reassi
Cantina Colli Euganei
Vigne al Colle
Borin
Conte Emo Capodilista
Il Pianzio
Cantina di Mogoro
Le Volpi
In late May we went to the Vicenza Spring Bizarre. I don't have any pictures but we tried wines from two other wineries --
Villa Canestrari and
Tenuta Sant'Antonio.
Over Memorial Day weekend we traveled towards Lake Garda for the day and visited a few wineries. Two were having Open Cellar (Cantine Aperte) events. First up
Zeni 1870 -- another Nancy recommendation. We had the dogs with us so we were not allowed to do our tasting in the cellar but they took care of us outside.
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| The cellar |
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| Pink bubbly...a great way to start the day! |
Just down the hill was another winery -
Guerrieri Rizzardi. We decided to stop in for a tasting too.
After a great lunch we traveled to one of our favorites in the Valpolicella region --
Villa Crine. They were having an Open Cellar event so we got our tasting tickets and also got to tour their cellar and the new addition they are currently working on.
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| We love the family that runs Villa Crine! |
Looking back we were sure busy getting our vino on over Memorial Day weekend. In addition to doing our little road trip, we also went back to
La Dolce Vigna for the debut of their new wine -- the Tormentone. We liked the wine and also got to check out their new location, which is in a really beautiful area just south of Vicenza.
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| Look at that view! |
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| Tormentone |
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| A little pizza with our wine. |
Next adventure was a wine day with the girls -- plus a college-age son visiting his parents for the summer. We visited
Spada -- another Nancy recommendation. I LOVED the Ripasso here. We're planning to visit again in early November.
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| Wine tasting requires enthusiasm girls! SMILE!! |
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| Natural habitat? I think I fit in! |
After Spada we headed just down the road -- literally - to
Ugolini. While we had a reserved tasting set up about 20 other people showed up without one. One guy was working -- I think it was a Monday -- and he was stretched too thin. He did his best to take care of us but this tasting ended up going on way too long and almost made us miss our third tasting appointment.
Last winery of the girls' day was
Monte Faustino, which I really enjoyed. It's a place I need to take Tom back too. I don't have many pictures from this tasting because we were a bit rushed. They stayed open late to accommodate us.
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| Final tasting. What a great day! |
In early July we headed south to Tuscany for Tom's birthday weekend. The focus of this trip was red wine and lots of it: Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Brunello, and Chianti. Some of Tom's all time favorites. I had pre-arranged tastings at five wineries and then we happened upon a sixth.
We re-visted a
farmhouse that we stayed at on our
first trip to Tuscany back in 2011. We were staying outside the beautiful hilltown of Montepulciano. Here we visited
Casale Daviddi -- a winery that Tom was introduced to at VinItaly earlier this year;
Poliziano -- a winery we learned about from the Vicenza Wine Club, and
La Combarbia -- the one we learned about when we were checking into our room.
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| Casale Daviddi owner |
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| Doing a little side-by-side taste comparison |
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| Poliziano is a beautiful winery |
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| The young winemaker of La Combarbia - Gabriele |
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| A great private tasting |
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| Kid approved |
We traveled to Montalcino for the day -- home of Brunello and visited two wineries --
L'Aietta and
Poggio Antico. L'Aietta was another Vicenza Wine Club recommendation and I think Poggio Antico was too. We LOVED L'Aietta. It was right up our alley. A small producer with a lot of heart and great wine.
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| Literally a shack operation |
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| Our gracious host -- had a great time with Francesco |
Poggio Antico has some very high rated wines but as you probably know...wine is a very personal thing, and we weren't particularly fond of this wine. Tom's theory -- the bigger the winery, the less heart.
Last stop on our way home was the
Montefioralle winery for Chianti. I found this winery doing research ahead of the trip. The Chianti we had was more mild than you'd expect from a Chianti but was also still pretty young. Not dry or strong enough for Tom but was just about right for me. I'm usually not a fan of Chianti.
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| Great lunch spot looking towards our destination -- little yellow house |
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| We've arrived |
The final winery of the past five months was
Cantina Ongaresca. It's about 10 minutes from our house. Can't beat a winery with proximity! We enjoyed our tasting here -- leaning more towards the whites and the sparkling -- and it's also on a cool site too. There is a huge riding arena for horses next to the winery's storefront. They were having an event when we were there so we got to see some of the horses.
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| I really liked their labels. I think the graphic is supposed to be looking down into a wine glass. |
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| Cantina Ongaresca's fields |
So, that's it. Thirty wineries. I thought I'd close with a photo of our current war stock. Looking forward to the next five months. Thanks for sharing in our wine adventures.
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| We've lost count! |
You can also buy wine in bulk (sfuso), which you gotta love. The thing though with buying fresh wine like this is you have to drink it quickly. This wine is not for aging! 
The next weekend we went to the Vulcanei Wine Fest -- another Nancy recommendation. This was a great event that we really enjoyed. I think they probably had close to 40 wineries there. We did our best and visited twelve of them, including our friends at Maeli. This is definitely an event I would make an annual must.
After a great lunch we traveled to one of our favorites in the Valpolicella region -- Villa Crine. They were having an Open Cellar event so we got our tasting tickets and also got to tour their cellar and the new addition they are currently working on. 
Last winery of the girls' day was Monte Faustino, which I really enjoyed. It's a place I need to take Tom back too. I don't have many pictures from this tasting because we were a bit rushed. They stayed open late to accommodate us. 
Last stop on our way home was the Montefioralle winery for Chianti. I found this winery doing research ahead of the trip. The Chianti we had was more mild than you'd expect from a Chianti but was also still pretty young. Not dry or strong enough for Tom but was just about right for me. I'm usually not a fan of Chianti.
The final winery of the past five months was Cantina Ongaresca. It's about 10 minutes from our house. Can't beat a winery with proximity! We enjoyed our tasting here -- leaning more towards the whites and the sparkling -- and it's also on a cool site too. There is a huge riding arena for horses next to the winery's storefront. They were having an event when we were there so we got to see some of the horses.
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