Chianti, a Wine Tasting in Tuscany

Scroggies and Seegers have left us on our own again.,,,

Pouring rain today, we had second thoughts about taking this excursion, but no refunds at this point, Viking provides giant umbrellas and there was wine involved, so we decided to🤞. Really glad we went!

First stop, small village of San Miniato. Just a light rain but lots of construction in the town and little cars zooming all around so we opted to wait it out in a lovely wine bar that also had hot chocolate. Gotta love it here, it’s a lot like warm chocolate pudding.

The bathroom was so cute! (And we have this sink at home!)

Then on to Villa Dianella winery:

We had a tour and 4-course wine-tasting/food pairing. I only remembered to take pictures of the appetizer course, then it’s all a blur… Everything delicious, interesting table mates (2 grew up in Michigan).

  • Rose’ with salami Bruschetta
  • Cabernet Sauvignon with pasta with parmigiana and pepper
  • Chianti Classico with veal pizzaiola 
  • Dolci Ricordi (dessert wine) with biscotti

The wine here starts in stainless steel barrels, then concrete, then barrels. These are the grapes they grow:

My first thought was a hallway of some weird Italian urinals, but no — these are the concrete barrels!  (Am I a little preoccupied with bathrooms?)


This was on the table:


Fun facts: 

  • Pronounce the sch sound as a k: Bruschetta is Bru-sketta
  • If you order pepperoni pizza here you’ll get pizza with peppers
  • “Coffee” means espresso. “American coffee” will be what we’re used to. 
  • “Latte” means cold white milk. “Cafe latte” will get you coffee with milk.
  • Chianti Classico must contain 80% Sangiovese grapes
  • Chianti Riserva must contain 95% Sangiovese grapes and 5% Colorino (adds color)
  • Wine from this region cannot contain sulfites (no headache!)

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