Chianti-shire

A Christmas-themed Lucchesi shop window.


Having already brought out enough bags for easyJet to charter a second plane, The Seffalice has decided that its Christmas present to itself will not be a breezeblock, a Chesterfield, or a teaspoon of ununoctium this year, but instead a couple of days holiday from our, well, holiday.

So we are currently staying at an agriturismo (farm that also does accommodation) just outside Montalcino, the home of Brunello wine. Even in the land of super cheap wine, Brunello doesn't seem to go for less than €20 a bottle, so we've come to source to test it out.

On the way through we stopped off at San Miniato, a small hilltop town (actually read "small hilltop town" for just about any place mentioned in the next couple of days) surrounded by truffle-rich forests that supply Italy and Kensington with a massive proportion of their truffles. The main truffle hunting season has just finished (it runs September-November) and their truffle festival was held a couple of weeks ago, so the souvenir shops are well-stocked with high-priced truffle-infused foods, including the truffle salami we've picked up for our aperitivi di Natale.

The drive from Lucca yesterday was marked by low clouds and torrential rain and it turned out to be near impossible to find anywhere in the heart of Chianti to sell us an expensive bottle of wine as everywhere had closed up in despair of seeng another tourist in low season. But wait, what about The Seffalice? We want to give you our valueless sterling.

Fortunately, one restarant in Castellina in Chianti (Antica Torre) was still open and turned out to be particularly nice, providing a hit of my now staple dish, pappardelle con cinghiale, and some local red.

Radda in Chianti turned out to be a ghost town, with nothing open other than estate agents.

Our last scheduled stop before we just googled for an outpost of Majestic Wine Warehouses was Gaiole in Chianti, where there was one shop open that agreed to fleece us in return for a bottle of local Chianti. We picked one from the estate of Barone Ricasoli, centered on the nearby Castello di Brolio. Bettino Ricasoli (the 'Iron Baron') was the person who pushed Chianti wines into prominence in the nineteenth century.

Today we test out some Brunello and visit nearby Pienza hoping to make away with some of their delicious pecorino cheese.