October 4
Today is my birthday and what better place to be!
In the morning Lorri and I took a walk to some of the properties surrounding the Villa.
The Argiano Winery including the Argiano Villa built in 1581 and the Castello which dates back prior to 1208. Argiano makes nice wine including a wine that we adopted as our everyday table wine at the Villa. It is called "NC" which stands for Non Confunditur and is a blend of Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah and Sangiovese. We bought it at the Enoteca at the winery by the case for 10 Euros per bottle.
There I am in my favorite hat that someone, maybe the owner, left at the Villa.
There was what must once have been a beautiful estate about a mile down the road. If we win the lottery, we're going back there to buy and restore it. I'm guessing that would cost about 10 million, but maybe that's a little conservative.
Here is my sketch:
Later, Lorri and I ventured to Montalcino for a some exploring and perhaps a snack and glass of vino.
We found both a snack and vino at the Caffé Fiaschetteria Itilana 1888, supposedly the oldest caffé in town.
Some Montalcino scenes
"The Rocca di Montalcino" the fort was built in 1361. The views are from the ramparts.
With this crowd, any excuse will do for a party. In this case, it happened to be my birthday. I guess we also figured that we had accumulated enough fine Brunellos and Super Tuscans for a wine tasting and then we probably figured that if we were to do a wine tasting, we better have someone come in and cook for us. So that's pretty much the way it happened. It was truly a memorable evening!
The tasting:
Josie's hand-written tasting list and the girls setting up.
John & Greg getting primed and pouring. The tasting was great! We even had a little left over for dinner.
The dinner was great! Orsa, our chef, did a great job putting together a fine Tuscan feast. I even got a couple great gifts including a certain item of clothing that I won't mention here but is certain to reappear when least expected.
Here are the girls and boys posing with Orsa.
And the sun set on another great day in Tuscany.
