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A Day Out in Chianti Country

With its combination of ancient wine culture, beautiful scenery and historic buildings, Tuscany attracts all manner of tourists, not just those with a strong interest or knowledge of wine. Nevertheless for many, even those that struggle to know their San Gimignano from their Sangiovese, a day out in the Chianti countryside will hold some appeal, and may well be a first encounter with the wines of the region. With this in mind, I put my contacts book and mobile phone to one side, and foregoing my usual habit of making appointments whenever I visit I set off in a touristy frame of mind, for a day of sightseeing and tasting in what the British like to call Chiantishire. What follows is my account of A Day Out in Chianti Country.

I first made brief detour into Siena, renowned for its beautiful duomo with its imposing gothic facade and half-finished southern nave, and of course the central Il Campo, site of the biannual Il Palio horse race, before then striking out east towards Castelnuovo Berardenga. A small village of narrow streets and golden-yellow buildings, Castelnuovo Berardenga lies just beyond the limit of the Chianti Classico DOCG, at the denomination's very south-eastern point. To the west the soils are typical of the Chianti region, the calcareous albarese and schistous galestro dominating, whereas outside the relevant zone to the east there is more clay. Some of the estates here own land on both sides of the dividing line, affording them a variety of terroirs suitable for grapes both local and more international, engendering wine portfolios that feature Cabernet and Merlot-based cuvées alongside the expected Chianti Classico. Fattoria di Fèlsina, my first stop-off on this wine tourist's adventure, is one such estate.

Fattoria di Fèlsina

An ancient estate purchased by Domenico Poggiali in 1966, and revitalised by Giuseppe Mazzocolin, a schoolteacher who married into the Poggiali family, Fattoria di Fèlsina seems an ideal destination for the casual wine tourist. The estate is easy to locate, being well signposted on the left-hand side of the road as you head north out of the village, and it boasts a wine shop open - at the time of writing - from 10am until 6pm, Monday to Friday. It is reasonably popular, with at least three other parties milling around when I arrived, including visitors from Poland and a small party of restaurateurs and wine buyers from California. My initial enthusiasm waned, however, when I realised that there was no-one manning the shop. Rather than join my fellow visitors in their seemingly aimless loitering, I took a stroll around the grounds, discovering ancient buildings, emerald green lawns and rows of glistening stainless steel fermentation tanks as I did so. On returning to the shop I was grateful to discover it was no longer deserted, and the tasting action began.

Visitors to Fèlsina are offered a broad range of tastes, and where you start and where you end is very much up to you. The server suggested a comparison of the straight Chianti Classico with the Chianti Classico Rancia Riserva, but was just as happy with my request to taste a much broader array of wines. Although at the time I took this flexibility for granted, other experiences later in the day resulted in my appreciating it more. As it was, at the time what I was most grateful for was the server's knowledge, as she switched effortlessly from an entry-level explanation of the wines for the benefit of my Polish neighbours to fending off my more detailed questions about soil types, fermentation and élevage. As for the wines themselves, they showed very well; good sized pours and correct serving temperatures helped, freely available spittoons were to hand, and there is no tasting fee. All in all, this had been a very good experience to kick-start the day. Perhaps most importantly, I had no problem selecting a few wines that were of sufficient quality and interest to buy and drink later in the week, before I got behind the wheel once more, and headed north.

Through the Chianti Countryside

Leaving Fèlsina, the road north out of Castelnuovo Berardenga soon moulds itself once again to the Tuscan countryside, twisting and turning, climbing and falling. There are no straight roads in Tuscany! I continued north as far as Brolio, here taking a detour up towards the famous castello. The road, little more than a gravel-dressed forest track yet fully adorned with everything from signposts to seemingly incongruous bus-stops, ascends though the trees up to the castle itself. Following it around to the left affords some superb views of the village and the Castello di Brolio, home to the noble Ricasoli family since 1141. Continuing round took me back to the main road, and with a choice of heading north-east, to take in Gaiole in Chianti and Badia a Coltibuono, or north-west towards Lecchi and Radda in Chianti, and then onto Castellina in Chianti, I chose the latter.

The triad of Radda, Gaiole and Castellina form the heart of the original Chianti Classico region. Radda is small and surrounded by rocky outcrops, whereas Castellina is rather larger and more sprawling. Curiously, from a distance the otherwise typical Tuscan landscape of greenery and ancient towering stone residences is ruined by the sight of a cement factory on the hilltop (now disused I believe, but Italian bureaucracy has so far prevented anyone else developing the site). Happily, once in the town centre, any sight of this most incongruous of buildings is lost. I stopped off for lunch at La Torre, a trattoria very near the town's church, and once suitably fuelled by osso buco (not typically Tuscan I know, but I couldn't resist after spotting it on the menu) I set off for my next wine tasting destination.

Bottega del Vino

Happily my next port of call was just a minute's walk away, the Bottega del Vino, previously known as the Enoteca Vini Gallo Nero, on the via della Rocca in Castellina in Chianti. Owned by Franco Capifani, this small wine store features all of the top names of Tuscany, not just Chianti and the famous appellations centred around Montalcino, Montepulciano and Bolgheri, but everything else, including Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Tuscany's famous Vin Santo, other Italian sweet wines and a few other oddities. Following a stroll around the town, including a visit to the gelateria (which I can recommend!) on the northern side, I eventually pitched up outside the store at 3:25 pm to find it locked up and in darkness. I sat on the bench outside until Franco arrived, no doubt also suitably refuelled and refreshed from his midday break; his opening hours are 10am until 7:30pm, with a very leisurely siesta in the middle of the day, running from 1pm until 3:30pm.

Franco entered the store and immediately I heard the air conditioning unit fire into life; clearly this is for the benefit of the man and not the bottles, which is unfortunate. Nevertheless, entering the store it did not seem overly warm, in fact it was very comfortable, and I wasn't dissuaded from buying something from Franco's stock. A quiet man, Franco is not prone to the tourist-trapping prose that can be offered elsewhere; had my grasp of the Italian language been a little stronger I feel we may have had a richer wine-related discourse, but as it was I was free to browse his shelves, and pull a few bottles from local estates - such as Panizzi and Rocca di Montegrossi - as well as a few from further afield, including Argiano, Antinori, Tenuta san Guido and Poliziano, some indication of the level of quality and interest he offers. Perhaps my only disappointment is that there was no wine offered for tasting, but I wonder if Franco has enough custom passing by his door to merit this. This is Castellina, after all, and the hoards that descend on Florence, Pisa and Siena will not be seen on these quiet and narrow streets.

Castello di Fonterutoli

Next stop, a very short drive to Fonterutoli, a miniature culinary empire centred upon a village of the same name which has been in the hands of the noble Marchesi Mazzei since 1435. Like Fèlsina, this estate also boasts a fully-manned tasting room, and the Enoteca di Fonterutoli is not difficult to spot; it sits on a bend on the road, on the left-hand side as you head north, a few kilometres short of Castellina in Chianti itself. If you spot the Osteria di Fonterutoli and the associated vineyards on the right-hand side, then you are nearly upon it. The opening hours are, at the time of writing, 9am to 7pm on Sunday and Monday, and 9am to 7:45pm Tuesday to Saturday. There is a little off-road parking, but these spaces being occupied I left my car at the roadside instead. Inside the tasting room looks promising, the wines here being stored in a Enomatic-style dispenser behind the tasting counter, and there were plenty of staff on hand - three in fact, compared to Fèlsina's solitary representative - to attend to your every need. With such a strong set up, it was such a tragedy that the tasting experience here was so unsatisfactory.

Curiously, once again my chance companions were Polish, a family taking their first ever holiday in Italy. It was immediately apparent to all of us, Brits and Poles alike, that this was a pay-to-taste operation, with only two rather restrictive options available. Option One was €5 for four wines, which seemed interesting; spotting several vintages of Castello di Fonterutoli and Siepi behind the counter, I enquired about tasting two vintages of each in exchange for my cash. The response was firmly negative, as Option One is a set menu; you receive a single vintage of Castello di Fonterutoli and a mix of three other wines, including one from Sicily and one from the Maremma, so this is more a taste of Mazzei's Italy, than of Chianti. And if you want to taste Siepi against Castello di Fonterutoli, then tough luck; it's not an option.

Option Two was €8 for a mini-vertical, either three vintages of Castello di Fonterutoli or two of Siepi (two vintages really is pushing the definition of 'vertical', I thought). This at least seemed more pertinent to Tuscany and Chianti, although the Castello/Siepi comparison was still not an option (although there is nothing to stop you buying both vertical tastings, I suppose). Perhaps the "winery tour", a visit to the new Mazzei hillside cellars (not too far from the tasting rooms) costing €25, might have provided this. I opted for the Fonterutoli trio rather than Siepi, as I do have a soft spot for Fonterutoli's Chianti Classico Riserva, and received three vintages to taste, the 2005, 2006 and 2007, in three decent-sized pours. There was no spittoon available, but with some pointing and gesticulating one eventually appeared; this seemed to bemuse the pourer, but it merely added to my frustration. The real tragedy of the experience, however, was that the serving temperature of the three samples was ludicrously warm, to such a degree that the wines ultimately defied assessment. Here I had three glasses of soupy, flabby wine which anywhere else would have me reaching for the ice bucket.

At the far end of the serving counter I could see the reason for my disappointment; the temperature on the Enomatic was set to a rather generous 13ºC for the whites, and a heady 20ºC for the reds. The latter certainly had a negative effect on what I was tasting, and I am sure the same would be true of the white wines. I noted with interest that whereas my Polish counterparts at Fèlsina had left with two cases, here my temporary companions left empty-handed. I don't blame them; without any background knowledge of the estate, and of the quality we should expect from Fonterutoli, one of Chianti's leading estates, nothing here would have tempted me to buy. As it happens I left with one bottle, for no reason other than a desire to prove to myself (or reassure myself, perhaps?) that, served at the correct temperature, the wines of Castello di Fonterutoli should taste much better than they did at the estate.

Retreat to the Villa

And so this drew my day of touring and tasting in Chiantishire to a close; only the hour's journey back to my residence lay ahead, as well as some barbecued gamberoni and perhaps that bottle of Panizzi Vernaccia di San Gimignano of course. On the whole it was a fine day out, but if I were to repeat it I would make two changes. First, without doubt I would replace my visit to Fonterutoli with another estate, perhaps Badia a Coltibuono or similar? And secondly I would stock up on some travel sickness prophylaxis; the endless twists and turns of the Tuscan country roads were sufficient to induce feelings of nausea in at least two of my back-seat companions. Naturally, all claims that it was my driving at fault will be resolutely denied!

• Part 4: Brunello di Montalcino