October 10 Bagno Vignoni

For most tourists in this little section of Tuscany, the purpose of the visit is to sample the wine. I don’t know much about wine and I don’t have a palette to taste nuance, but I do like red wine, so we were eager to taste and learn. We had prepared for our visit by sampling Brunello wine, available at Costco for $26. If Costco sells it, it must be good.

Our Italian driver Gabrielle gave us a little intro to Brunello. It’s made from a deep red Sangiovese grape with a thick skin. It is aged for at least four years in wooden casks or barrels, and the 2014 was a good year! Gabrielle is on his third year of sommelier study, not to get a job as a wine steward, but just because he loves wine.

You can buy a quorto, a little pitcher that holds about two glasses, of Brunello for a few Euros. The wine is poured into large, almost diamond shaped glasses that maximize the wine contact with the air and then funnel the fumes into your nose as you drink. I’m no connoisseur, but I like it very much!

Today’s walk took us through field after field of neat rows of grape plants. The harvest has passed and I’ve only seen a few bunches of grapes left on the vines.

The leaves at the tops of the plants are rusting. Cheerful farmers who smile and wave from their tractors are turning the soil between rows, aerating the soil and adding fertilizer.

Sitting beside a dusty field for lunch, flies buzzed us and sour smells of fermentation and fertilizer wafted through. This was a farm, smelly and dirty, not a pretty tourist picture. We were grateful to be in, really in, the vineyard, the source of that delicious wine.

I found a few lonely grapes that were left on the vine and tried them. The grapes were smaller than our store grapes, perfectly round and deep purple. The skin was tough and the seeds were big. The juice, though, warmed in the sun, was thick, sweet and condensed.

The last part of our walk today was in another ancient pilgrim’s path. I imagined the thirsty travelers having a beaker of Sangiovese wine at the inn where they spent the night. And that’s exactly what we did too!