The next morning we checked out of our Bolgheri hotel and headed east towards the Montalcino wine region. It figures that since we had to wake up early that there was no hunting allowed that morning.
We had to make a stop in Suvereto first, a town we visited two nights prior, as I had managed to lose my ATM card in a machine there while trying to obtain some Euros I need for later in our trip. This gave us a chance to check out the church that was closed when we were last here. It’s very unassuming from the exterior.
But quite stunning on the inside, particularly for such a small church!
Our first official stop of the day was the Franci olive oil company, which has an incredible view from their parking lot!
We were introduced to several olive oils, all of them quite different. We were also taught the proper way to taste the oil, making lots of sucking noises to aerate the oil in your mouth. I don’t think I’ll be repeating that in public.
This was the lineup of oils. It was an interesting departure from wine tasting, although there are many similarities.
Franci is the most decorated olive oil producer in Italy, which was clear from their wall of awards.
This award in particular was pretty cool!
Before we could tour the production area we had to put all of this protective clothing on to keep potential pollutants out of the oil.
The bottling machine looks just like they use for wine.
This door adjacent to the machine allows to see the view while you work.
Here are the olives before they start getting sorted. I was surprised to see that many leaves brought in with the harvest, but they all get removed via the first machine.
After sorting the olives they are crushed, pits and all, to create a paste. This paste is then ground and mixed further with another machine as shown in the video.
You can see the final stages of filtering here, from one machine to the finished product.
We were then off to our second visit of the day, Capanna winery. We were running a little late since the olive oil tour ran over, so we received a very abbreviated tour of the actual winery, which was fine, as we have been on hundreds of winery tours and know the process quite well. First the view from the winery estate.
Capanna is following the Tuscan trend of these large neutral oak barrels for aging.
This is their entire lineup, which we would mostly taste in their restaurant during our lunch.
A short 5 minute drive later we were at their restaurant. Our host was excellent! He spent 40 years working in the cruise industry running the restaurants onboard so he has hospitality down to a science.
The food was excellent. The wines were good, but again, I have no individual bottle photos, so I’ve still not found a replacement for Pinot!
William and I bought these matching t-shirts in Bolgheri of the local Cinghiale Pigs drinking wine. I figured it would make us look like locals!
We checked into our new accommodations in Montalcino, the beautiful Castelo di Velona! Built in the 11th century the castle has been converted into a luxury hotel that sits on the top of a hill, with incredible views in every direction.
This was the gorgeous sunset on that first night!
Coming up, we visit two more wineries in the Montalcino region, an old abbey, and the town of Montalcino.
