The Florentine - Wineries with restaurants to warm you up this autumn

Link all'articolo: https://www.theflorentine.net/2021/11/11/wineries-restaurants-to-warm-you-up-this-autumn-tuscany/

FOOD + WINE

Wineries with restaurants to warm you up this autumn

Montalcino + Montepulciano

Helen Farrell

NOVEMBER 11, 2021 - 15:27

As the mercury heads south, our taste buds turn to Tuscan reds. Warming and generous, Sangiovese embraces like that favourite scarf around our shoulders. These wineries in Montalcino and Montepulciano serve considered local fare to accompany their top vino rosso.

MONTEPULCIANO / Bindella – Tenuta Vallocaia

Classy Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is carefully crafted in this architectural masterpiece designed to welcome wine lovers from all over the world at recently revised Tenuta Vallocaia. Rudi Bindella, an unassuming wine exporter extraordinaire from Switzerland, purchased the estate back in 1983 and he’s now invested a figure in the region of 16 million to update the facilities. The result shows: the slanting wooden roof in the hospitality hub and elongated Val di Chiana brick-framed cellars are dotted throughout with site-specific tactile paintings by German artist Christopher Lemphfuhl, bronze human sculptures by Flora Steiger-Crawford and Rolf Brem, as well as unique pieces from Bindella’s bell and terracotta jar collections. It is without a doubt one of the most aesthetically breathtaking wineries in Tuscan and the wines are spot on too, especially the single vineyard I Quadri 2017, which is a dashing display of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano in a hot year with exquisite acidity and luscious forest fruit, and the sensual Vallocaia 2016 layered with incense and medicinal herbs. Plus, the food is delicious with local fare in pride of place, from the ubiquitous pici pasta with meat sauce to pork with just picked vegetables, and grazing boards of southern Tuscan cheeses and cured meats to accompany tastings.

Tenuta Vallocaia, via delle Tre Berte, 10/A, 53045 Montepulciano