Wine tasting in Tuscany is very different from the typical experience in the United States. In the US, wine tasting is much like going to a bar. There’s a winery with a tasting room, or just the tasting room itself, where you can order a flight of preselected wines, or you can choose from a menu. Possibly, you can order glasses of wine or food, if available. For most wineries I’ve been to, no reservations were necessary.
Due to the culture around wine tasting in Tuscany, reservations are strongly recommended, as many of their tastings are paired with snacks, or even full meals. Even the most basic wine tastings we got to do included trying breads and olive oils, where the olive oils are also produced by the same farm as the wine. We walked into one farm that had a sign out at the road leading into San Gimignano and they managed to squeeze us into their schedule for the day.
After wine tasting, we headed back into San Gimignano to explore, finding the Rocca di Montestaffoli, originally a castle and later a convent, the fortress offers an amazing view of the city, if you’re up for the hike up the hill.
Looking over the city, we decided to try to find a tour up one of the towers, and just set off towards the tallest one without a map, just navigating the alley ways keeping it in view until we arrived back in the main plaza (piazza) of the town.
La Torre Grossa is the tallest tower in San Gimignano, only due to some early city planning legislation decreeing that it be so, despite many warring families attempts to build equally as tall towers in the city. It was originally built in 1310 and has been repaired after wars, earthquakes, lighting, and age, and now can be climbed through a dizzying flight of stairs.
Again, the view it totally worth it, and on hot days, so is the breeze.
As a part of the civic center and tower’s museum, many pieces of art, especially frescos, have been preserved, and are worth checking out.
From there, we headed to a cooking class at Agriturismo Poggiacolle, lead by chef Anita and sous-chef Francesco. Upon arriving, we were immediately provided with a glass of prosecco, because obviously cooking is thirsty work.
From there, Anita showed us how to make tagliatelle, ravioli, and gnocchi, all which were far easier to make than I would have imagined. For example, to make the tagliatelle, you simply mix one egg with 100 g of “double zero” flour (80 g if using normal flour, as it has more gluten and protein, as I understand it), knead until smooth (maybe 2 minutes), refrigerate for 15 minutes, then roll out into a thin sheet, using flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking. Then, roll the dough without creasing, and cut approximately 1 cm wide strips. I’ve since made the tagliatelle at home with cake flour and had equally as good success.
Once we had the pasta made, Anita and Francesco sent us off to enjoy some wine while they prepared sauces for each dish. We even got to choose different sauces for different pastas, for example, I had their amazing ragu bolognese with my ravioli, while Phillip had butter and sage.
Unfortunately, each dish was like a whole meal itself, and so once we had eaten each of our three pastas, they then brought out a pork roast and butter roasted potatoes! I thought I was going to explode from so much food.