I woke up closer to six this morning and sat in the WC for quite a while. I even took my computer in and set it on the little stool and got caught up with my journaling. But I emerged feeling much better. It was somewhere around 7 that I went off on a 20 minute run out across the dirt road we drove yesterday to get to Monti. Went over to Monti di Sotti, we had seen yesterday. What a joy running through the vineyards then up the main road a bit. Got stuck behind a tractor on the way back. It was a gorgeous morning. Then I sat out on our patio for quite a while napping and reading until the annoying hum of the weed eater finally drove me over to the main patio area. I sat there until a little after 8:30 napping and reading some more. It would get aa little hot and then a gentle breeze would come up and cool it off and then it would settle out and warm up. The cycle was quite amazing. Probably around nine Christine showed up and found me and then Gary and Peggy came soon after. So we all sat at the table inside and had our breakfast. I tried not to eat much as I was still pretty stuffed from dinner last night. The coffee was excellent and the cake was definitely something to look forward to. I even tried the plain yogurt with preserves and bran flakes.
Castello Walk
It had gotten cooler and cloudier and I’ll be it was in the low 70’s. Gary had had great plans for us to walk 12 miles a circle plan that would take us to two castellos, but we decided to drive first to Castello Brolio and perhaps walk from there. After driving to the castello and getting through the gate, a man met us who charged us €5 each. It quickly became obvious that there wasn’t much to see. There was a little Chapel with a crypt that Gary thought smelled like urine, a garden and the ramparts you could walk around.
The view from the ramparts was beautiful, but apparently the family still lives in the house as a private residence so you really can not see anything of interest. We left and headed down to San Regolo where Gary had tasted truffles a couple of days before. The little storefront was called Il Campuccio di San Regalo (4), and was a seller of products from the Agricole Diocesane. Apparently the Diocese owns much of the property in the area. We sipped some wine and had freshly warmed crostini with the truffle butter at €1 each. Sitting on the next tables noticed the new truffles they had found that morning. There little puppy, nicknamed Gold Digger, had found a large and a small one. You could have a taste for .20 per gram. Gary did the math and realized that the whole thing would only cost €8 so he bought both the little one and the big one. He was in heaven. Fresh truffles and he was sure Elena would want to cook with them tonight.
Before we got up to leave the husband, Olivio, came in but he wasn’t dressed to talk to us but he quickly changed and came our and talked with us for a few minutes before we left. We left out car there and decided to take a shorter out and back walk to some nearby castello. On the way we found the Castello Brolio enoteca (5), and tasted there while the girls went on ahead with their walked. While at Brolio we saw a brochure that advertised an €80 dinner in their wine cellar tomorrow night. With only a little thought we decided to go for it and have the woman call to make a reservation. She called and some was supposed to call back and they didn’t so we had her call again only to find that it was SOLD OUT. Oh well it was not meant to be. We then walked down the road to catch up with the girls and finally caught them in a few kilometers.
The revised plan was that we would let them keep walking and we would go back and get the car and pick them up along the way. We power walked, it even rained a little and got the car and didn’t catch them until they were back on the dirt road to the Borgo. Gary and I decided to try and hit one more winery in Monti so we left them to walk back by themselves. I had seen a sign yesterday for a winery just out of downtown Monti called Isodi (6). We drove down another dirt road and found a house that looked like it should be it and had a sign on it that said it was some kind of a test kitchen, but I saw a small sign directing us further down the road. There were actually several of those signs so we kept pressing on. We finally found what looked like what should be the Vendita Diretta. And a guy named Arturo who was the son of the family who started the business in the 1970s came out and greeted us and said we were in the right place. We went into this little room and around the wall were a bunch of old fiascos which they do not make any more because they were too expensive. Arturo was a great guy and we tasted their Chianti Classico, Chianti Classico Reserva, Super Tuscan, Vin Santo, and I even tasted the grappa, which wasn’t bad actually. Gary hates grappa (40% alcohol) which is ironic as he loves that vile tasting herb stuff so much (Chartreuse). But Gary did love the Chianti Classico very much declaring that it was the best Chianti Classico he had had in he last two weeks. He bought three bottles (€13.50) and a bottle of Vin Santo which was also very good especially at only €16. On the way out we met this old guy with his shirt off who may have been one of the family who talked to Gary for a while.
We decided to drive from there over to Lucignano which is supposedly for sale for 20 million. We thought there might be tasting there but there really was nothing but a fierce dog. Then it was straight back to the Borgo at about 3 p.m. We hung out in the place resting and reading and as the afternoon progressed the wind really came up and really was whipping everything around. I took a nap.
Dinner with Elena
We got a call from Elena to come over and see her making the eggplant lasagna so went over and saw her putting it together. She was also making her take on Tiramasu with these little cookies and special wine and marscarpone cheese. We went back to the room, took a shower and hung out until dinner at eight.
There were three other couples who had dinner: Patrick and Debbie from Yorba Linda; Marty and Chris from Pleasanton; Patrick (chiropractor to the stars) and Andrea from Studio City and Elena’s friend Ciara. The dinner began with lasagna Siciliane made with eggplant, a tomato salad with bread, green beans, salad with cucumbers, a pepper and bread crumbs and parmesian. We all hung around and talked after moving out to the patio until nearly 11. We‘ve been talking here in the living area until 12.
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