MILWAUKEE-NYC-ITALY-GREECE AND A DAY IN LONDON BLOG POST FIVE

LAZY MONDAYS
WINE TASTING IN MONTELCINO

After a double dose weekend of parties in the beautiful Tuscan hills the last thing one would think we might be thinking about would be more wine especially when one of us (me) is not a particularly big drinker.

But Monday morning after the fog lifted and we'd gotten a bit of poolside sun we were off to

Montelcino to hunt out some of the wines we had consumed over the last weekend. This kind of drinking for us would fall under the label of extreme debauchery but for our hosts the weekend drinking was nothing more than a family dinner.

We are blessed that Stefania and Alessandro raised their youngest son to be an amazing chef in the kitchen and a sommelier in the wine cellar. Giulio was our guide for the midday drive up to Montelcino and into the capable hands of Ilaria, the wine steward at Sosta.

This was not the first time we'd been hosted at the tasting table at Sosta. We'd come last Christmas as well but over the spring Sosta expanded into a larger space with more tasting rooms and outdoor dining.

Not being big wine connoisseurs we attempted to act the part as Brunello after Brunello was brought out for sampling.

Both Ilaria and Giulio kept a running dialogue going explaining the intricacies and delicacies of each bottle. We started with the reds, one after another. I felt like I was in a Lucy Vitameatavegamin episode. The more I downed the sloppier I got. I didn't know you could just sip it and pour the rest out. I downed every one and by the end of the fifth or sixth bottle I was running my tongue around the rim of my glass.
And then it was off to the sweet wines, more bottles and less ability to read the names on the labels that kept getting blearier and blearier.

We come to this tasting because Emmy wanted to pick up a special bottle for a wine loving friend back in Madsion. We left with two cases, twenty-four bottles twelve of which came with the name Tassi because the word tasso is badger in Italian. The wine was going back to Bucky Badgerland after all.

After the tasting that was more like binge drinking Giulio steared us back through the cobbled streets of Montelcino.

I think they were beautiful but I can't be real sure. Fortunately my iPhone was bit steadier than I was.

It was a religious experience in more ways than one