Tuscan Treasures

There’s something magical about Italian wine that immediately evokes a sense of pleasure, breaking bread at the table with loved ones, and a blissful holiday mood. The wines are enjoyable on their own but truly come alive with good food. The reds have a characteristic fresh acidity and firm tannins that is assuaged with a bite of salami or cheese. The whites tend to be more aromatically neutral but with a wonderful depth and texture that also makes them fantastic with seafood and vegetable dishes.

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But Italy is a difficult country to master. It’s home to over 500 grape varieties.. with new ones being discovered regularly. It’s best to tackle it one region at a time and taste the key grapes and wine styles it’s famous for, while recognising this is merely a tip of the iceberg and there a myriad iteration of the local grapes depending on the individual producers. In this month’s box you will find a fascinating comparison of Chianti Classico. Two wines from the same (great) vintage, same price point, and same quality level (both Chianti Classico DOCG) but made by two producers with about 1000 years between them. Brolio is produced by a renowned winemaking family: Ricasoli, which is one of the 4 oldest wineries in the world. Their ancestor Barone Ricasoli is credited with inventing the Chianti recipe over 1000 years ago. Candialle is a modern Chianti Classico made by Finnish husband and wife team who started their winery in 2002 and is responsible for some of the most

outstanding wines of the region.

Paterna and Montenidoli magnificently capture the spirit of the Tuscan land. Paterna is a tiny cooperative farm in Arezzo that produces a number of produce including a small range of excellent organic wines.

Join in on Tuesday May 18 th to learn about Montenidoli directly from the magnificent winemaker Elisabetta Fagiuoli as she tells us about the Tuscan region and her award-winning estate in San Gimignano.