We heard (about it) on the grapevine

After last night's late night, it was something of a struggle to heave myself out of bed at 7am this morning, but with Reggie's whining ramping up downstairs, there was little choice in the matter. By the time Stuart was stirring, I had started to wake up a little and was raring to go shopping (OK, that's an exaggeration - I just wanted to go, to get it over and done with).

So, rather later than usual, we headed into town and hit the supermarkets. The car parks in both shops were packed, and the shops themselves pretty heaving - it was only about 45 minutes later than we would usually go shopping on a Saturday, and we were shocked at the difference it seemed to make.

Once we'd done both shops and loaded the car, we drove back up the valley, making a stop at Da Nerone for what felt like a well deserved cappuccino on the way.

After unloading the car, we headed straight back out to take Reggie for a good run around at the cava. Just as we headed out again, the rain started pitter-pattering on the windscreen and got steadily heavier as we drove up the road. We had a damp walk at the cava, but Reggie didn't mind in the least and bounded around joyfully on the quiet track.

When we got home after our walk it was lunchtime, but it definitely wasn't an al fresco lunch day today. We sat indoors, and after lunch it took us quite some determination to muster up the enthusiasm to go out again - it was a grey, damp day and although it wasn't really cold, it was the sort of day that makes you want to light the fire, snuggle up on the sofa and watch a film. Nevertheless, come 3.30pm, we both pulled ourselves together, grabbed coats and shoes and got ready to head out. Reggie got a bone to keep him entertained for the afternoon and we headed for Montecarlo.

Montecarlo is the only real wine-producing area in our locality - and the wines are good. We'd learned a few months ago (through Rita, my Italian teacher) that every May, there is a wine festival in Montecarlo. The set-up is that you go to the town to pay your €8 fee, for which you get a map of the vineyards, a wine glass, a pen (for writing notes) and a form on which to collect stamps from each of the wineries you visit (there is a prize if you manage to get around all 14 of them over the two days of the event). There are also buses to bus people around the different vineyards. Each vineyard offers tastings of its wines, as well as local meats, cheeses, bread and olive oils.

We decided that we weren't going to take it too seriously and, since we had driven there, we gave the wine bus a miss and instead drove around just 4 of the 14 vineyards. Each one we visited had a different feel about it - the first was the most beautiful and inviting, the second was a little intimidating and unfriendly, the third the most friendly (we met a chap offering cured meats from his father's butchers shop, who as soon as we told him we lived in Pietrabuona gave us his phone number and invited us to go and dine with him!), and the fourth the most slick and professional. The wines were delicious and we could have happily walked away with bottles from each producer. In the end, we only bought two bottles from the first place we visited (at €5 per bottle, that's really pushing the boat out - more than twice the amount we usually pay for wine these days!), but there were some really stunning ones at all of them.

Wine nerd. Thankfully, everyone else had the same nosebag around their necks.

Tronchetti vineyard.

First stop, first purchase.

Fattoria Del Greppo - beautiful view from their infinity pool.

 

Last stop - Fattoria il Poggio

Did the dogs get to this size by eating titbits fed to them by sozzled wine tasters?

We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon and were very pleased we'd made the effort to go out when it would have been so easy to stay put and veg out on the sofa. It was a real reminder of previous holidays in Tuscany and gave us a warm glow (not just the alcohol) to know that we live here. Whereas in the UK we might have spent a Saturday afternoon going to one of our favourite local country pubs, here we spent it touring around 4 vineyards (it could have been more had we been more dedicated) for less than the price of a single glass of wine back in the UK (which is handy, since we now bring in less than half of what we did back in the UK)!

We decided to call it a day after our 4th tasting and wended our way home, where, keeping in the spirit of things, we opened the box of wine we'd bought from Toti (the restaurant) last night and laid out a spread of cheese, bread (including some delicious breads that Diane and Ernest had bought for us from the bakery side of Franco's bar in town) and olives and settled down to a relaxing evening on the sofa. One of the best Saturdays we've had in a long while.