After the morning walk through Siena, pakdokter joined some members of the group for lunch at a local trattoria near the hotel. Pakdokter settled for just a salad of tuna which turned out to be quite a wholesome meal.
this was a dish of roasted duck? lamb?... We had booked a half-day tour to San Gimignano for the afternoon.
A pleasant and handsome young Italian tour guide picked us up at 3.30 pm for our afternoon tour. Giuseppe, or Joseph in English, preferred to be very informal and relaxed with us and would like us to address him as Pepe, the way his mother called him. He took off his tie and coat ( the tour guides and drivers in Italy always dressed up very formal at work) and told us he hoped we did not mind it. Pepe has a girl-friend who is a nurse and she cooks the best pasta in Florence. Pepe, by the way comes form Florence, and from the way he spoke of Siena, it would appear that the rivalry and wars between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines have not yet ended!
First stop in the afternoon tour was to a Tuscan vineyard near Siena. This little vineyard produces mainly a white wine using the local grape, the Vernaccio. Its wine is marketed under the label, the Vernaccio San Gimignano. The vineyard also grows a small amount of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc as well as the reds, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and the Syrah/Shiraz.
The grapes are both hand-picked as well as machine-picked. The whites are fermented for about six months whereas the reds for a little longer. Their Riserva collections are fermented and bottled for 2 years before going to the market.
After a tour of the vineyard and a visit of the winery, the group was ushered to the winery shop for a wine tasting with pecorino cheese and bread soaked with extra-virgin olive oil.
each lady has bought a different scarf each..each of the scarfs represent a 'contrada' or precinct of Siena..
the Vernaccia grape..
the scenic vineyard..
the grapes wer first dropped into this de-stalking machine..
the first initial crushing machine of the grapes..
left to ferment here for 6 months to a year for the white wines..
fermented here for a longer period for the reds.....
and into these oak casks for the Riservas..
and finally bottled and packed to the shops or for export..
pakdokter and Raena at the tasting table..
cappucino or cafe latte after enough wine, cheese and bread..
Before we finished the tasting session, it suddenly rained heavily ( as heavy as a tropical shower in Malaysia) with thunder and lightning. Besides it was also followed by a spell of hail-stones shower, each hail-stone the size of a thumb. That was the first experience of a rain shower of iced pebbles for pakdokter.....
1 comment:
that thing in foil was the chocolate coated dessert.
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