Enjoy some photos of the Italian Lake District, we did not do any wine tasting.

LAGO COMO

LAGO MAGGIORE

We did drink some wine!

LAGO ORTA

Villa della Torre is a restored Veneto palace built in the 16th century, located 30 minutes above Verona. It was designed by Giulio Romano who was a student of Raphael. The villa had fallen into disrepair, the Allegrini’s purchased and restored the property creating 10 beautifully appointed guest rooms, a wine shop, kitchen and catering facilities, etc.  The facility and guest rooms are amazing. It is surrounded by their vineyards, and is a tremendous showcase for their many excellent wines which include, Valpolicella, Palazzo Della Torre, and Amarone. Our stay was amazing, the tour, tasting and dinner with wine parring was unforgettable. 

A highlight of our visit was meeting with Marilisa Allegrini, the CEO of Allegrini Wines, whom we had met previously in San Francisco at James Suckling’s Great Wines of Italy. She is dynamic, smart and hard working.  She travels the world to make Allegrini Wine the great success that it is. Amy and I really appreciated seeing her again and honored that she took time to greet us.

The Villa is truly amazing, their wines are outstanding, especially the Amarone from Verona, the W from Bolgheri and the San Polo Brunello from Montalcino. We strongly advise a visit.

Our tour guide was wonderful as well.

Ornellaia Winery located in Bolgheri is a magnificent facility making incredible Super Tuscan wines. The history of the winery is very interesting. Both Ornellaia and Masseto were founded by Lodovico Antinori. They now have 97 hectares of vines. Their wines are among the best of Italy, with the 2013 Ornellaia release price of $240, and the Masseto 2012  release price of $625, they are among the most expensive wines in the world.  In 1999 Lodovico sold Robert Mondavi a minority stake in his winery, he then sold him the rest in 2002.  In 2005 Frescobaldi bought the remaining 50% of shares from Constillation Brands who had acquired Mondavi Brands. So now Ornellaia and Masseto are wholly  owned by a major rival of the Antinori’s. Lodovico Antinori and his family have gone on to found a new winery in the area, Tenuta di Biserno.

The winery selects an artist to do a major art project at the winery each year. 

It’s an upscale winery with excellent wines, and upscale prices for the tour and tasting. You do get to taste some expensive wines, but not the Masseto as that is a separate tour.

Poggio al Tesoro is located in Bolgheri, the birthplace of Super Tuscan wine, founded in 2002 by one of Italy’s great wine families, the Allegrini. It was Marilisa Allegrini’s pet project and has been a major success. They have received numerous rewards, including more than fifty 90+ scores from the world’s top wine critics.  Poggio al Tesoro is composed of four vineyards, totaling 70 hectares.  They make international-style “Super Tuscan” wines in Bolgheri.  Their wines are marked by depth, purity, and finesse.  Valentina toured us around the winery and tastings, doing a superb job.  We really enjoyed the morning spent there.  Their “W” wine, dedicated to Walter Allegrini, was exceptional.

These are the wines we tasted.

Valentina

Below is a map of the Bolgheri wine region showing the location of their vineyards.

Bolgheri is a small village along the Tyrrhenian Sea, one hour South of Pisa, and two hours West of Siena or Montalcino, well worth a visit. It was put on the map in the 19th century by the poet, Giosue Cadducci, but more recently by Sassicaia Wine. Sassicaia wine is  Bordeaux style, “Super Tuscan” composed of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Annual production is now 180,000 bottles. In the 1920’s The Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta wanted to develop a “thoroughbred” wine and experimented with several French varieties, eventually settling on cabernet.  The first vintages were poorly received and from 1948-1967,  Sassicaia remained a private family wine.  It became clear that aging  greatly enhanced the wine and so a commercial vintage was released in 1968, and a 1978 Decanter tasting of great clarets, the 1972 Sassicaia took first place over 33 wines from 11 countries.  In 2013 Sassicaia was granted it’s own DOC.  It is now recognized as one of the finest wines in the world and has led the way for the establishment of many new wineries in the region.

There is a wine shop and restaurant at Sassicaia that you can visit.  You can arrange a tour of the winery, however, due to time constraints, we only briefly visited the wine shop.

This is a map of the wine region of Bolgheri, showing some of the major wine estates in the area and their locations.

I Always Leica… Casanova di Neri Brunello

Casanova di Neri makes great Brunello wines. It was founded in 1971 by Giovanni Neri and taken over by his son, Giacomo in 1991. It lies at the entrance of Montalcino from the East. We have visited there many times. Their small tasting room has now been moved into the remodeled first floor of the main house, which is a showcase for their wines and their many awards. It truly is very beautifully done. There is even a secret door though a bookcase into a back, somewhat rustic room. I was lucky to have purchased a case of 2001 Tenuta Nuova many years ago just prior to it being named the 2006 Wine of the Year by  Wine Spectator. I donated many bottles of that wine to charity wine dinners that Amy and I put together. 

Our host, Thomas.

The secret room.

Uccelliera is a small to medium sized winery which was started by Andrea Cortonesi in 1986. It began with a half hectare of vineyard, but has slowly expanded to 6.3 hectares, and produces 50,000 bottles/year. He makes his wines from several vineyards with different exposures to achieve a very complex wine. Amy and I were fortunate enough to get in on a tour which was very informative and even involved barrel tasting. We were able to meet the owner, Andrea who was friendly and outgoing. His wines are excellent as we were well aware, having purchased them on multiple occasions in the past.

I always Leica… Brunello Wineries

The tour and tasting was overall excellent. The view from the winery is spectacular. Our tour guide was informative, knowledgable, and spoke very good English. The winery is relatively large and modern. Their wines are very good and at a reasonable price point, strongly consider a visit if you are in Tuscany.

The family has produced wines in Montalcino for over three generations.  They have 16 hectares of vineyards.  I visited there without an appointment as I own a couple of cases of their wine and wanted to see their winery. The wines have received some great scores by the critics, including 100 points by James Suckling for their 2010 Brunello. The winery seems to be doing extremely well and they are building a new facility.  I reached the winery via a dirt road which takes off directly from Montalcino next to our hotel.  I recommend if visiting Montalcino, traveling some of those back roads as it will give you a good feel for the surrounding landscape.  I met with one of their administrators, Silvia Tarroni, who was very helpful and knowledgeable.  She was very generous and set up a dinner reservation at Il Giglio where we enjoyed a wonderful meal and drank a fantastic bottle of Sassetti Brunello wine.