Wine Week

This past week, I spent my time at a vineyard called Villa Montepaldi, which is just outside of Florence.  I didn't know what to expect going into it, but I was pretty confident it would be a great experience, which it was.  When we arrived at the vineyard on Monday, we were given a tour of the place, and we were given a brief explanation of the machinery used to transform grapes into wine.  All of this had to be interpreted by Daniele, who works for Palazzo Rucellai. 

From what I was able to gather from the translation, Villa Montepaldi is affiliated with the University of Florence.  While they produce and sell wine and olive oil, they are also sort of an experimental farm.  The government pays for them to experiment with new farming techniques that are more sustainable or organic, or hopefully both.  So they essentially research the effectiveness of new methods so they can share their knowledge with other farmers, and ultimately the goal is to get as many farmers as possible to be more sustainable. 

After the tour and introduction to our wine week, we literally worked in the fields picking grapes all week.  It was an adventure, that's for sure.  At times I hated it, and it was hard work, but I'm glad I was able to experience it.  How many people can say they worked at a vineyard in Tuscany picking grapes?  I'll post a picture or two down below, but check Facebook if you want to see all of them.  The best part of every day though was definitely lunch.  They made us a 3-course meal every day for lunch, and everything they made was delicious.  We also got to drink some of their wine, which we definitely deserved to drink after all that work.  Lunch was also a great time for everyone to let loose a bit and have fun since we were all so happy to be eating. 

On the last day of the week, we only worked for the first half of the day. The rest of that day was spent watching our grapes begin the wine-making process and learning how to properly taste wine.  And just before we left, we were able to buy a bottle of wine for a discounted price.  The bottle I got sells for 250 euro in restaurants, and I got it for 6.50 euro.  It's definitely one of the best wines I've tasted here.  I'll probably bring it home for someone to share with me. 

So that concluded wine week.  We will be going back to that same vineyard for olive oil week in November so I'm looking forward to that.  That's it for now, ciao!