Avignonesi and surrounding countryside
We woke up on May 25th to the sound of pouring rain. We had known it was coming which meant no early photo session. Disappointing but it was nice to have the luxury of sleeping in before having a wonderful buffet breakfast at the hotel. The buffet included pastries, croissants, cakes, cookies, cheeses, meats, eggs, cereal, fresh fruit, yogurt, juices and of course coffee. The pastries and croissants were especially good. We stayed at our hotel in Pienza for four nights and enjoyed every one of them. This morning I got a chance to look at the rest of the groups' work which was excellent. I was definitely in a group of very talented photographers. After lunch we got into the mini-vans for a drive to wine tasting country and had a tour of of the 130 year old Avignonesi winery, which was about forty-five minutes away. We visited the Capezzine Estate (winery) which is situated just a few kilometres from Montepulciano near the village of Valiano.
Since the mid 1970's, Avignonesi has played a leading role in research and experimentation in order to come up with specific qualities which distinguish its wines from the other well-known Tuscan wines.
Meet Sam Johnson from Palm Springs (on the left with Chris on the right). Sam is another one of the groups' talented photographers. I have seen some of his stunning photos on Facebook and he is very good at all types of photography. Yes I know it is a terrible picture ( I have a much better one of him later on) but I wanted to introduce Sam. When it rains here it can really rain which explains why the hills are so green.
Meet our very enthusiastic tour guide. The tour was very interesting- we were told everything we wanted to know about wine making (and more). It was nice to know that the company uses no chemical herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers. Instead they work the soil and grow secondary crops between the vine rows. The company is currently converting all 200 hectares of the Avignonesi vineyards to sustainable farming methods. By 2015, the company will have their organic certification.
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Each lot is fermented and aged separately. Three ageing cellars are used. The traditional cellar has the large oak barrels used for the signature Montepulciano wines. During the tour I was thinking that I would not want to be working in these damp, moldy and cold cellars. Of course it didn't help that it was so wet and cold outside. |
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It was a very interesting tour and the operation was quite impressive. We had to walk outside in order to get to the next building. It was so nice to be outside again even if it was cold and damp.
A different aging wine cellar. Different wines are aged for different times and in different types and sizes of barrels.
It did actually stop raining for a while so I was able to take this shot on the way to another building during the tour.
At the end of the tour we were in this building and I saw the view from inside. I thought it looked pretty nice. If the weather had been better I'm sure we would have had a tour of the vineyards.
When the tour was over the rain had stopped so I walked around the estate and found the same view that I had taken from inside.
I thought the way these trees were bending over made for an interesting photograph.
A close up of the vines.
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I spent about half an hour walking all over the estate. I loved the shapes of the trees.
After this last shot it was time to go inside to the wine tasting. The clouds were looking a bit threatening again and it wasn't getting any warmer so I was happy to go inside and warm up. Unfortunately no fireplace!
Fred, Megan and Beth were waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. Once everyone had showed up we tried five different kinds of wine. To be honest, I couldn't really tell the differences between the wines but they did help to warm me up. However the food was delicious. I especially liked the breadsticks (maybe the best I've ever had) and the bread. Up to this point the bread in Tuscany (Tuscan bread) was not great- mostly because they do not add salt to it. But by the time you dip the Tuscan bread into the balsamic vinegar and olive oil, it tasted much better. However, the bread that we tried here had lots of flavour on its own.
On the way back to Pienza we stopped at a scenic site hoping the sun would come out over the hills. You can see the town of Montepulciano which is situated on top of a steep hill, overlooking the Orcia valley on one side and the Chiana valley on the other. The church in the foreground is San Biaglo, an example of Renaissance Greek architecture.
A closer view of the church.
The weather did actually clear up a little bit.
And then the clouds moved in again so we waited and hoped for the weather to improve.
Our patience paid off as the sun finally came out to light up the hills.
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Various shots taken from the same location but from different vantage points. It was starting to get pretty cold so some of the smarter members of the group went to the van to stay warm but not this Canadian! |
A few of us wandered down the road and came upon a sheep farm in the distance. I had to scramble through trees and bushes to find an opening for the shot.
By now It was after seven and it started to hail. Ok- enough is enough, even for me. Time to go back to the hotel and take a really, really hot shower. We were still about twenty minutes away from town and I was still pretty cold by the time we got back.
I was pretty sure I was through taking pictures for the day but just around 8 PM when we were meeting for dinner, the sun came out so I went back to the room to get my camera. These next few pictures were taken from the terrace behind the hotel.
Finally the last shot of the evening as it was time to go to dinner.