​Tuscany is one of the better-known wine-growing regions of Italy, but what is often not known (by Americans, in particular) is that Sangiovese is the red grape variety used to make the best and worst Tuscan wines.  I would guess that just about every American wine-drinker has at some time had a glass of wine made from Sangiovese grapes grown in Italy, but if you asked them if they had ever had a wine made from Sangiovese they would say no.  Huh?
Well, Chianti is made from the Sangiovese grape and for a long time inexpensive Chianti was sold throughout the country in Italian restaurants, often in iconic bottles.  Other wines made from Sangiovese grapes in Tuscany include Chianti Classico, Brunello, and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.  Brunello is considered the best of these, and often put on a par with Barolo.  And where do they make Brunello?  In and around the town of Montalcino, so of course that was where we stopped next.
After an unfortunate problem in another winery (we were served spoiled wine), we drove to the Frescobaldi winery, Tanuta CastelGiocondo.  In was late in the day, we were tired and a bit down, and it is a long drive from the entrance of the Frescobaldi estate to the wine tasting room.  It only took a few minutes for the wonderful staff to lift our spirits and, with a bit of excellent wine, turn a so-so day to a great day!
Some pictures of CastelGiocondo:

​The wine tasting room is quite nice, and we occupied a very large table (there were eleven of us).

Great views from the grounds:

​The wines were quite nice except for the 2019 Brunello di Montalcino – it was wonderful!  We shipped more than a few bottles home…

​It was early evening when we finished the wine tasting, but our server was not done with us.  Did I mention how fantastic their staff is?  Well, she was!  She gave us a tour of the castle, then we followed her car to the wine-making facility maybe a mile or two from the castle and gave us a tour.  It was after working hours, so we were the only ones in the very, very large building.
A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of touring the French winery Leoville-Poyferre, a second-growth winery on the left bank of Bordeaux.  They had a machine that used vibration to remove the grapes from the stems, then separate out the bad grapes from the good grapes.  Frescobaldi uses the same system.  In Leoville-Poyferre, the grapes are fermented in temperature controlled stainless tanks, then aged in standard French barrels.  Here are Frescobaldi’s:

​Now, the French and most wineries go directly from the small barrels to bottles.  As noted in my last blog, the Italians start with the small barrels but then go to larger barrels for another year or so.  Frescobaldi does this as well, with the largest barrels being around twelve feet high, as shown below.  But that is not the final step.  After a year in the small barrels, a year in the mid-size barrels, and a year in the gigantic barrels the wine is aged a year in concrete.  In fact, not just their Brunello but all their wines are aged a year in concrete!  In the last image below, the concrete vessels are on the left.  Look more like rooms to me....

​One problem with the gigantic oak barrels is that they must clean the interior every ten years by sending someone into the barrels.  Someone very small, small enough to fit through the very tiny door shown in the picture below.  Now the barrels have a seventy-year lifetime, so this gets done six times then they have to replace the barrels.  Bit of a good news/bad news thing:  the bad news is that the building was built around the barrels.  No way to get them out without dismantling part of the building.  The good news is that the barrels still have several decades of life.

​All told, our server spent the better part of three hours with us!  By the way, Frescobaldi has four other facilities, including one in the town of Montepulciano where their specialty is Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.  Now Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is made from the grape variety Sangiovese, same grape as Chianti, Chianti Classico, and Brunello.  But there is a Montepulciano red grape variety.  Montepulciano grapes are not grown in Montepulciano, but wines made from Montepulciano grapes are named for the grape, the most famous being Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.  Pretty confusing, isn’t it?

​Marquesi di Barolo Winery is located in the Piedmont city of Alba, also famous for its truffles.  Indeed, while we had a truffle-filled lunch (at 5 euro per gram, 6 gram minimum), they let us park in their small lot.  After lunch, we walked back to the winery and the Marquesi were there to greet us:

​They even had a nice place for us to wait, as we arrived early for our tasting:

​Once inside, they didn’t mind our writing on the walls:

There is strong historical evidence that this is the first winery to produce Barolo wine.  Up until the early 1800’s, Nebbiolo grapes were used to make sweet wines due to the fact that Nebbiolo grapes take forever to ripen.  In fact, they ripen so late that it is quite cold in Piedmont when they are finally picked and fermented.  So cold indeed that it proved largely impossible to complete fermentation, so the wine always wound up with some residual sugar.  That is, until the Marchesi came along.
There is quite a love story here, how an orphaned aristocrat from the Loire region of France married a Marquese from the Kingdom of Piedmont in the early 1800’s.  The new Marquesa, Guilia, had a passion for wine and decided that Nebbiolo grapes could produce an outstanding dry wine.  To this end, she and her husband Tancredo moved the fermentation inside, into conditions warm enough to complete the fermentation, basically moving the entire wine-making operation underground.  The wine took on the name of Barolo, as their castle was in the small town of Barolo near the city of Alba.  Pictures of the wine cellars are shown below.  Wines are fermented, aged in small barrels, larger barrels, and finally in very large barrels before being bottled.

​Of course, the winery has added a bit to the story with their “Cabinets of Curiousity.”  It seems that the Piedmont king had a deal with the Marquesa to provide him with a barrel of wine a day for a full year – normal barrel, not the gigantic ones she used to age the wine, holding about 50 gallons.  To make it easier to transport the wine, a special barrel was created (see picture below).  As the story goes, she only delivered 325 barrels.  When the king called her on this shortfall she replied, and I misquote, “Why your highness, surely you are not planning on drinking wine during lent?”

​As for the quality of the wines, well, they are just plain splendid!  We tasted three Barolo’s (all DOCG, by the way).  The one in the picture below on the left is produced from a single field.  The middle is a blend of grapes from multiple fields, as is the last one.  Note, however, that the third is labeled “Reserva” and is a 2015 vintage.  Their wines have won a few gold medals over the years, dating pretty far back....

​Perhaps I am overstating how good the Reserva was. Perhaps not.  After all, the wine did lead one of our group to fall so in love with it he tried to take a barrel home….