It occurred to me whilst we were in Chianti-shire that one of my favourite things to do is vineyard visiting, exploring and a little produce tasting with pals.
Having done some d-work this morning, I’ve been reminiscing about wine tour adventures and happy smiley 😊😁😎 pictures!
My first ever vineyard tour was in South Africa 🇿🇦 with my Mum, Aunty Bet and cousin John. We were staying in Cape Town before heading to Durban to see Aunty Mags and it would have been rude to not to see a vineyard or two whilst we were there. I have no idea which vineyards we went too but pretty sure there was one from each of Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl and looking at the map, it’s possible. My lasting memory though is of the bus journey and Mum and Bet’ s disbelief or disappointment that we went by bus rather than in the car we’d hired 🤣.
My next adventure was with action Ana when we did a wine tour by bike in the Marlborough region in New Zealand. We hired bikes for the day that had special panniers for carrying wine bottles. There was space for 6 each so our challenge for the day was to fill the panniers and not fall off the bikes! We were touring NZ for a month so had plenty of time for moderate consumption and bought special carriers for transportation home ✈️. A relatively flat area, it was a really relaxing way to enjoy the region and a real mix of wineries from the large like Villa Maria to the small boutique and family run outfits. Lunch overlooking a beautiful vineyard, sunshine, a great buddy and no hurries. It was also great to explore having driven through the area 10years earlier on the Project 2000 Trip with Stu, Eils and the gang.
Then there was Australia….
Queensland. The Granite Belt with Dean and Ruth. Nigel and Ariane -where were you?
Hunter Valley. Rhian, Phil and David. Camper van. Why do we keep stopping? asked David!
Yarra Valley. Pre Lions Tour Melbourne test. Ariane, Jayne, Rob, Vicky and Naomi. Many boxes appeared in Brissie a couple of weeks later!
Coonawarra. Great Ocean Road to Adelaide. Solo day bike tour. Scary cottage!
Adelaide Hills. Jayne, Ruth, Jas and a couple of their pals, one of whom was the designated driver – result!
Then back in Europe…
Chew Valley. Lucy and Jan. Showing off the uk’s potential.
St Emillion. With Andy. Chateau stay on a winery. Excellent with a tour and private tasting. Limestone and storage in underground caves. Developed Andy’s expensive taste in French red wine. An amazing cote de boeuf and st emillion meal and a couple of attempts at diy tastings with our poor french.
Chianti. This trip. After understanding the terrain after Andy’s Chianti-shire adventure and that the wineries were some km away over the hill, I got a bit (a lot) anxious about the prospect of an epic ride combined with wine tasting and then a challenging, hot, hilly ride home. Eventually Andy got this and the hotel owner asked that if we went to one particular vineyard we bring back some of their map/flyers. Well we couldn’t bring them back by bike, could we?
So off we went in the morning for a much more sensible ride in the nearby, flat/rolling countryside rather than over the Epic steep hills. After 30 odd miles and speedy showers we headed in the van to Chianti proper. Phew 😅!
First stop was the little town of Greve in Chianti where we were lucky to find a place to serve us lunch at 2.45pm. Thank goodness for tourists as after our little ride, we were both getting pretty hangary.
Then after pudding of gelato – I had a caramel one that tasted just like Joe’s – and Andy having a fat boy portion that resulted in a visible brain freeze 😖, we drove through the hilly countryside to the chosen vineyard. It was beautiful and round every turn were lines of vines and olive trees. There were a lot of steep hills and switch backs and I was very glad we were in the van!
We stopped at an organic family run vineyard as it had been recommended to us and we were on a mission for maps. It was well worth it though and after a tour of the premises that overlooked the estate we got to tasting. Andy reinforced his taste in expensive robust (I understand the word in the context of wine!) red wine 🍷 and we made some purchases. These were justified on the basis of christmas entertaining and some investments! We’ll see. There is a pink one in the fridge cooling as we speak!
Meanderings in Merfyn 