The Wines of Coltibuono

I was a little concerned that this day wouldn't go off as planned. Originally, I had set up a wine tasting with the Abbey at 1100, followed by lunch. When we arrived, Adria (who had been immensely helpful in the planning stages) informed me that something "big" was going on, and they wouldn't be able to do the wine tasting and tour at 1100 as had been planned, and that lunch would probably be impossible as they had a big group coming in. I was crushed. I put on my saddest face, and then started reminding them, oh so subtly, of how much wine we'd purchased from them over the last year (Trattoria Sofo is proudly the largest retailer/reseller of Coltibuono wines in the area), and she started to give in, asking if we could manage to do the wine tour/tasting at 1000, instead of 1100 (wine at 10am??), and then a break, with lunch at 2pm. Lunch, she said, would have to be the same menu as the large group. I decided it would be perfect (especially in light of the alternative), so we went ahead with the new schedule.

So, at 10am, the group gathers in the courtyard of the Abbey, and we start our tour with Barbara, the most wonderfully knowledgeable guide one could have. I had also communicated with Barbara several times during the planning stages, so it was a great pleasure to finally meet her. She took us first to the gardens just outside the courtyard. A typical Renaissance garden, it sits on the south side of the 17th century addition to the original abbey, where it gets sun all day long. She told us great stories about the Monks who founded and built the abbey, and how, most amazingly, they planted thousands of pine trees on the surrounding acres to have wood to continue building. Pine trees now grow all over, in an area that has none otherwise. It makes it look, as Barbara said, as if one is in Switzerland instead of Tuscany. It's really amazing. We walked through the abbey, toured the old dining room, and saw the salt box, which was at one time, always locked. We learned that the word "salary" is originally derived from the word for salt, as it was so rare in past times that people were often paid with salt, instead of coin. We also learned that the monks lived longer lives than most people in the area, and part of the reason for that is believed to be that they had ample amounts of salt to dry meat and eat protein even during the harsh cold winters. Of greatest note, however, is that we learned of the law limiting wine consumption for the monks to a mere 4 liters per day!! Ha ha ha.

After our tour of the Abbey and the gardens, we headed into the caves, where wine is aged before bottling. Huge barrels line the walls where the wine is held until just the right time for bottling. Beyond the aging cellars, we were taken to the private cellar of the current owners, where they keep vintage wines going back to 1937.