Sorry this is a long post, but was offline for a few days so need to catch up. Apparently this gorgeous medieval town has no wifi! Montalcino is an old medieval town settled on a hill, which now overlooks the vineyards in the valleys for miles and miles.

The four of us rented a two bedroom apartment in the middle of town for a couple of nights and got settled in. Had a great dinner and did some wine tasting in town, then off to bed to prep for a long day of vineyard visits the next. Heather had to make all the appointments in advance, apparently for the better wineries here, you make an appointment, you don’t just drive up.

View from town:

Our first stop was to Al Paradiso di Frassina Winery. Here they have speakers throughout the vineyards, and play Mozart to the grapes. Sounds corny, but it works, and they grow strong healthy plants requiring no chemicals. It’s so successful that they’re actually part of many scientific studies on this effect, showing the music sound-waves actually do help the plants. Carlos the owner gave us a private tour and tasting, and explained a lot of the processes to us. I walked away with a case. 🙂

Next to Paggio Antico Winery for tasting and lunch:

Things get goofy when you start drinking wine at 10am. 🙂

Eat your heart out Karen, a huge plate of yummy Fois Gras:

Next stop Castiglion del Bosco for Wine and Olive Oil Tasting. Ryan Seacrest was here the day before, and is apparently a douchebag, and didn’t buy any wine either.

Last winery of the day was Il Palazzone Winery, with another great tasting.

At last, back to town lugging 17 cases of wine (only two were mine), the car was struggling, but made it back. Had another AMAZING dinner, but had to imitate the statue, since that’s the theme of this blog.