Before leaving Australia for Italy, I was undecided as to whether I would celebrate my birthday in Australia or in Italy.
The decision was made when my cousin phoned me one day to say that they would be in Italy in May. We then worked out where approximately in Italy they would be and where I would like to be and then chose to rent an apartment in Lucca. And consequently celebrate the birthday in Lucca.
The next question was, what shall we do on the day. For me, not a difficult decision, I wanted to do an Italian wine tasting tour. Everyone was excited to do that. So we chose The Chianti Wine tasting tour.
We were picked up in Lucca by the tour director and coach driver. After driving for about an hour or so we arrived at the Sommavilla farmhouse and boutique winery which is not far from the village of Vinci. Sommavilla is a 30 hectare property producing wine and olive oil. 20 hectares of olive trees; 10 hectares of vines.

 

Upon arrival it was almost easy to forget why we were here, the Tuscan views were breathtaking.

We were met by the owners who firstly gave us an interesting insight into olive oil production before a short tour of the wine making area.

Afterwards, we went outside and sat at long tables where we were served generous glasses of their own local wines. Along with a tasting experience of the typical Tuscan ‘antipasto’: which included bruschetta with delicious extra-virgin olive oil and tomatoes, salami and pecorino cheese and their locally grown olives.

We enjoyed their crisp white wine, followed by 2 red wines and a fabulous true chianti wine. Chianti wine must contain 70% of Sangiovese to be called Chianti.
This was followed by the grand finale Vin Santo which is a sweet dessert wine and served with cantucci – a sweet biscotti which you “dunk” in the vin santo

After several hours, along with our new wine tasting friends, we re joined the coach and travelled back to Lucca.

A great time was had by all as we sang our way home