WSET Diploma Block Session 3 🇮🇹
April, 2022
Session in Florence and wine day trips
The last block session is being regarded as the icing on the cake for this program because it features great excursions even though classes in a hotel in central Florence remain nourishing.
However it felt like being a student amongst some many others in this great city. It also helped that we rented a big apartment for six of us not far from the class room. Needless to say that we had quite a few parties with half the class in our living room.
Lugarotti in Marche and Avignonsei in Montepulciano, Tuscany
Our first bus ride brought us to a wine museum in Umbria followed by winery tour, tasting and lunch at Lungarotti. He probably is the most international known producer from this region making various styles of wine from Sangiovese cuvées and of course the local grape Sagrantino and not so widely known sparkling wine.
After lunch went transferred to another international known producer of its wines and region, Avignonesi in Montepulciano. Here it was very impressive to see how they managed to make the transition into biodynamic wine growing and making with all its challenges.
Gaja and Antinori in Bolgheri
The weather was on the cool and windy side when we arrived from Florence in Bolgheri at Ca’Marcanda. But things lid up fast when we got to meet Gaia Gaja who had been driving down from Piemont just for our visit. Her passion and dedication for wine is infectious and she let us taste her entire lines of white and red, even seeking advice from us how we would create a line-up for an upcoming prominent tasting group.
After lunch in the Guado al Tasso restaurant we were invited for a tasting in the villa of the same estate, one of my longtime favorite. The winemaker by himself was commenting his wines and talking about development and challenges also happening in the Bolgheri region with climate change.
Antinori wines from the Chianti region
Our last excursion took us around the Chianti part South of Florence. We first toured the hill sides through winding roads until we reached the vineyards and winery of Tignanello and Solaia. Here as well we got a tour by the chief wine maker himself trough the impressive modern almost high tech winery and the cellars where both wines are being matured before they reach the market followed by a tasting.
For lunch we went to the nearby newly constructed Antinori show case resort and winery. An impressive structure cut out of a hillside with huge cellars for almost all the other wines from the region, a restaurant and tourist center.
