After our yummy lunch at Il Leccio, we still had two more appointments. (If you want to see a map of the Montalcino area with all of the wineries listed, click here. Unfortunately, only the numbers of the wineries are listed. This site gives you the legend.)
To get to our next appointment at San Filippo from where we had lunch, we had to drive back through Castelnuovo dell’Abate. By the road, there is this great big church.

We had some time, so we decided to check it out. Is part of an monastery called Abbazia di Sant’Antimo. The church is very old, from the 12th century. The interior was very plain but beautiful nonetheless.

Of all of the church type places we’ve visited, this one to me had the best “feeling” about it. It was very calm and relaxing. As you can see, there were some other visitors there, but it didn’t have the touristy vibe. It is still used for regular church services, and the monks go and pray there seven times a day. We only saw the monks in the distance, hiking. (Nuns like flowers, monks like to hike.)

The holy water holders at the door of the church were the coolest of all of the churches we have been to.

I don’t think they are the original design, but as things have started to fall down around the church, they started to make do and recycle.
The church as it stands now dates from the 12th century, but the original monastery on the site was built in 770 (!!!). It was used as a shelter and waystation for pilgrims and merchants traveling in the area.

We probably could have stayed there another hour or so, poking around and hiking in the area. But grapes beckoned!! As we left, there was time for one last photo:

I have to imagine that except for the telephone and electric poles in front, the area isn’t that much different than it was a couple of hundred years ago!
Our next appointment was at San Filippo. Tony at the wine shop recommended that we stop here. The owner, Roberto, is a good friend of his and Tony just loves his wine. Let’s just say that the Montalcino winemakes need to invest in some new names. On our way to San Filippo (179 on the map), we pass another place called Fanti San Filippo. When we were at Collosorbo that morning, she asked if we were going to visit any other places. We told her that yes, we were going to San Filippo. “Oh Fanti San Filippo! They make fabulous wine.” Fanti? What is this Fanti? But we put it out of our minds.
It came back to haunt us as we were rushing to get to San Filippo as we pass Fanti San Filippo. San Filippo - Fanti San Filippo. Sounds like the same place to me. Yeah, the map did say that San Filippo was no where near this place, but Fanti San Filippo sounds like the same place. Maybe we just didn’t hear Tony right. Of course we had to stop and ask if we had an appointment (no). So back in the car and speeding on our way to San Filippo. We were only a few minutes late!
No pictures at San Filippo though. Kind of a small place and Roberto was the one showing us around. I didn’t want to take up too much of his time snapping pictures right and left.
Very good, we bought a few bottles. (No surprise there, really.)
Our last appointment was at Tenuta Silvio Nardi, a very famous winery in Montacino. If you’re looking at that map, Silvio Nardi is 81. The one WAY up in the Northwest corner. Those dashed lines, they are all dirt roads. And not nice flat dirt roads, but uppy-downy roads with 48% grades and no shoulder and drop offs. I did not enjoy the trip out there. Or the trip back for that matter.
Our guide there was a german man. He’s been living in Italy for quite a while and working at Silvio Nardi forever. This was one of the best visits we had. He knew everything about the winery and the terroir and the history of the area. We monopolized him for 2 hours, walking through the winery, the vineyard, tasting.

The carving on the barrel the Silvio Nardi crest.
We also met the cellar master as we were touring. He was very nice and walked with us on part of the tour. I thought he was just hanging out, helping with the tour, but realized that he was waiting for us to leave so he could lock the doors. He he.
We finally got back to the tasting room, but because it was late, our host had to go around and unlock the doors. Jim found a hole:

I think it is the old cistern. There was water and leaves down in the bottom of it. When we got inside, they had us set up in the dining room. We had cheese and bread and olive oil and tasted and chatted for quite awhile.

We finally realized the time and left at about 6:45PM. We wanted to get some wine, but by then the cashier had already left. There was a fee to taste there, and thankfully we had the cash on us to pay for that! They were very gracious and ended up giving us a bottle of wine. He said it was because our fee was for a bottle of wine to taste but because we tasted out of the bottles that he opened for the group before us, we could take the bottle that we didn’t open.
We left and were about 10 minutes away from the winery when Jim asked “Do you have the camera?” DOH!! So back we went to the winery, thankfully he was still there cleaning up and retrieved the camera. On our way out the second time, we saw some deer, but they were too fast and so we couldn’t get a picture in time.
Montalcino was a little slower moving and so I had Jim stop so I could take some pictures. You can see the whole town in the first shot.

And then a close-up of the fortress.

And so we came to the end of our wine tasting experience in Montalcino. We did taste at one other place on our way out, Casanova di Neri, but the wine wasn’t impressive at all. Jim thinks the bottles were bad but I’m not sure. All four bottles that were open being bad? Sounds like a long shot to me!
We had a great time and learned a lot about the wine from that area. Everyone was very friendly and the pace was laid back and relaxing. Our advice if you decide to visit?
- Make sure you have a good map.
- Driving on the sidewalks is OK.
- Make appointments in advance at the places you want to visit. I’m not sure that it’s the type of place that you just walk into.
- If there is a fee to taste and it is more than 10-15 euro per person, it’s too high. Go someplace else. You can learn all the same information for a lot less money.
- If there isn’t a fee to taste, think about buying at least one bottle. You can buy a box from MailBoxes Etc. for 20 euro. They’ll pack up your wine and you can check it through with your luggage. The customs tax is only $1.50/gallon on wine, but make sure you declare it!
- But don’t bring back stuff that you can buy in the states. Check to see if the wineries distribute in the US. You can get it cheaper and without too much hassle when you are home.
But with all of that tasting and wine buying, someone had to carry it home:









































