Italy Embraces
Luxury Wine
Travel
I
love wine and I love to travel.
So what could be better than
combining the two? Just like
culinary travel and adventure
travel, wine travel is gaining
popularity. Wine travel offers
enthusiasts the opportunity to
truly experience the wine production
process, and if you travel at the
right time of year, to actually be
part of harvest and production.
As a former Italian expat, I was
excited to go back “home” and tour
some of the luxury wineries and
resorts in Tuscany and Umbria.
Winerist, a UK-based website
dedicated to bringing the best
travel experiences to wine and food
enthusiasts worldwide, arranged
for me to visit several wineries
in the regions.
When people think Italian wine, their
first thought might be the robust
Chiantis of Tuscany. Having lived in
produced. A single worker was
painstakingly turning each bottle
¼ turn, as he does daily for 45 days,
to allow the sediment from the
Trebbiano grapes to settle at the
top of the bottle. There, it is
ultimately frozen and forced out.
As a small producer, Baracchi takes
great care and pride in this handprocessed production of one of the
region’s only sparkling wines. Our
tour ended with a tasting of the
sparkling wine, paired with pecorino
cheese produced at the resort.
I enjoyed the Brut Trebbiano Metodo
Classico tremendously, perhaps
because I could really respect the
great care taken in its production.
Italy, I kind of felt “been there,
done that.” But on my return, I
was excited to learn, and taste,
how Tuscany is embracing luxury
wine travel.
My adventure began at the Baracchi
estate, which sits high above
Cortona, up narrow, winding roads
that even our GPS couldn’t keep up
with. It was a constant barrage of
“turn right”, “turn left”, “turn
right”, as we made the hairpin turns.
But the views of the Valdichiana
Valley, when we arrived at the top,
were all worth the nauseating drive.
Founded by Riccardo Baracchi, the
winery is a small, boutique producer
of one of the region’s only sparkling
wines and some fabulous blends. We
were greeted by Benedetto Baracchi,
son of the winery’s founder, who
started our tour in the sparkling
wine room where the Baracchi Brut
Trebbiano Metodo Classico is
Guests of the winery stay at the
luxury Il Falconiere resort, part
of the prestigious chain Relais
& Châteaux, located just beyond
the vineyard. There the resort’s
traditional Etruscan spa is the
spectacle. This resort truly felt
48
Lungarotti
vineyards
like an escape, perched high on
a hilltop, surrounded by lush
vineyards. I wanted to plant myself
at the pool adjacent to the spa and
just waste the afternoon sipping
wine and enjoying the view. Instead,
we were then treated to lunch at
the resort’ ́