Festa del Vino, Greve-in-Chianti

Today we drove out to Greve-in-Chianti for their annual wine festival.  As the name implies, Greve is one of the centers of wine production in the Chianti Classico region.  The annual festa apparently used to be a wild affair going back 40 years--everyone wore old clothes because you got pelted with grapes and went home purple.  It is much tamer now.

The drive out on the typical Italian narrow winding road takes 45 minutes, mostly in 2nd or 3rd gear, over hills and through valleys dotted with vineyards and olive groves.  It was a perfect day, sunny with occasional puffy clouds.

Apparently, not all the grapes have been harvested yet, as these pictures attest.

The festa is four days long, and today was the last day.  After parking, we walked past the statue of il Gallo Nero, the black rooster that is the symbol of Chianti Classico wine, to the town piazza where the festa is held.  










The piazza is set up with four rows of booths, each one a different winery from the region--55 of them in all.  Every one has their own wine and olive oil.   You start by buying a wine glass that comes with a handy pouch that you hang around your neck, and you get a punch card entitling you to seven tastings.  With 55 possibilities, seven tastings doesn't sound like much, but the reality is that they almost always pour your wine and don't ask for the card.  In fact, we got our card punched only once.  By planning ahead for a place to stay in town so you could stagger home, one could drink an awful lot of wine for free in four days;-)

remember the doorway?

there were thousands of
banners, big and small,
in this funky cartoon style

Lunch:  bread, olive oil, salame,
and pecorino cheese (our new favorite)

Carmen's beast of burden (notice
wine glass pouch hanging from neck)

A final word about the pecorino cheese:  Since arriving, we have never seen the cheeses we are familiar with and used a lot, such as jack, colby, and especially cheddar.  Excepting parmesan and soft cheeses, all you see here is pecorino (from sheep's milk--pecora means sheep).  We were considering asking our first visitors to bring us cheddar, and in the meantime, bought some pecorino to tide us over.  After making grilled cheese sandwiches and omelets with the pecorino, and just eating it with Italian bread, forget bringing cheddar!