Wine tasting in Montecarlo, at Buonamico

In Montecarlo, no not that Montecarlo, this Montecarlo, as in Lucca Italy. The Estate of Buonamico is situated south-west of Monte Carlo, in the Cercatoia, and covers an area of ​​40 hectares. The vineyards are located for the most part in Cercatoia and Court Collodi and now cover about 30 hectares. This winery has history that dates back prior to 1870.

In 2009 there was a lot of new plantings of new grapevines that were are exclusively derived from noble strains, including white grapes such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Vermentino and Viogner, and red grape varieties such as Sangiovese Syrah and Canaiolo. These new plantations have been structured to increase the mechanization of the winery itself, as well as to try maintain high quality standards.

Arriving quite late in the afternoon (5pm) on a Thursday the modern yet inviting tasting room was almost empty which exaggerated the very spacious feel. This is a modern, as in relatively new and done in a modern style, spacious tasting room, and is setup to taste at the bar, or in small groups in the upper level in the back part of the tasting room. We were lucky enough to get here after spending a lot of time at another place and so unfortunately did not get a chance to tour the facilities but we did get to sample some olive oil (the traditional way) and all the wines being sold at the time (quite a few). 

Chiara made us feel at home and started out informing us of the process of picking and pressing the olives and how the terrior and olive tree clones give the flavour. Traditional olive oil tasting is for the pros and that is not us. Give us some fabulous bread to dip in it and we are happy, but to knock back a couple ounces of straight olive oil is a bit of sensory overload for our wimpy palates. 

The process is to take the small shot size glass and cup in one hand to warm the olive oil up while covering it with the other to keep the fumes in. After a minute give it a good sniff just like you would with wine to take in all the olfactory information you can. Once this information is collected knock it back like a shot! Bam! Whoa! Wow and fight the urge to cough! Yeah, nah, we prefer dipping bread into the olive oil and to keep the title of p.....'s (deleted by censor).

Chiara also walked us through the wine line up starting with some bubbly, and then a bit more bubbly once we thought our taste buds were back in gear after the olive oil incident. After what was a great bubbly Chiara lead us through the list of wines on offer and was very informed about each of the wines we tasted. Some wonderful wines were tasted and once again we broke the one bottle each rule (seeing a pattern).


We had a great tasting and wish we had arrived a little earlier to take a tour of the entire facility. From what we understand it would have been well worth our time. Don't make the same mistake we did. Call and book a visit and enjoy the whole package, we 'recommend' you do.

Ciao,

WineWalkabout

Kiwi & Koala