Florence Wine Tasting

You must realise at the outset that this just has to be an extremely short piece of writing. Drinking wine is at the very bottom of my list of priorities. Yesterday afternoon I immediately lost interest in any wine tasting and gravitated to the bicycle people and inevitably to mix with the Dante people. But I did promise to return on Sunday morning.

At Sunday lunchtime I venture out into my piazza. Piazzas in Florence are like parks and fairgrounds all mixed into one. There’s a ride for the kids at the far side. There are a number tents from which people emerge and ask you to sign things. Then there are a couple of restaurants which spill out on to the square. A huge bookstore stays open till midnight. and there’s a fantastic gypsy band which plays a sort of jazz but excellent Greek music.

The star of the band is the virtuoso cimbalem player but my money also goes on the guitarist who can play perfect offbeat without the string Double Bass player (he’s probably overslept!) at a breakneck uptempo. When he does turn up, the DoubleBass player has a technique with which he seems to be able to play anything. The sax player is pretty useless but the percussion chap does fairly well with the few resources he can carry around. I admire their ‘Hot Club de France’ type of rhythm until I remember that Django was himself a gypsy. I also remember seeing a film where the main interest was a group of gypsy musicians who also played in this way.

Here we see some mime artists and a few of the leather stalls you see all round Florence. As usual there are a number of the different types of police chatting away in the square so we are not bothered by the hordes of African hawkers which can appear out of nowhere selling anything on their cardboard trays. There’s a wonderful guitar player sending people into a swoon and just off the square is an artist who does those incredible works of art with chalks on the road. There are more but I’m only mentioning a few to avoid having to describe the wine tasting.

The largest tent this weekend is managed by a group of wine producers from the Lamole region of Chianti. Most Florentines have come to conclusion that Chianti wine is a lot of rubbish. That’s why they long ago came up with the brilliant idea of putting the stuff in fancy bottles with all that raffia and selling it abroad. In the market you can buy one litre of chianti for just one euro more than half a litre. Now, as it costs one euro more to make and wrap all the raffia around a litre rather than half a litre, the mathematics will tell you how much they value the wine. But, on the other hand, the Florentines just LOVE their olive oil. so do I!!!

I pay a few euros and I am handed a large wine glass and a sort of handbag, holding the glass,which I can sling around my neck. This is great because I have recently broken a glass and I need to replace it. Then I am given a card with seven sections, one of which should be clicked every time I try a wine. The problem is most of the wine producers will not click my card!!! I foresee danger in this!!! I am going to taste wine from seven vineyards but, I am told, there are over four hundred producers in this area alone.

I get into conversation with some wine people from a group of wine bars based in Nice. They say that French people wouldn’t be seen dead drinking Italian wine. Or maybe it’s the reverse I suggest. I tell them that I can buy Australian wine in pretty bottles for one euro. They are amazed but interested because that stuff is better than the rubbish sold in France at much higher prices.

At the other end of the scale I tell them that Melbourne reds have won prizes in France. They are incredulous. One of their friends hears this and comes over. “Yes, and we’ve just bought thirteen vineyards there!” Then our conversation switches to the French vineyards already established in Australia.

I gather that their real purpose in coming here is to have a working holiday. They are allowed as much time off work as they want if they taste wine while they are away. They give me some tips. “Try that over there. That is the best wine!”, one of them tells me tapping the box of wine he is carrying.

I make a beeline for the good stuff. But they also have something I adore; olive oil!!!! All these vineyards produce olive oil as well as wine. and they don’t have to put THIS in funny bottles to sell it!! They provide fresh bread and I dip it into the oil on a plate. Yummy!!! So I have my favourite lunch of fresh bread and gourmet olive oil. The problem is that the oil is expensive. It costs about five euros for the tiniest bottle I have ever seen. It contains just about enough oil to soak into a single piece of bread. As I have just bought a litre of first pressing olive oil sottocosto, special of the week, 45% off for three euros, I resist the temptation to buy any of their oil.

Oh, but I’ve forgotten the wine. Yes, the wine!!! The French are correct. Their choice if wine is probably the best. Try them all again and see if that is absolutely true. But I DO begin to taste why these people have come to Florence. This wine is not rubbish. This is good stuff. But their prices reflect the quality. Twenty to twenty five euros a bottle these days is expensive compared to the equivalent quality of Australian wine but it comes out fairly well against the French prices.

The wine special of the week at the SupaMercato costs one and half euros so I resist the tremptation to buy any wine here. I look at my card. Only five clicks. I decide, enough is enough. Say no to more. I walk the fifty metres back to my lane and eat a nice dessert. Having had a fine lunch and a fine wine tasting I think an afternoon nap will be in order.