Hi, I am leaving on Friday on a 16 day trip to Italy. I was wondering if anyone can tell me if it is worth going to Castello Banfi. Also, how about lunch tat this winery and do you need reservations. Any info would be welcome.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kim,

This a large, fairly commercial winery - not very charming. Big modern tasting room and restaurant but we haven't eaten ther so no advice on that. Another winery up the road to Montalcino is Poggio Antico with a terrific but expensive restaurant. Another restaurant choice would be La Fortezza del Brunello in Sant'Angelo in Colle also on the road to Montalcino. This is a charming small place with terrific food. The best risotto I have ever had was here a year ago.

Phones: Poggio Antico 0577 848044
La Fortezza 0577 844175

Did you see some of the winery info we have on our FAQ forum? Here is a link:
http://www.slowtalk.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=000013
http://www.slowtalk.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=000007

Robert,
Castello Banfi is one of the larger more commercial wineries but they do produce good wine for the most part, some of which has been highly rated. Their '97 Summus, for example, received 3 Glasses in the Gambero Rosso Italian wine guide (their top rating). I haven't received my 2002 edition of this guide yet, but I would expect that their '97 Brunello rated well in addition to the Excelsus and Poggio all'Oro Riserva. You can taste AND buy wine here which is not always the case at other wineries. I have never been to Castello Banfi so I can't speak for the ambiance of the place or the restaurant.

We visited Ciacci Piccolomini D'Aragona in Castelvuovo Abate just a few miles further down the road. They have great wine and are located in an old castle on top of the hill within the town walls. It is a unique setting for a winery (at least based on my experience). The owner's fiance (I've forgotten her name) who is American, took us on a very interesting tour of the castle and then we sat around tasting wine and chatting with her for about 2 hours. If you're interested, call ahead or email for an appointment www.ciaccipiccolomini.com. Before the tasting, we went to hear the monks chanting at St. Antimo, drove up the hill for lunch in Castelnuovo Abate and finishing just in time for our 2:30 appointment.

Some other good wineries in the Montalcino area are:
Tenuta Di Argiano
Casanova di Neri
Lisini
Siro Pacenti (one of my favorites)
Salvioni - La Cerbaiola
Tenimenti Angelini - Val di Suga
Among others

Hope this helps.
Tom

We enjoyed lunch very much at Poggio Antico a couple of years ago. Poggio Antico wine is outstanding and very, very expensive here in the US. We enjoyed it at the restaurant. Next week we will be back in the Montalcino area. We will be choosing between two restaurants: Boccon Di Vino and Osteria del Vecchio Castello. We are leaning to the latter one. However if we decide to have a big dinner that evening we will then choose Boccon di Vino for a light lunch.

I would appreciate any comments about either of these restaurants.

Peter,
I'm not familiar with Osteria del Vecchio Castello, but lunch at Boccon Di Vino was probably our favorite dining experience on our trip last September and we had many wonderful meals. The tasting menu was excellent, the views spectacular and the owner, Mario, was a great host. We had originally gone there hoping to catch a quick lunch before an appointment at a winery (Siro Pacenti) and soon realized that this was not a meal to be rushed. Mario happened to know the owner of Siro Pacenti and called and rescheduled our appointment for us so we could thoroughly enjoy the experience which lasted for about 3 hours. In spite of a big lunch at Boccon Di Vino, we still managed to have another full-on Italian meal at Latte di Luna in Pienza later that night. Why choose - I vote for an early lunch at Buccon di Vino so you can enjoy the views during the day and a late dinner at Osteria del Vecchio Castello.
Tom

Peter:

I loved Boccon di Vino when I was there in '99 and wrote a review of it. You can read it, as well as 3 other reviews here.

When another Slow Trav participant had a negative experience there last summer, it sparked a lengthy (and sort of heated?) conversation. You can read that whole thing here.

My take on that whole discussion is that Marty made a big deal of the waiter not bringing the check or being readily available to do so. As you can see from the many responses, lots of others didn't seem to agree with him about how the whole thing was handled and all who had been there seemed to have a great experience except him.

Hope this helps.

Gary from TuscanHouse told me last fall that Boccon di Vino got a new chef last August. We ate there in October, with Mare and Bruce from Seattle, and it was good. Personally, I would prefer to go for dinner next time and have the full menu instead of the tasting menu - but I am not big on tasting menus.

Part of the magic of Boccon di Vino are in fact the amazing views laying beneath you, of which you would not be able to see much of at night. So my advise would be to do it once for lunch to take in the views and the tasting menu, then go back at night if you have the opportunity and order one of your favorites from the tasting menu.

Have a great trip!

I have been to both Banfi and Boccon di Vino, Banfi is a state of the art winery, owned by Americans...and very organized. The have the restaurant, which is large . the food was good, it was too big for me.

Boccon di Vino was recommended to me by Franco Biondi Santi, the man who's family invented Brunello..I trust him!
My husband who is Florentine is difficult to please and he loved the tasting lunch at Boccon di Vino as I did.
The ambience is fabulous.At Dinner they have the full menu.

I also really loved the Grappolo Blu in Montalcino, hidden away on a small alley going down the hill in the town you will see a sign on your right..go down the stairs to enter.

We wandered into Grappolo Blu in Montalcino a couple of years ago by accident - and it was great. We went to another restaurant we had like a couple of years earlier, but this time there were no vegetarian things on the menu, so we left and just walked around looking at menus and found Grappolo Blu. Lucky us!

We just fell into Grappola Blu quite by accident as well in 1999 and were sure glad that we did! We all had an amazing lunch and often think of it now. The atmosphere was wonderful and the service was great, I remember the waitress being quite patient with us due to our lack of language skills.

David--I have printed the wine you mentioned and included it in the "wine section" of my travel book. Sounds like either place we choose will be a good one.

Thanks for the wine tip!

So are we saying that Grappolo Blu is up there with Boccon di Vino? Just want to know how high it should be on my list.
Tom

I haven't eaten at Boccon di Vino, so can't make the comparison, but I can recommend Grappolo Blu for honest, reasonably priced meals, and the absolutely best Lemon Tart ever made, anywhere.

We had lunch there in July 2000. It was a stinking hot day, but cool and quiet in Grappolo Blu. I had their beans and sausage (a regional specialty) and the tart. Later when reading Vanilla Beans and Brodo, Isabella describes the night some of the older locals patronised Grappolo Blu for the first time. Maria Pia, the owner and chef,is from Rome and had only operated the restaurant for ten years, so wasn't exactly an accepted member of the community. They ordered the beans and sausage dish I had. Maria Pia had prepared a variation on the dish. She mixed in some borlotti beans with the cannelini. As they came to clear their plates, all the borlotti beans had been pushed to the edge. That's not how we make that dish in Montalcino.

I wrote to Isabella telling her how much I liked the story, and that I loved Maria Pias Lemon Tart so much, I would walk barefoot across Tuscany for it. In the mail from Maria Pia came a copy of the recipe, with instructions that under no circumstances could I give it to anyone else. I have made it four times in the past five months and it is sensational. probably not as good as Maria Pia's, so we will probably have to spend considerable time there in July. Our appartment for the week is a hundred meters down the street from Grappolo Blu.

Peter:

Great. Although it might be difficult to find some 1990 Poggio al Vento. 1990 was a fantastic year and I'd bet that supply is limited -- and expensive. Hopefully you can find some, but if you can't, look for the '97, which should have been released recently and I'd expect to be equally delicious (although, I haven't read anything about it so I don't know for sure). Not to mention all of the other '97 Brunelli. Do you consult the Gambero Rosso? When they give a wine a "3 bicchieri" rating, it's usually something to pay attention to!

David--yes, I consult Gambero Rosso and have for several years. I also cross reference it with Parker's wine guide. On this trip we will be referencing GR's 2002 and 2001 "Tre Bicchieri" wines. Of course we will be consulting with the restaurants' proprietors for additional guidance. We will only have the wine of the immediate area when we are in Italy. In the past we have really enjoyed "no label" wine that was brought to us by the restaurant's owner. Choosing the wines is easier than deciding which restaurant we will go to every day!

IMHO, I personally wouldn't rate Grappola Blu up with Boccon de Vino.

While we had a wonderful meal and the atmosphere was outstanding, the lunch we had at BDV was by far, for our family, a much better experience. This all had to do with the beautiful day, the way the wind was blowing, the disgusted looks on our kids faces as they tasted the crostini with liver pate, the excellent wine and food and the fact that yes we were in Italy again and isn't life bloody good! So this meal was in fact one of our families special "moments" in Italy.

Quite honestly I did find the food a little more inventive at BDV, but I haven't tried everything on the menu at Grappola Blu so once again my advise would be to go ahead and try both if at all possible. Or do what we did, try one this trip and then one the next trip!

David--I will try my best to remember the wines that stood out. What I am looking forward to is to have a couple of "grazing" meals (cheeses, salume etc.) in our room with a variety of wines that we have bought in wine stores from the list of Gambero Rosso's "tre bicchieri". Hopefully, the weather will permit us to enjoy these "light" meals outside. We prefer to have a longish lunch and eat then lightly in the evening. But, this is not always possible.

One of our favorite restaurants is in the very small town of Acuto (in the Ciociare area of Lazio), which is adjacent to Fiuggi. The restaurant is Le Colline Ciociare. We try to get back there whenever we are in Italy. We missed it last year as we were feasting in northern Lombardia.

We leave for Rome late tomorrow afternoon from Newark. If the weather is good we will drive up the coast and take a rest stop in Monte Argentario then continue north until Grosseto. From there we will go east.

Peter - you are leaving tomorrow!! Have a great trip!! Take lots of notes and send us a trip report if you have the time!! We all want to hear about the food and wine (as well as everything else).

Yes, Peter. Have a really great trip.

Well, the time has come for our first trip to Italy. We are leaving from Miami To Milan at 4: 40 pm today. We are going to Venice, Tuscany and the Lake Region. After reading all your comments, I can't wait to have lunch at Boccon De Vino.

Thanks for all your comments. I will be posting about my experiences when we get back on May 20.

Regards