January usually begins with a trip to Siena to enjoy the event Wine & Siena for a couple of days. It is an opportunity to meet with wine writing friends and also to soak up a piece of Medieval history while sipping on interesting wine
Sometimes you need to pinch yourself to realize that you are actually walking around with a wine glass and your camera in rooms where you can feel the winds of history blowing around you. It is not every day that I can enjoy two of my great passions together, namely history and wine
In the Palazzo Comunale (town hall), Wine & Siena takes place right in front of the Allegory of Good and Bad Government as well as in front of Maestà by Simone Martini in the Sala del Mappamondo. These are rooms where you can almost hear the walls whispering of great personalities in Italian history that have passed through here
Rocca Salimbeni, the headquarters of the Monte
The third location of the Wine & Siena event is the 5-star Grand Hotel Continental right in the centre of Siena.
See the video below with snippets from Wine & Siena
See my articles 3 Top Wineries at Wine & Siena, Part 1 – Trentino meets Tuscany and 4 Top Wineries at Wine & Siena, Part 2 – New Tastings about previous editions of Wine & Siena.
Three Wineries at Wine & Siena
Going over to talk more about wine now, I have decided to focus on three different wine producers that I tasted during the Wine & Siena weekend. Two wines from the south and one from Tuscany. As you can see my passion for the southern Italian regions continues…LOL
A Tuscan winery going from clarity to clarity
Poggio al Chiuso is a smaller winery in Tavarnelle Val di Pesa. They are very close to the border of the Chianti Classico area but they produce Chianti DOCG wines. They also produce some very interesting Toscana IGT wines
I got to know the brothers Marco and Matteo Corti via my oenologist friend Dario Parenti. He then reminded me to go and taste their wines at the event Vino é about three years ago. I really liked their monovarietal Merlot wine straight away which is perhaps not that common for me as I am not that a big fan of Merlot wines
Other than their Merlot wine – Voltaccia 49 – they also produce Voltaccia Chianti DOCG, two IGT wines, a white wine, and a very nice 100% Sangiovese rosé wine.
Let’s get back to the Voltaccia 49 that they decided to produce to celebrate their 60 years as a farm and winery in 2009. Voltaccia is the name of the small district just outside Tavarnelle where their great grandparents built the winery in 1949. The Merlot used to produce this wine grows in the Le Cappelle vineyard in this area.

It is a mineral, almost a bit salty, Merlot that is full-bodied and smooth with notes of red fruit and a bit of balsamic undertone. A Merlot where you feel the Tuscan territory. A wine you definitely need to try even if they only produce a smaller number of bottles per year.
I managed to bring a couple of bottles to our wine and food writers’ dinner at Borgo Grondaie and they were very appreciated
Did you know that Voltaccia 49 was awarded the Wine Hunter Award by Merano Wine Festival in November last year?
Poggio al Chiuso is definitely a winery that step by step is finding its own spot on the Italian wine map. Let’s hope also on the international wine map soon.
My First Sip of Pallagrello Bianco at Wine & Siena
Now, I might live in Tuscany and travel frequently all over Italy for different wine events but still, it was the first time that I had the chance to taste a Pallagrello Bianco wine. I have tasted Pallagrello Nero many times but never the white version.
The wine in question was Lancella Pallagrello Bianco Terre del Volturno IGT from Cantine di Lisandro
Furthermore, it is even more extraordinary to be able to combine Risorgimento history with a niche wine such as the Pallagrello Bianco one.

What better place to taste this wine than in the Sala del Mappamondo in Siena? Well, perhaps it would have been even better to taste it in Caserta in Campania paired with some yummy local food such as seafood or mozzarella di
Pallagrello is a native grape to Campania, more specifically the area around Caserta. Wine made with the Pallagrello nero grape used to be the favourite wine of King Ferdinand IV of the House of Bourbon.
The Pallagrello
A very enjoyable wine.
A Cerasuolo di Vittoria from Sicily at Wine & Siena
We are continuing to a region where Giuseppe Garibaldi started his battles in favour of the unification of Italy in 1860, namely Sicily. It is a region with a lot of interesting wine areas as most of you probably already know
At Wine & Siena, I stumbled upon Andrea and Claudia from Valle
Generally, I like Nero d’Avola a bit less but more because I often find it difficult to find a really good one. (That is, I am a huge fan of Nero d’Avola when done right.) Their Nero d’Avola convinced me though.
Valle
Andrea told me that what is special about them is the altitude of their vineyards. Their vineyard lots are located about 400 m.a.s.l. while generally the vineyards within the Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG denomination are on 50-150 meters altitude. The soil is mostly clay in their vineyards
I tasted their Frappato and Nero d’Avola DOC Vittoria wines and liked them both for their freshness and beautiful fruity notes. Their Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG is very smooth and with clean fruity notes; a delight to taste.

Tenuta Valle
At the Wine & Siena event…
…the combination of history, geography, and wine tasting makes it into a complete and fun event. Here, you get to travel back in time as well as travel all over Italy by discovering and sipping on wine.
And, to wander around tasting together with friends.