Castello Banfi appears on the Tuscan horizon like a pink hilltop castle straight out of a fairy tale. A tall, slender Rapunzel-style tower overlooks a huge estate that reaches almost as far as the nearby Mediterranean. Within this authentic medieval fortress lies a cozy courtyard; outside lies a cluster of stone cottages with narrow vine-covered streets, a hamlet that clung to the castle walls in the dark ages. The estate holds vines, olive groves, wheat fields, plum orchards, and woodlands; within those same forests live wild boar, deer, pheasant, even truffles.
But unlike many European winery castles, this place is no fortress when it comes to visitors. It has two restaurants, one of which has a Michelin star. It has a gorgeous wine store with spacious ceramic flooring, handsome dark wood rafters, and attractive display shelves. The winery facilities with their endless rows of barrels are immaculate, as are the 14 guest rooms located in the surrounding stone cottages.
The winery even has its own onsite cooperage, where the best oak planks from France and Slavonia are custom made into barrels. If this isn't quite enough, what surely marks this winery out as a must-see in southern Tuscany is its intriguing Glass Museum, six rooms displaying glass from the present day all the way back to the 15th century B.C. Egyptian urns sit beside Babylonian vases beside ancient Roman ampules and goblets; present-day examples include decorative crystal by some guys called Picasso, Cocteau, and Dalí. It focuses your mind temporarily away from the wine onto the see-through object that holds it.
Such rich, historic splendor has its genesis in the most unlikely of places -- Long Island, New York. This is where owner John F. Mariani's father started out with an Italian wine importer called Banfi in 1919. His timing could not have been worse -- Prohibition came a year later. He limped through those dry years selling wine for "medicinal purposes," then wasted no time importing the very best from Italy when the law was finally lifted. Business boomed, and over the years Banfi introduced the finest of Italian wines to the American market, including Lambrusco, and Chianti.
The winery itself has put its faith in Sangiovese; vineyards teeming with the grape now besiege the castle walls. While the whole complex has a somewhat polished, corporate feel, rest assured that this is no Disneyland of wine -- it's the genuine article.
Contact Information:
Castello Banfi, Montalcino; tel.
39/577/840111;
www.castellobanfi.com.
"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -- Lao Tzu
Copyright © Demetrios the Traveler
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Portofino bay.
The village is mentioned in a diploma from 986 by Adelaide of Italy, which assigned it to the nearby Abbey of San Fruttoso di Capodimonte. In 1171, together with the neighbouring Santa Margherita Ligure, it was included in Rapallo's commune jurisdiction. After 1229 it was part of the Republic of Genoa. The town's natural harbour supported a fleet of fishing boats, but was somewhat too cramped to provide more than a temporary safe haven for the growing merchant marine of the Republic of Genoa.
In 1409 Portofino was sold to the Republic of Florence by Charles VI of France, but when the latter was ousted from Genoa the Florentine gave it back. In the 15th century it was a fief of families such as the Fieschi, Spinola, Adorno and Doria.
In 1815 it became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia and, from 1861, of the unified Kingdom of Italy.
In the late 19th century, first British, then other northern European aristocratic tourists began to visit Portofino, which they reached by horse and cart from Santa Margherita Ligure. Aubrey Herbert (1880–1923) was one of the more famous Englishmen to maintain a villa at Portofino. Eventually more expatriates built expensive vacation houses, and by 1950 tourism had supplanted fishing as the town's chief industry, and the waterfront was a continuous ring of restaurants and cafés.
thanks to:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portofino