Tuscany - The right way to do a wine tasting

Hillside in Chianti region of Tuscany

Roadside wine shop 

I’m not a wine snob.  But I think we tasted wine just the right way.  First, we were in Tuscany as the sun was setting.  Second, we picked a wine shop away from the crush of tourists, on the way back to Florence.  It was staffed by a single dapper Italian and for a time we had the place to ourselves. 

The place was Enoteca Nuvolari, and it served only its own wines, cultivated since 1043.  That is not a misprint.  These are vineyards that have been producing Chianti Classico for 974 years.  For 8 Euros we were happy to sample wines that had been bottled in the 967^th, 970^th and 972^nd year of production. We started with a Chianti Classico (16 Euros) bottled two years ago.  It was the kind of wine you could happily sip all day long.  As the Italians say, it was perfecto. This was followed by a Reservo (24 Euros) that had been aged four years.    It was dry and tart. We cleansed our palate with slices of Tuscany bread dipped in olive oil and salt, then enjoyed our last glass, a special Reservo (29 Euros).  The last had a strong tart flavor, and I could literally smell the oak caskets it had been stored in.  At that point, we were ready to buy a crate of the stuff.  However, shipping even six bottles was a hefty 87 Euros, so we decided on just two bottles.  They are packed in my luggage and we sincerely hope they make it home intact.  (Postscript: They did.)   

  

Classico or Reservo?  Hard to decide. Let's look up comments on my smartphone.