Tuscan tipples at 10am …I’ll raise a glass to that
THERE are surely few things in life better than hanging around an 11th Century Tuscan castle – especially when you have an expert to guide you around the excellent wine list. Oh, and a top chef. And did I mention the outdoor swimming pool among the castle’s vineyards?
I’m in Castello di Potentino, an extraordinary hotel-winery-residence on the slopes of dormant volcano Monte Amiata. The expert is Emily O’Hare, a former sommelier at London restaurant River Cafe, and I’m on the world’s only wine and yoga retreat that leads to a WSET 1 (Wine And Spirit Education Trust) qualification in wines.
Over four days, Emily leads lessons in the castle’s grand dining room with passion and precision, teaching us how to taste wine and match it with food, and how to open a bottle of champagne without the cork destroying the nearby antique china. I learn a lot, not least that I have a taste for vino at 10am. Lessons begin early because, as Emily says, ‘that’s when the palate is at its perkiest’. The castle produces its own remarkable reds, a white and a rosé on a ten-acre plot. They are made by an Englishwoman, too – Charlotte Horton, who has been making wine in Tuscany for 20 years. There are also twicedaily yoga sessions – which I lazily avoid, though the other guests rave about them – and some extraordinary excursions. One of them is to the delightful village of Montalcino, home of the renowned Brunello di Montalcino wine, and a nearby superstar winery called Sesti, where we have a dramatic candlelit dinner in a chapel as a thunderstorm rages outside. We also visit the spa town of Bagno Vignoni for a dip in its volcanically heated natural pools, and one night we receive a butchery demonstration by a local master butcher, after which we munch barbecued sausages and fine hams – with wine, of course. It truly is a mouth-watering itinerary.
But the star of the show is possibly the castle, a monument rammed with treasures yet warm and welcoming too. Emily couldn’t have picked a better venue for the retreat.
The only downside? Deciding which epic wine to toast its success with, and mine – because I managed to pass the exam. Saluti!