Yes Cetona does look to be in a nice part of the world.

The house we have rented appears to be right on edge of town so we have the big countryside views and a terrace, garden and swimming pool at the back and the town and all its shops and restaurants within a few minutes walk out of the front. I attach link here in case anyone fodorite looking for place in Italy in walking distance of several restaurants thus avoiding the 'who is going to drive' tonight issue. There is apparently a smaller adjacent property as well, I will report back afterwards as to whether it is actually as nice as it looks !

http://www.cvtravel.co.uk/Destinatio...rtona/La-Torre


So as per your suggestion Stevewith we definitely plan to have a few lunch or suppers enjoying meats and cheeses and salad on the terrace. I therefore strongly suspect we will be visiting the wine shop that your link leads us to but which I had not picked up on in my research thus far so many thanks.

Annhig,The places you flag up look right up our street. Pictures of the thermal springs remind me a bit of Pamukkale in Turkey.

I have discovered that many of the suggested wines, including the 'Morrellina de Scansano' that A-Brit-in-Ischia suggested plus Ovieto and Noble on the Wine Society website and a mixed case is being assembled for pre holiday trials ! What fun to have found another avenue of holiday planning.

Ah, the Wine Society - their monthly delivery is one of the things I've missed most in Italy!

This is what we usually buy from our local supermarket here on Ischia - less fancy than their choice, I'm sure... but very pleasant for 6 or 7 Euro:

http://cecchi.net/wine/la-mora/?lang=en

Peter

loncall - the villa looks lovely and reasonably priced for its size.

I love that idea of "pre-holiday wine tasting" - just as good as "post holiday wine tasting" I think.

if you like the idea of Pitigliano, there is another similar city a little further away called "Massa Maritima". It has a magnificent cathedral sat on a slight hill, and fascinating walls with a mysterious tower to climb. and terrific restaurants! this is the one [I think] we ate at;

http://www.ristoroilgattoelavolpe.it/

the food is absolutely typical to the area, for example "aquacotta" which is basically shepherd's soup. i just had to have it as I'd just bought a book about the cuisine of the Marrema and found the recipe in there. Who knew that water with a few vegetables and herbs in it could be so delicious?

do i gather you're a brit? [there aren't that many of us here on fodors]. if you don't mind saying, where do you live?

We are from South London Annhig and much enjoying the multi-national input of Fodors.

Cetona is just south of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano country. That means that it, its younger brother Rosso di MP, and their distant cousin Chianti Colli Senesi, will be the "local" wines. VNdMP is heavenly. Chianti Colli Senesi is woefully underrated -- if you have a chance to try some, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Depending on your itinerary and transportation, also look toward Umbria for wine. Sagrantino di Montefalco (IMHO the best wine in all of Italy, better than Brunello or Barolo) is about 90 minutes away by car. Just east of Chiusi in Panicale is the Lamborghini vineyard. Yes, THAT Lamborghini (you'll be able to say for the rest of your life that you've test-driven a Lamborghini -- you just don't have to say that it was wine and not a car :) ).

loncall,

I think you will find that the rural roads don't particularly favor taking the wine route to Scansano if you are basing in Cetona. Heading to the Montepuliciano area which if you haven't seen then you should know is THE iconic Tuscan landscape of vinyards, cypresses and castle hilltowns, so popular with photographers. This is where the infinite stretch of hills appears to be almost a rolling ocean, especially on a day when clouds move shadows across it.

I agree that the red Sagrantino wine of Umbria is wine of the most spectacular in Italy, and its home town of Montefalco is a charming (steep) place, with pretty views and a marvelous small museum chapel of frescoes of St Francis of Assisi painted by Gozzoli. However, this too is a major commitment in driving. A Sagrantino red has a very high alcohol content, so it is the kind of wine you definitely want to drink at dinner, not when you will be driving after.

You might to look, however, at the wine roads in Umbria, and the olive oil roads, to see if that is something you might like to undertake. Just click on these icons

http://www.lavinium.com/stradevino/umbriasdv.shtml

http://www.stradevinoeolio.umbria.it/en/

If you are interested in wine tastings and purchases, it is often better to go to an enoteca, because there you can sample more than one producer and you don't need an appointment. Also, if you are thinking of Christmas, you might also want to try some of the many local vin santo that go so nicely with biscotti.

it is great you will have a lovely terrace to enjoy. Try to report back if you can.

Local wines are always a good choice. These wines are often bottled by the owner of the place you are eating , the grapes are often grown behind the restaurant, hard to go wrong with the "house wine" red or white
I would also go into Montalcino , eat a lunch at a local spot, get a tasting of Brunellos, always fun and a less expensive way to enjoy some of the best reds in the world.

We bought wines from local wineries that surrounded our villa in Panzano. Kept it local.it was fun fooing to to them, tasting and then buying tne wines. No English in most of them, but we could understand enough.

When I am somewhere they make good/great wines, in restaurants I just order the house wines by glass, carafe or pitcher, as other have mentioned. I'm not a 'wine snob' but I love (white) wine and have never been disappointed.

We are from South London Annhig and much enjoying the multi-national input of Fodors.>>

me too, Loncall. and I've learnt so much here, most of it good! we used to live south of London, and loved the access to Gatwick that gave us. now we live in Cornwall air travel is a bit more complicated.

suze - I agree that "open wine" can be very good. however I had a very disappointing white in France last weekend, which was unusual. the rest of what we'd drunk on that trip was excellent. In retrospect I should have sent it back but once the food arrived it tasted a bit better and I managed to force it down!

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, I went recently with friends that love drinking wine of all price ranges. We all loved this. Four of us never drank reds but drank this. We had no problems with house wines but when we bought to take back to the apartment we bought the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. We tried many more expensive wines. I have found this at my local ABC store here in the states and loved it here also. I think we had maybe two bottles that we didn't like of Tuscan wine. The food was great and I eat vegetarian. I took a cooking class and loved it. They served box wine there and it was good. Have a great time.

I've never looked for Montepulciano d'Abruzzo wine near Montepulciano, but it would;t surprise me if was the only Italian wine you couldn't buy for love or money in that area. I suspect that the people who live near Montepulciano are really very keen to make sure no one confuses their beloved local wine with the wine this other wine that comes from Abruzzo.

People prefer white wine to red seldom are the best judges of red wine (just like vegetarians are not usually the best judges of a great steak or stew.)

Super Tuscans from Maremma?

The four most famous super tuscans are Tignanello, Sassicaia, Solaia and Ornellaia.

Solaia & Tignanello are in the Chianti region. Sassicaia and Ornellaia are both from Bolgheri. Though close to Northern Maremma they are not considered Maremma wines.

The best known Maremma wine is Morellino di Scansano.

As always in Italy, unless you are in a big city such as Milan or Rome, go local both or food and wine.

nochblad,

Many wine experts (and producers) would disagree with you, and term that area the Alta Maremma

http://www.cellartours.com/italy/ita...y-maremma.html

http://www.snooth.com/region/italy/t...remma-toscana/

http://www.argentiera.eu/en/storia.asp

http://www.altamaremma.org/

As noted above, the production of Super Tuscans is no longer confined to the Maremma or exclusively identified with the Maremma, and you are right that most people who know that there is wine production in Maremma only know about Morellino di Scansano.

Calling for help from wine buffs : what to drink in Tuscany? We drank Montepulciano d'Abruzzo in Tuscany. Hey Stevewith, I am the beer expert but loved this wine and thought they might also. We did drink this in Monterpulciano on our overnight there and Rome and Florence and Cinque Terre. I came home wanting to grill every veggie there was and did learn how to make my own pasta and the appreciation for balsamic vinegar.

We drank multiple bottles of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano while in San Quirico d'Orcia - our wine discovery of the trip. I usually paid 7 euro at the wine merchant but it's twice that amount in the UK.

flpab, I'm glad you are so enthusiasticfor the foods of all Italia, but I'm sure you can see why people would hesitate to take the bank wine recommendations from a beer expert and white wine preferer for drinking a wine from Abruzzo in Tuscany, and, since balsamic vinegar is a specialty of Emilia-Romagna, not sure I'd be chasing that down in Tuscany either.

I am sure that the OP appreciates all input, but if you read the first post, you will see that the request was for guidance about LOCAL wines, which you appear not to have liked.

stevewith

strictly speaking you are correct but in Italy the Maremma is generally considered to be the area around Grosseto.

In fact the geography is quite different between the area south of Livorno where Bolgheri is found and the cattle raising area of the Maremma around Grosseto.

Given your price point and location I would suggest you stick with rossos.

You can of course try different varieties but here's a tip. In one week it is actually possible to educate your palate enough to discern a 'good' example from a poorer example. But ONLY if you stick to one type of wine.

It would be better to visit several wineries in a region per day for free tastings and thus sample the maximum number of examples. But doing your best by sampling a bottle at lunch and a bottle at dinner will still provide you with an education IF you stick to one variety.

>>>suze on Jul 20, 13 at 11:35am
When I am somewhere they make good/great wines, in restaurants I just order the house wines by glass, carafe or pitcher, as other have mentioned. I'm not a 'wine snob' but I love (white) wine and have never been disappointed.<<<<

Yes, the house wines are often quite good, unlike in the US at many restaurants where it's something really cheap.

You can enjoy wine without meals (happy hour - right Suze?).

I like to sample a lot of wines when I travel to see if I can discover a new to me favorite. You really can't do that easily at dinner or at a particular vineyard.

For Chianti, you can sample somewhere like the Cantine in Greve where you load a wine card with a certain amount of money (they will refund any left) and sample any wines you want.

http://www.lecantine.it/cantineUtente/degustazione.php

In Montalcino, there are lots of places to sample the Brunellos (and other wines). The Fortezza is quite popular for tasting. If the weather is nice, they can set you up in the courtyard.

http://www.enotecalafortezza.com/english/index.php

There are lots of other places in Montalcino to sample wines. I like Enoteca Osticcio for the views over the countryside, but their samples are bit higher priced than the Fortezza. They are more about a glass of wine than just samples. Last visit there I had Brunello flights and some Barolo. The food is good also.

http://www.osticcio.it/visita.htm

As for Super Tuscans, they have long been made throughout Tuscany. Years ago started in an area, but everyone seems to make them now.

Since you will be there in early September, check out the Chianti festival in Greve. If that works with your schedule, you will have around 100 wines available for tasting (including Chianti Reserve and Vin Santo). The wine consortium has a very long tent with many wines on shelves to choose from and there are also other booths from individual vineyards with wines, oil and other things to sample that each produces. You buy a ticket (around 10€) and get a glass and booklet with the wines listed. You get a certain number of punches on your ticket (was 7 when I was last there). Many wines are one punch, but the Reserve wines are two punches. If you use up your card, you can buy another one (you can share it since it's getting punched each time a wine is poured).

http://www.expochianticlassico.com/