La Dolce Vita Wine Tours

Utterly Umbria

A gourmet wine tour in Assisi, Orvieto & Montefalco

Slide Show:

Tenimenti Luigi d’Alessandro winery, birthplace of Tuscan syra
The winery Castello di Magione, once owned by the Knights Templar
Umbria’s earthy cuisine includes every type of bean imaginable…
…here transformed into a warm bean salad with vinaigrette.
Day 2 begins in Assisi with the Basilica of San Francesco (and the prodigal son).
Nuns checking their cell phone pix.
The De Chirico-like piazza of the basilica
Meringues, a regional sweet
There’s free time for sightseeing in Assisi’s other churches & shops
And there’s spectacular views aplenty from Assisi’s hilltop position.
Day 3 begins our focus on Montefalco, Umbria's signature red wine
The town of Montefalco
In Montefalco, we see Benozzo Gozzoli's masterpiece, The Life of S. Francesco
Montefalco still bristles with medieval watchtowers, just like in Gozzoli's fresco
Maila Orazi, our host at the boutique Montefalco winery Colle del Saraceno
Sagrantino, high in tannins and health-boosting resveratrol
We also visit Marco Caprai, the man who saved Sagrantino from near extinction
We'll hear how Caprai reshaped the thinking in this Umbrian valley
One of Caprai’s experimental vineyards
Harvest time for grechetto.
Day 4 feaures Lungarotti, a key player in the history of Umbrian wine
Chiara Lungarotti now runs the show with her sister.
We’ll taste their range of wines, from a lovely Vermentino blend…
…to a heavenly Sagrantino passito, a dessert wine.
Deruta is another stop, land of majolica pottery
Orvieto, our home base for the second part of the tour.
We visit Antinori’s Umbrian estate, Castello della Sala, and taste one of Italy's finest whites.