products
Wine
Our local wines are labelled Chianti Colli Senesi and are typical of the Chianti DOGC area that guarantees their quality, and historic and intrinsic characteristics.
Wine Enthusiasts and those who just like good wine will be pleased to know that the wine making techniques are still the same as those used in the past, and the locals take great pride in maintaining traditional rural method.
Wine making is part of the local tradition and the wine itself is aged in wooden barrels from 4 months to two year for the Reserve. The principle grapes used to make the traditional Chianti wines are: Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Trebbiano amd Malvasia. It is the result of the careful blending of these grapes that gives our wines the characteristic ruby red colour, that verges on garnet after aging, and those special olfactory qualities that give the wines its intense bouquet with accents of violet, at last your palate can enjoy the delights of this harmonious wine's dry, sapid yet lightly tannic taste.
Oil
The oils produced in the area are blended from the olives of 4 different species, Frantoio, Leccino, Moraiolo and Pendolino to give you the taste of old rural Tuscany thanks to the production methods that keep scrupulously to the ancient traditions. It is an excellent condiment and does not lose its nutritional properties even when heated. Tasting it, one can understand why Dante himself defined it the "liquor d'ulivo" - "the liqueur of the olive".
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Cheese
The traditional Tuscan Pecorino Cheese (sheep's milk cheese) has been protected by the brand of quality known as DOP since 1986 that guarantees its quality and origin. However, it is produced using much older methods.
Seasoned for 4 months for the semi mature variety and 20 months for the fully mature cheese, the cheeses are salted and seasoned in the traditional way either in what is called 'salamoia' or using the dry methods, they measure between 15cm and 20cm in diameter and weigh between 1 and 3 kilos, an absolute 'must' for any lover of good food, you won't be disappointed by its pale yellow colour usually delicate in taste but sometime matured to a stronger taste to bring out its full aroma.
Local Siennese cakes
The best known traditional Siennese cake is a local product called Panforte, eaten in Italy and abroad, and can indeed be considered the traditional cake of this corner of Tuscany.
Panforte is a flat compact cake, either black or white in colour and can be prepared to various tastes:
- Panforte bianco (White Panforte): made with flour, sugar, candid orange and lime, honey and cinnamon;
- Panforte nero (Black Panforte): made with candid melon instead of lime, and with the addition of cocoa and chilly pepper.
Honey e honey-by products
In the rich countryside around Monteriggioni there are many apiaries, that make top quality honey of several types plus many products derived from honey.
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