Tag Archives: Montepulciano

Hessen

Our first visit to L’Osteria in Wiesbaden…

Happy Presidents Day. It marks the end of our current long weekend. The sun came out briefly, prompting Bill to invite me out to lunch at L’Osteria, a pizza restaurant chain here in Germany. I’ve seen several of these outlets in our recent travels, and I guess Bill was curious about them, too. We had never been to one before today, although they seem to be everywhere we’ve been lately.

The local L’Osteria opens at 11:30 AM for lunch. The door was wide open as we approached and the outside was set up for those who preferred to eat outside. It’s February, but unusually warm– about 54 degrees or so– so eating outdoors isn’t out of the question. Especially for Germans, who are big believers in bundling up for the weather.

As I approached the door, I caught a whiff of a local sewer, which wasn’t the greatest first impression… but they can’t help it if they’re near a sewer, I guess. We walked in and were welcomed to sit anywhere we wanted. I chose a spot near the impressive bar. There were menus on the table, so I started looking. It was very quickly apparent that this chain is all about pizza, although they do offer salads, appetizers, and pasta dishes.

I like pizza, but not so much the kind one finds in Germany. For one thing, sometimes it doesn’t taste like they use mozzarella cheese. For another, they seem to make them for one person, even though they’re always way too big for one person to eat. I opted for tortellini with ham, while Bill had a pizza with prosciutto. We shared a half carafe of Montepulciano and a big bottle of San Pellegrino. More people started to come in for lunch while we waited…

Did I lie about the pizza? It’s very thin crusted, though.
The tortellini was good, and there wasn’t too much of it. I did kind of struggle to finish, but Bill ate two of them for me.

We enjoyed the wine and conversation over the food. I noticed another couple sat near us and shared one pizza, which, frankly, I’ve never seen before in a German pizza place. The barman/waiter had cut it in half and put it on separate plates. I think if I had to do it again, I would have liked to have shared a pizza with Bill. He brought half of his pizza home with him.

The food at L’Osteria was good. The restaurant’s ambiance was not too fancy, and very family friendly, with pop music playing. I noticed the Uber Eats guy came in several times while we were eating. He was doing a brisk lunch business.

I was feeling pretty good about our visit, but then I visited the ladies room… and just as I was about to relieve myself of some processed wine and water, I realized there was no toilet paper in the stall. I went to the other stall, where there was an almost empty roll. There was just enough for me and maybe one more person, if all they needed to do was pee. So, after Bill used the restroom, he asked if I was ready to go, as he’d already paid our tab. I told him we needed to let the barman know that they ladies room needed a restock of toilet paper. The guy had disappeared into the kitchen, so Bill popped his head in and informed him that the restroom needed attention.

Other than that, I enjoyed our visit to L’Osteria. I would go back, although I probably would prefer a restaurant that isn’t part of a chain. Still, it did the job of filling us up and was convenient and reasonably priced. Most everything on the menu was priced between 12 and 16 euros. And now my curiosity is satisfied. Next time, maybe I’ll brave ordering a pizza.

The restaurant, by the way, also appears dog friendly. I noticed a doggie bowl in the foyer as we were exiting.

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booze tourism, tours

Food and wine in Switzerland, Italy, and Liechtenstein… part thirteen

Family vineyards and Montepulciano…

After we checked out of Hotel San Luca, we loaded up in Tom’s van and headed to our next destination, a beautiful family run vineyard outside of Cortona called Fabrizio Dionisio. The home is owned by a couple from Rome who work as lawyers. The beautiful young woman who took us on our tour explained that a lot of people in Rome own second homes out in the country– Tuscany, in particular. The estate where the winery is located is called “Il Castagno”, and it was originally purchased by Sergio Dionisio, Fabrizio’s father, in the early 1970s. The wines produced at this lovely winery are mostly reds made with 100% Syrah Cortona DOC grapes. The lone exception is the Rosa del Castagno, which is a rose produced with Syrah grapes. I love Syrahs, so I think this winery produced my favorite of the wines we tried… but to tell you the truth, we had so many wines, that it’s hard to keep them all straight! I should have taken notes.

I got excited during the tour, when our guide mentioned Georgia and Armenia, which are well known for using an ancient method to make wines. Wines made in the Caucasus region are often made with large earthenware vessels called Qveris (or Kvevris). I am a BIG fan of Georgian wines– and only slightly less so of Armenian wines, even though I spent two years living there. I go to Armenia for brandy, and Georgia for really nice red wines with leathery, spicy, bold flavors. Anyway, this winery in Cortona had qveris, which I thought was really interesting. Also noticeable in the winery are pieces of artwork obviously done by children. The artwork was used for the the wine labels! We got to hear the whole story about that, too. Below are some photos from our stop at Fabrizio Dionisio.

Qveri
Qveri
Inspiration for the labels.

Below are some photos from the mansion’s awesome kitchen, which made me so jealous… I miss having a big kitchen, although our current kitchen is a huge improvement over the last one. This was where we tasted the wines.

Loved this kitchen!
This one was my favorite of the ones we tasted, although I also really enjoyed the rose.

After our visit to Fabrizio Dionisio, we continued on to the adorable town of Montepulciano. I love wines from Montepulciano, so this was a treat! I definitely would love to visit here again someday and go shopping. Some kind of festival was going on, which slightly complicated matters. Nevertheless, Tom knew where to park, and we had lunch at Il Pozzo, where we tasted more wines!

Montepulciano is another town with lovely views.
Anchovies on crackers.
a “starter”
Gluten free pasta made in house!
I had spaghetti with seafood.
Creme brulee
Tiramisu

Finally, after lunch, we made our last stop on the tour, a winery called Talosa. This was located in the town, so we were able to walk there from Il Pozzo. I thought the winery was really interesting, with its “cave like” tasting room. I also remember liking the wines, but I especially like the guide’s Italian accent. She pronounced every English word with an “ah” at the end. It sounded very musical-ah. 😉 After we tasted wines, we visited the cellars. The smart ones also visited the toilets, since that winery was the end of our wine tour.

We immediately made our way back to Florence, where we were all to spend another night in Florence. The other couple stayed at Hotel Firenze Capitale; the lone traveler went to the airport to stay at a hotel there; and Bill and I booked a room at fantastic Hotel David. More on that in part fourteen.

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