A tiny Tuscan vineyard in Maremma not on the map!

This tiny Tuscany vineyard in Maremma isn't on any wine map of the region or "Strada del Vino", yet! But it is already making headlines with its wines. So if you visit now, you really could claim to have discovered it, as its name and limited bottles of wine won't have been penned or drunk by anyone else :)

I just love taking you to places in Maremma that no one else does...

The Carrareccia Maremma vineyard in October

The Podere La Carrareccia vineyard in Monteregio di Massa Marittima wine country is a "rustic" as a Tuscany winery in which you can taste wines gets.

OK, hands up! I have tasted wines in more rustic and impromptu places in Maremma - that is daily life here - but they the offerings of wine producers that will never, ever, be on a regional map because they are home grown, home fermented, family affairs!

It doesn't boast any huge cavernous ancient arched wine cellar, nor architect designed headquarters with spiral staircases, or rooms fit for holding concert recitals in them. For this Maremma winery is tucked away within a large olive oil estate belonging to the Benini-Stanghellini family, and is the women of the family's hobby! On top of their day jobs, they tend to three thousand vines planted over two hectares.

The tastings take place either in the "cantina" (imagine a rural warehouse) alongside the grape crushing machine and the filled bottles awaiting packaging. Or, if the weather is good, in the garden under the gazebo of the "azienda" (farm).

And if you think that this is, therefore, a comedown from other wineries, it isn't. It is just a different experience.

And, I defy you to try their IGT Maremma Toscana Il Fonditore DOC Merlot and Cabernet red wine with its 15% alcohol and tell me that that didn't bring a smile to your face :)

Or the Orniglio DOC red (at 14.5%) that this year - 2014 - won the Selezione del Sindaco Medaglia d'Argento wine award and spends twelve months in barriques of French oak.

Their white and dry Vermentino, Lillatraia, isn't a lightweight either.

Book a Tuscany wine tasting

You can book a wine tasting with the women winemakers Eva and Romina by calling Eva on +39 0566 918030, Fax. +39 0566 918097, or mobile +39 320 4479089.

A telephone call the day or evening before will do fine. And they will cater for as few or as many of you that there are :)

You'll find the vineyard on the road between Massa Marittima and Follonica - just after the village of Valpiana and before the hamlet of Cura Nuova.

Podere La Carrareccia
www.carrareccia.com

PS. Don't tell everybody, but at the moment, the tasting won't cost you anything.

A word of caution - nothing to do with the winery! Please take care when leaving the vineyard and re-joining the main road. It isn't an easy entry to make as the road is a fast one - actually what I want to write is that there is a decent speed limit but hardly anyone (that is being polite) adheres to it and the strip north has a blind dip in it just before the vineyard track exit. Enough said.