There was a new feeling in the October air which was crisp, foggy and fresh. It was a visit to Frescobaldi in Chianti Rufina 25 kilometres north-east of Firenze (Florence).

The hillsides are the same: vegetated, rocky, austere, perfect hideouts for wild boar and all the game that inhabits. It is also the environment that the Florentines such as the 31 generations of Frescobaldis respect as the home of sangiovese.

Hosting me at Castello Nipozzano is Rufina-born Stephania Morello, the company’s tasting and sales specialist for all things Frescobaldi at the estate of over 800 hectares.

As is commonplace, portion is vines, portion olive (the three widely planted varieties-frantoio, moraiolo and leccino in Toscana), and the rest unplantable due to the rugged nature of the landscape-unlike most Australian regions.

Frescobaldi participate in the Laudemio extra virgin (EVO) olive oil project among 30 estates. My oil sample was delicious-glistening green, mild pepper, hay and slippery spice on typical Tuscan dry/crisp bread.

Stephania outlines how the property supports only red vines; sangiovese predominantly but also cabernet sauvignon, franc, merlot and petit verdot established by a long banished relative (forced otherwise to ply the wine trade in Bordeaux) who returned in the 1880s.

Unlike the southern hemisphere, vines stay in the ground about 40 years; after that they are grubbed and new selections planted. The interval between replanting can be up to five years, as fallowed soil is regenerated, and no doubt the organic additives allowed to ameliorate.

Unlike the Bolgheri region on the coast where Bordeaux varieties were only introduced in the 40s (Sassacaia), and moreso from the 80s, Nipozzano has more prehistory with these varieties, grown in 25 hectares at 300 m elevation.

However there are no centurion vines to be found from the continual replacement mindset.

The wine made as cabernet sauvignon (60%), merlot (25%), franc (12%) and verdot (3%) is Castello di Niponazzo Mormoreto 2007 IGT (90), USD 56, 14.5%, celebrating 25 years of continuous production of this wine.

It’s style is unashamedly bold: ripe cabernet of the chocolate type, spicy cabernet (as McLaren Vale does in Oz), fully ripe and supported by the ripe floral notes of merlot. Up to two years aging in mainly new barriques puts the additional tannins on the palate that the structure deserves.

Production annually is 30,000 bottles.

Montesodi is the pinnacle sangiovese over the past 30 years from the property; 20 hectares, is planted on a plateau facing south-west to intercept the most sun at 400 metres. It now contains 34 different sangiovese clones. The grapes are left to hang to super-ripeness, producing 35,000 bottles.

Montesodi Chianti Rufina 2006 (96), USD 42, 14.5%, is sangiovese, single vineyard, low crop, high density planting which shows in the wine. Colour is dense, nose is dense, the wine focus is vanillin from a high use of new barrique, black cherry fruit intensity which concludes on the palate as a massive sangiovese drink. The lineage is 30 years.

Montesodi and Mormoreto are both harvested by hand and hand sorted; as I observed on the day of visiting. The rest of the 200 hectares are mechanically harvested to make one million bottles of Riserva Chianti (a big feat as there is no entry level wine).

Castello di Nipozzano Riserva Chianti Rufina 2007 (90), USD 16, 13.5%, is outstanding. It has lovely cherry freshness, sour cherry fruit intensity, dryness, aged for 2 years in second fill barriques; sangiovese clones (90%), the rest colorino, malvasia nero and cabernet sauvignon.

Part of the Castello supports the ancient villagio Castello; once a hub of share farmers who lived and worked on the estate, one 73 year-old lady remains. Share farming had ceased in the 60s.

The castle was a Florentine fortress dating back to 1000, then a literary retreat and a long time Frescobaldi estate. Today it houses the Frescobaldi family wine library.

However I will recall the place as an estate making big Tuscan red wines.

Visiting Pio Cesare was an exciting morning: there was little driving to do because as luck would have it, the company’s cantina is right in the middle of Alba town. here one walks to via Cesare Balbo, starting out from Piazza Savona.

Now there are larger towns in the province of Cuneo, such as Asti and Alessandria, but is the largest town in which the surrounds have the sacred grape nebbiolo growing.

So Alba has been the cradle of Barolo and Barbaresco producers since the 1880s, and the only cantina left within the centro which I have discovered, inside the original town fortifications is Pio Cesare.

Pruotto also previously operated close to the centro but moved to the town’s outskirts in the 70s.

Pio Cesare was founded in 1881 by Cesare Pio, so now five generations have managed this family business. Over that time they have acquired 50 hectares of vines and generally make 400,000 bottles.

Vineyards are owned in the major top-notch vineyard sites; Barolo and Barbaresco, and the grapes literally come “in the back door”-the rear of the property in this narrow-streeted town, has a different level which allows easier delivery, as well as wine shipping elsewhere on the globe; including Australia.

“If you come down below our guest entry plaza, you can see our storage cellars built onto and above the original roman wall, circa 50 BC” says our host, family member Cesare Benvenuto. Which we promptly witnessed.

Most of the cavernous sites were housing the larger oak sizes (French oak not Slovenian) associated with Piemonte wine. However Pio Cesare wines contain small amounts of newer oak, and I saw barriques and hogsheads from Seguin Moreau, Vicard, Randonnet and Adour. The storage levels are actually below the water table.

Pio Cesare in many ways is all about tradition yet the wines are modern, outward and wine ranging to encompass the entire depth of Piedmontese winemaking. Such as arneis (not grown in Roero but Barolo and Barbaresco villages), cortese, chardonnay (from Treiso in Barbaresco similar to Gaja), and in reds, freisa, grignolino, dolcetto, barbera and nebbiolo.

Pio Cesare Barbaresco 2006 (93), 14%, USD 60, is a family vineyard collections from Treiso, cherry with brown edges, traditional oak-aged nose, has perfume, oak cedar, tar, lots of honey, the mouth sweetens with roasted nuts, more honey tones, dried herbs then a long silken tail. Drinks well today.

There is also a single vineyard Barbaresco “Il Bricco”.

Pio Cesare Barolo 2006 (95), 14.5%, USD 60, is again a family collection from Serrulunga d’Alba, Grinzane Cavour, La Morra and Novello in Barolo, showing some sweeter new oak nuances though essentially a big-nosed traditional Barolo, lots of oak and honey on the palate too, and elegant softness.

There is also a single vineyard Barolo “Ornato”.

Pio Cesare’s label keep to tradition: since their “recent” inception in 1916, the coat of arms of Alba town is included, a rare acknowledgement by the town authorities, remaining to this day.

Pio Boffa currently runs the company. The family continually run the names Pio or Cesare through each coming generation so that the original founder’s “Cesare Pio” words are never lost.

A beaut place to visit with a very happy outlook on Alba wine, life and the trade of sending wine to international destinations with the minimum of fuss-Italianesqueness!

Castellina sits in the heart of the Chianti Classico area. Just in case you are not sure the road maps have it signed as Castellina-in-Chianti, obviously to differentiate from a town of the same name elsewhere.

The Tuscan fare is well rehearsed in cook books and Italian ristorantes worldwide. On a cool drizzly October day it made sense to eat some Tuscan soup.

And while noticing a wine tour of Americans descend on one large trattoria we jumped next door; full of locals, children included at Il Cantuccio Caffetteria and Wine Bar. The advent of the shiny glass, mood-lit, stainless steel vinimatic single glass wine dispenser powered by argon has been a boon for winery tourism here.

Il Cantuccio blends the traditional family fare with better service through better choice; there was a single glass menu as in Australian restaurants, too many wine lists in Italy force diners to choose a bottle, and miss the pulse of the wines in the region through fewer options to try.

The soup dish came without a spoon so you can guess its texture; white beans disintegrated, typical dry local crusty bread (seems to always taste stale but with a crust to die for), hearty vegetables and vegetable broth.

The primi platti, first course has to be a cutting board (made of olive wood) of cured meats and cheese; fennel-infused coppa (neck muscle of pig), various others well aged, peppered, always prosciutto crudo (preserved pork loin and leg too-shaved off a stand), crumbly 12-month-old pecorino, sublime, salivating saltiness.

Drinks: had to re-acquaint with the sole white of the area, Vernaccia di San Gimignano 2008 by Terruzzi and Puthod (89), nice and pale, nose unwooded, and palate just fine; good texture with the bitter sweets of nectarine, tang, mouth feel and flavour intensity from some good winemaking (winemaker had aged on yeast, a totally good wine drinking package).

The red of choice was Tre di Brancaia 2008, IGT (92), very well made with freshness and good texture, a real find here amongst wines which often tire in the glass from lack of zip. This Brancaia had subtle new oak, and close knit tannins versus the normal grainy ones.

The blend of tourism and culture in this town is quite engaging. The enotecas are slick and polished yet the decor is rustic; olive oils and pasta sauces for sale sit between wine in racks.

The Le Volte Enoteca across the cobbled street from Il Cantuccio stretches for an unusual two rooms to accommodate tutored tours and tastings. I tried to taste the set of Chianti stored under the flashy dispenser but was politely declined unless I took a tour. Probably not.

It’s brand is La Castellina, a suitable name in this part of the woods. I purchased Squarcialupi Riserva 2006, 14% (84) Gallo Nero neck label and all; but it was disappointing, old oily oak aromas and too much intervening brett to really appreciate its flavours.

The point of merlot and cabernet having been blended in as 15% of the mix allowed, other than sangiovese was lost.

The Enoteca did better with my choice from further south: Crocedimezzo (meaning half of the cross) Rosso di Montalcino 2006 13% (89, white neck tag) from Barbara and Roberto Nannetti’s property. This was a trifle muted in colour as expected for the second tier after Brunello di Montalcino.

But the wine had forest aromas, subtle sweets from residing in barrel for 18 months or so, and fruitiness rather than the excess palate dries. Pleasant, good drinking wine.

www.enotecalevolte.com ; www.brancaia.com ; www.camparigroup.com ; www.crocedimezzo.com

Tuscan skies like all things Italian are a little unpredictable at the moment. It is a relief to many that most of the grapes are in anyway.

It’s been a long sunny season, yet cool and the ripening has stretched through September and into October.

This the home of the sangiovese grape – an ugly grape vine which likes to grow like an unruly child, in every direction, has very tough skins, easily carries too much crop causing late ripening.

Yet the Tuscans are proud of this hardy vine. Most properties on the steep hillsides do not have irrigation so there are clear signs where vines are struggling: varying leaf colours across the vista, many turned yellow. So wines from these vines would not be generous.

As we Australians do, the better vineyards have not yet been picked, hanging out the crop to full ripeness.

Sangiovese had its origins further north during the Middle Ages, in the province of Romagna yet we credit Tuscany with its determined commercialisation.

I am on my way to the heart of Chianti Classico, that big geographic slice of land south of Firenze (Florence) and north-east of Siena whose wines carry the distinctive Gallo Nero (Black Rooster) pink neck tag, and have done so for decades.

The trip from my digs in Barberino Val D’Elsa (town of Barberino in the Elsa Valley) was 30 minutes on back roads, GPS-assisted, which really gives the feel for the terrain (hilly, ever-changing, gangly sangiovese everywhere, some new plantings, forest, elegant pencil-shaped cypress pines, other cypress bushy), even driving over the main Siena-Firenze highway.

This misty morning the visit is to the hilltop village of Castellina in Chianti, and my host at Castellare, Sienese-born customer services officer Gabrielle Mori. A property with 100 hectares, not all vines but olives for oil, is set in a patchwork of vineyard blocks.

The cellars house all the wine made annually (200,000 bottles), established 100 years ago, underground, and now extended in 1979 by the current owner.

The wine library is comprehensive in this modern era, but I did have to grin where four barrels of chardonnay, and three of sauvignon blanc, fermenting, were resting. International white variety experimentation, why do it?

My tasting in the wood-panelled room quickly focussed on the 2008 Chianti Classico, 13.5%, for its freshness and vitality. This grape has almond and black cherry/sour cherry flavours, and at times, tumultuous and terribly drying tannins. It’s generally medium bodied.

I wondered if that Madiran, France-origin technique of micro-oxygenation has reached these parts. “Micro” makes tannic reds soften during making, and I reflect on why the Tuscans hold sangiovese wines so long in barrel and bottle letting the fruit dip, and the tannins dry out, even before wines are sold.

The serious wines, Riservas, and single vineyard wines currently on sale, are from 2006. Imagine how well a fleshy Riserva 2008 would drink now? Conceptually better to an Aussie.

Now that I have that wine style thought out of my system I am more determined to enjoy sangiovese some more; generally its grippy tannins and savoury, medium texture come into play at meal time.

This is where the magic starts, and all of Tuscany closes down around 1pm for lunch, streets go quiet, traffic drops and life goes on much slower.

www.castellare.it; for country apartments, at Poneta, near Barberino, very close to Poggibonsi- www.santamariaaponeta.com