During the pandemic, I discovered cycling. Specifically the Tour de France. A fellow wine writer, Lauren of the Swirling Dervish , did a post each day or so focusing on a wine of the region the race was traveling through. I began to follow for the wine but soon got sucked into the race and the cyclists.
Since then, watching the race has been an annual event at our house. This year we managed to catch the Criterium de Dauphine, one of the last races leading to the Tour. I started looking at the Tour Route , which this year begins in Italy and found they would be traveling through many wine regions.
I thought I would share with you some of my discoveries. Ah, Florence! Beginning on the Ponte Vecchio in Firenze the Italian name for Florence , we travel through the region known for Chianti, made primarily from the Sangiovese grape. You can see by the names of the DOPs, many of which are nested, that these regions grow Sangiovese and Trebbiano. Beginning on the Adriatic Coast of Emilia-Romagne. There is a terrific map on the Enoteca Regionale Emilia Romagna site.
It shows the overlapping DOCs very clearly. There are so many great regions and wines to choose from. Piacenza Plaisance to the French is located in Emilia-Romagne, just south of the border to Lombardia. They also make sparkling wines. We travel Into Piemonte through Alessandria, then south through Monferrato.
Monferrato is known for red and Sparkling wines. We move on to Calamandrana and Canelli read more about Calamandrana and Canelli and the Moscato wines of the region in our articles:. Of course the famous Barbaresco wines of the Nebbiolo grape are from this region as well as Barbera in Alba and Nizza that we will pass through.
