Tasting Montalbano

Taste, quality and craftsmanship: these are the components that characterise Montalbano wine and food production. An area renowned for the excellence of the Tuscan ‘Montalbano’ PGI extra virgin olive oil and the Chianti Montalbano DOCG. Not only oil and wine: other high quality, award-winning and renowned products are produced throughout the area, such as cured meats, chocolate, and other sweet delicacies.

Agricultural Society Betti

The early 20th century wine cellar stands at the foot of the Montalbano hills at an altitude of about 200 metres, surrounded by expanses of olive groves and vineyards. Here Guido and Gherardo Betti grow Sangiovese, Cabernet, Merlot, Trebbiano, Chardonnay Canaiolo Nero to produce, with the greatest possible care, a limited number of bottles. The house labels are Bianco di Toscana IGT “Creto de’ Betti”, Bianco di Toscana IGT “Pagro de’ Betti”, Rosè IGT “Caprone”, Chianti Montalbano DOCG, Chianti Montalbano DOCG Riserva, Rosso di Toscana IGT “Prunideo”, Rosso di Toscana IGT “Semel”.

Within the estate is a splendid olive grove with 1000 trees, including the Frantoio, Moraiolo, Leccino and Pendolino varieties. Harvesting is manual and processing is carried out within 24 hours, with hammer pressing, cold pressing, extraction through decanter and natural decanting without filtering.

Lunardi brothers

Starting from a bakery and food shop, Massimiliano and Riccardo Lunardi are award-winning pastry and chocolate makers. Inspired by traditional recipes, they churn out biscuits, panettone, pandoro and colomba, for all tastes and with an artisanal touch, in their Quarrata workshop. Starting with the ‘cantucci’, to which they add good butter, chocolate, fruit, and seeds.

Once again, this year, Fratelli Lunardi’s classic panettone passed the Italian selections of the World Cup, qualifying among the best panettone cakes in Italy that will compete for the title. It is not the first time: in 2021 they came third.

Faccendi

Faccendi is synonymous with high-quality handmade chocolate from Tuscany, a success story born out of the passion and entrepreneurial skills of Carlotta Malinconi, helped by the experience of chef Francesco Faccendi.

The pastry shop Tantaroba by Faccendi has confirmed its presence in Gambero Rosso’s ‘Pastry Chefs and Pastry Shops 2023’ guide, which lists the best pastry chefs in Italy.

Beatrice Volta

Beatrice Volta‘s passion, combined with the quality of the products, has transformed the creation of the cake into a true artistic culinary moment, in which the taste of traditional sweets is reprocessed in a contemporary key.

The adventure began in 2002 in Bologna and arrived in Tuscany. In 2022, it took part in the Panettone World Championship, winning gold in the “Classic Panettone” category and absolute gold in the “Savoury Panettone” category.

Tradizione Salumi

Tradizione Salumi is a small artisan charcuterie company, founded in 2001 on the initiative of Ivan Magni. It processes meat partly from pigs bred by the Verdiani farm in Agliana and partly from selected breeding farms, with which it creates original products such as ‘Culetta’ and ‘Cuore Dolce Toscano’. The charcuterie also produces Mortadella di Prato, a traditional Tuscan cooked sausage produced since the early 20th century, a Slow Food Presidium and PGI product.