Rimini wine tasting

For the final full day of our Rimini stay and as a change from castles, churches and lots of walking Bridget and I enjoyed a wine tasting experience 🍷

We had found a local winery with good reviews on Google Maps which seemed easily accessible by bus. The previous night I had completed an online form to make a booking and followed this up with an email.

To ensure we had enough change for the bus it was necessary to purchase ice cream from the gelateria close to the bus stop (which was handily across the road from our hotel). The creamy scoop of amarena cherry gelato and another creamy scoop of caramel sea salt tasted amazing… another ‘must do’ for any Italian trip…

As we boarded we found that on this particular bus (route 15) we could tap our cards for the 1.30 euro fare so we had indulged in the ice cream for nothing… d’oh…

The bus continued along the expected route to the outskirts of Rimini and we were soon up in the hills which surround the town. After 30 minutes the bus dropped us on a quiet road in the countryside.

Thankfully San Valentino winery was a short 6 minute walk from the bus stop.

The place seemed fairly quiet when we arrived at 2.30 pm. For some reason the winery hadn’t seen my enquiry however after checking they confirmed all was OK and we could proceed with the winery tour and wine tasting!

Our guide Laura conducted the tour and explained the grape growing process. All wine produced is certified as organic as no chemicals are used.

A relatively small amount of olives are grown but these are only used by the farm and are not sold to produce olive oil.

Laura explained the process for storing wine in wooden barrels. This is for red wine only and the wood adds to the flavour of the wine. The barrels are replaced every 6 years and the wine from new barrels is mixed 40:60 with wine from older barrels to manage the flavours.

White wine is stored in metal barrels as they don’t impact on the flavour. This enables the full flavour of the white wine to be retained.

Weather plays a big part in the success of the wines produced for each vintage. For example a season with a lot of rain means the grapes are harvested sooner and the alcohol content is less.

At the end of the cellar tour we were seated at a table for the tasting to take place.

We tasted a sparkling wine followed by a white wine. Both were crisp and refreshing.

To accompany the wine we were served with local cheeses, salami and bread drizzled with olive oil. All of this was also organic.

Next we were given several red wines to try.

This wine, Vivi, was created in memory of the owners late wife. The superwoman design on the label was designed by a Brazilian artist, as ‘strong women drink red wine’… oh yes!

Once the wine tasting had finished we took a glass each and enjoyed this while sitting outside on the terrace of the farm house.

From the terrace we could see San Marino in the distance.

Once we were ready we had to get a bus back to Rimini. Bus line 16 was the next bus but as we had to wait for 30 minutes I sat amongst the olive trees and daisies uploading photos and drafting my blog posts. And as I was feeling chilled and mellow after the consumption of much wine, this song sprang to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhB6Lb7_kN8

I spent longer than anticipated updating the posts as our intended 17.30 bus didn’t turn up 🙄 Bridget looked for an uber but none were available. Thankfully the 18.30 did arrive on time and whisked us rather speedily back into Rimini by which time it was almost dark. We disembarked at the Augustus Arch and walked back to the hotel from there.

Summary

A lovely end to our 7 nights in Rimini and this is the last of the posts from this trip. We had a wonderful adventure and packed in a great deal of activities throughout our 8 day holiday. I’m pleased and reassured that such an exciting and extensive wow-factor packed agenda can be had for under £700. Details of the budget can be found at the end of the ‘Historic Rimini‘ post.