I keep thinking back to my journey through Northern Italy.  I love that I found so many new white wines to try in the heat of our Florida summer. Besides all the great coffee and history, I got to try a particular wine from my favorite Italian winemaker, Bruna.  This time we travel to San Gimignano Torre Terza Estate.

At our lunch here we began the day with a white wine called Vernaccia.  This wine is greatly known through Tuscany and should be known through any tropically aired place.  The wine is robust with citrus finishing with a grand minerality that pairs with any and all seafood and salted air.

Keeping with the travels through Tuscany, one would be remiss to pass the church of Sant’ Antimo.  This church was a former Benedictine Monastery in the center of Tuscany.  Walking up immediately shows this beautiful history that dates back (as far as they have found) to the 9^th Century.  The Abbey now has something I have never seen in real life, only in recordings…Gregorian chant.

Some people may remember a few years ago—there were a few recordings of Gregorian chant that were popular.  The chant is somewhat sung as a praise to God.  These monks feel that prayer should be more than spoken, so they sing praise.  The coolest thing was that I got to sit through the chant/prayer.  These monks do not speak any of their prayer—they walk in, each has their own tune and it comes through with such melody, like I have ever seen before. They pray nonstop for about 15 minutes, then leave.  We were unable to photograph the monks or record them, but I will never forget it.

Just to accentuate this day, I got to drink fabulous, robust/ crisp wine from near Siena, visit a church that possibly dates back to the 9^th Century, and hear Gregorian chant.  I have to think I am a lucky person to have done all of this in just one day.  So the next time you are looking to have a Tuscan experience here at home, find Torre Terza Vernaccia, sit outside with a breeze hitting your face, and pop in a recording of the Gregorian chant.  I don’t know how much more Italian you can get.

Kathleen Anderson, NW FL wine supervisor. Follow me on Twitter @abcwinekat.