MONTALCINO, Italy — Much as I feel right at home in this cozy Tuscan hill town, I welcome the addition of a Relais & Chateau caliber accommodation in the countryside.
The stone streets of Montalcino are full of history, from the Fortezza that guards the city from its highest point to the outside walls that kept enemies at bay through centuries of war and civil turbulence.
On a warm summer evening the aroma of the local pasta, pinci, covered in a cinghale-based meat sauce, wafts from nearly every small taverna. It is a great place to kill a lazy night or two. But there are no top-notch hotels.
A couple of small three-star hotels, Vecchia Oliviera and Dei Capitani, serve in a pinch and both provide spectacular views toward Montepulciano and Siena to the east, but neither would be considered luxurious in even the most stretched of imaginations.
There is an alternative, the newly opened Il Borgo Banfi, an accomodation of a dozen or so rooms and small cottages within the gates of the Castello Banfi wine estate. Adjacent to the castle itself, in fact.
I toured Borgo Banfi briefly during the Benvenuto Brunello in February and was impressed with the physical space, including large bedrooms and bathrooms (rare for the Italian countryside, much less in a 15th century building).
The rooms are beautifully appointed, modestly lavish on a par with such exceptional wine country properties as the Napa Valley’s Meadowood resort and Bordeaux’s lovely Les Sources de Caudalie.
What you also get at Borgo Banfi is the serenity of the countryside accompanied by a Michelin one-star restaurant; the more modestly priced Taverna, which specializes in regional Tuscan cuisine; and the surroundings of the spectacular Castello Banfi, including a working Balsameria and a comfortable tasting room.
Rates are not inexpensive, beginning at more than 300 euro per night, but in line with similar accomodations in the world’s other great wine regions. For more information, visit www.castellobanfiilborgo.com.
PHOTOS: Top, one of the small cottages at Borgo Banfi on the Castello Banfi estate near Montalcino; center, a frontal view of the castle; bottom, a bird’s-eye view of the Banfi balsameria.
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