I am going to take you on a journey to the “land towards the sun,” where the sky is blue, the clouds are wispy, the sun is bright and the land is green. It is a serene place, a true heaven on earth with gently rolling hills covered with olive trees, wild brush, cypress trees, and vineyards as far as the eye can see. It is a bit of an oasis housing great hospitality with delicious food and wine. This place is Terralsole.

After three days in Rome my husband and I relocated our Italian vacation to the southern part of Tuscany. We wanted to step off the tourist trail and take a couple of days to immerse ourselves in the Tuscan wine culture. A year ago I wrote an article titled “A Trip to Tuscany Without Leaving Home for #ItalianFWT.” It was my first month of participating in the Italian Food Wine Travel group. In this article I featured a 2004 Brunello from Terralsole. It was in researching that article that I not only fell in love with Terralsole but told my husband when we go to Italy we MUST stay there! You see Terralsole does not only produce world class wines and olive oil but it is also a bed and breakfast. Terralsole is owned and operated by veteran wine maker Mario Bollag and his beautiful wife, professional musician (and American) Athena Tergis. They are both gifted artists and wonderful hosts; we cannot wait to visit them again!

We stayed two nights in Terralsole and used it as our home while we visited wineries in Montepulciano and Montalcino. However, Terralsole was not just a place to sleep, having already tried and enjoyed their wine we wanted to do a tasting and participate in a cooking class there as well. The first night we arrived late due to poor directions from Apple maps. *Note, if you want to find your way to Terralsole use Google Maps because for some reason Apple does not believe it exists. Therefore, we planned our tasting and cooking class on for our second night. There were two other couples staying in the villa along with us, they were Americans from the east coast and a lively, fun crowd so we all decided to do the cooking class together. (Truth be told the cooking class ended up being the women in the kitchen while the men drank wine and had a good time talking and laughing.) As you will see Terralsole is a gorgeous property, but the cool part is under the pictures you see, deep below the house, pool, land, etc, lies a huge wine production facility with tanks, pumps, cellars, tasting room, everything…all hidden underground.

We had a great night cooking, eating and drinking many different Terralsole wines. I did not take any notes because I was too busy having a blast. I did; however, take lots of pictures. So let’s begin our virtual tour of Terralsole property, cooking class and wine!

Terralsole is open to guests for tours and tastings by appointment Monday through Friday and their three bedroom villa is perfect for a cozy Tuscan vacation. I encourage you to visit the Terralsole web site to learn more about the winery, information on tours, tastings and staying, as well as to view their entire portfolio of wines, join their wine club (no purchase obligation) for information on specials and tours throughout the US, and to purchase their exquisite wine!

A huge thanks to Athena and Mario for such amazing hospitality! Our two days at Terralsole were magical and simply not enough! We look forward to visiting them again soon and soaking up the “land toward the sun!”

My Song Selection: As I said Athena is a very accomplished fiddle player. She travels the world performing with her musical group The Green Fields of America and as a soloist with the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra. I think this lively, upbeat performance illustrates the great time we had at Terralsole.

Spend a few days at Terralsole wining and dining and let me know what song you pair with it. Cheers!