Another day in Italy, another day winery to visit. Expectations were high,
not only after the great winery visit we had yesterday in Sicily, but the
price tag that came with it.
There is mixed feeling about this visit. It was enjoyable, but certainly not
worth the price, and a couple of things probably left a bad taste. Reading
trip advisor, others have had good experiences and it is not often that I
would write a review so quickly, but I think everyone should know the good
and the bad, so they can make their decisions.
Below is my review:
We visited the San Francesco winery as part of our tour off a ship from
Salerno. The cost per person for the winery only was 60 Euro cash or 70 Euro
if paid by Credit Card. So for we Australians that is $200 for lunch and
tasting. At that price expectations were high, especially after Bepe told us
that wine will run like a river this afternoon. We have travelled a lot, so
we know what our money should buy us.
We were a group of six, but one lady not feeling very well opted out of any
of the tasting and the lunch. Sonya did a lovely job in tell us of their
history and their process of making wine. (As most wineries do).
We enjoyed the lunch experience, watching the wives in the kitchen putting
our meal together. As for the wine tasting, that is all it was a tasting.
One of the owners poured each of the 5 wines. In each bottle there was just
enough to fill each of the 6 glasses with a mouthful of wine and then the
empty bottle was left on the table. Overall, we would have been lucky to
each receive a glass and, a half of wine in total, over the 6 of us I would
be surprised if we consumed a total of 2 bottles. So, at the cost per
bottle, it would have cost them at most 50 Euros.
The food was prepared beautifully, all local fresh produce. There was no
seafood or big serving of meat that would cause the inflated price and
desert was a slice of cake.
They were concerned for the lady who was unwell and in the end, she accepted
a bowl of plain spaghetti with no cheese or olive oil in the fear of
upsetting her stomach. To do the right thing she offered to pay something
for her plate. The owner turned around and said 50 Euro! Well that was the
icing on the cake and I did jump up and protested, considering she drank no
wine and only had the pasta. They quickly back tracked and said "oh no she
doesn't have to pay anything."
So to feed 6 people a bit of Pasta, vegetables, cheese, a sausage and a
slice from a cake that fed a whole room, add to that the cost of 2 bottles
of wine at 50 Euros. We paid them 300 Euro's.
The previous day in Sicily at the Gambino winery we paid nothing like that
amount. A new bottle was opened for each wine and then left on the table
for us to enjoy, along with a sumptuous lunch. At that winery, feeling we
had more than got our value for money, between us, we walked away with a
dozen bottles of wine
Today we spent nothing, the only thing we walked away with was the bitter of
taste of trying to be charged so much for small plate of spaghetti and not
enough wine to wash the taste away!
Luckily, our visits to Maiori, Minori and the beautiful gardens of Villa
Cimbrone trumps the rest of the day.
