In Rome, if you don't know, the wine culture is very prevalent. No meal is complete without wine. When friends and I go out for a meal, we always order the house wine, always biancci, one, because we like white wine over red and two, because the house wine is the cheapest, and it is usually tasty. I often purchase a bottle of wine when I make a trip to the grocery store, but I never know what type of wine to look for and usually just end up grabbing the second cheapest white bottle off the shelf. After a month of drinking wine here in Rome it is about time I learned more about what makes white wine white and red wine red. And how does a grape from the vine turn into a corked bottle sitting in the store.
Today SAI arranged a vineyard tour and wine tasting in Civitella d'agliano, a town in the hills of Lazio (one and half hours away from Rome by bus). A group of about 30 of us took a bus to learn more about wine today. After the last event we signed up for through SAI, remember Ostia and the amazing meal at the farm, we knew we were about to have nothing less than an enthralling experience. We arrived to the vineyard at 11:30 and were immediately greeted by Sergio, the owner of the vineyard. He was a kind and warm italian man with grey hair and piercing blue eyes and with a great passion for wine. He toured us through the warehouse where the wine is made, fermented, bottled and corked and explained all we need to know about producing wine. We were taken to the vineyards, where there are hundreds of rows of vines, sadly without grapes at this time of year, but the fields went on and on. The scenery was truly grasping. The day was very nice, overcast, but the temperature was perfect, and the hills that surrounded us were foggy and the sun peaked out every once in a while. We were then taken to his other cellar for some wine taste testing and food!
We walked inside and Sergio instantly said, "ok who wants to taste some wine?" He poured us all glasses, beginning with a white lighter sparkling wine, which was one of my personal favorites. Throughout the wine taste testing we were served a delicious meal made up of crusty bread with chopped liver (not the traditional kind, more of a paste) and rosemary olive oil bread, penne pasta and a spicy red tomato sauce, stuffed chicken and potatoes and for dessert an apricot marmalade pie. Each wine he poured us matched the course to enhance the dish, and each wine pairing really did bring out the flavors of each dish. We sipped ten different types of wines and marked down which ones we liked the best and described the flavors of each. We were taken down into the dark cellar to see all of the bottles fermenting and lining the walls, similar to the bat cave, just with more wine.
My favorite was Civitella Rosato, a rose colored wine, which is truly a red grape, but with less of the red flavor of the grape. It is in between white and red and had a very floral and rosy sweet taste to it, very fruity. My other preferred wine was the first one he poured for us, Vino spumante Mottura Brut, a white fizzy wine that was very light. He also had us try a dessert wine called Magone, which was heavier and honey flavored, a bit too strong for me taste wise, but for dessert I could have a glass. He said it is mainly to be served with cheese and liver, hence why we had liver. It was a popular one for the others. Sergio was so inviting and hospitable to us and as we drank more of his wine he did too, and his explanations became louder and the smile on his face became bigger. You could just tell he loves his life, living for wine and greeting guests into his vineyard and passing on his passion for food, wine and company. His label is called "Sergio Mottura" and surprisingly, I was very excited when I saw this, there is a store in Minnesota that sells his wine! It is called "New France Wine Co." and it is in St. Paul....mom, dad, go check it out! Buy my favorite wine for when I come home ;( The label has a porcupine on it, very cute.
In our wine haze we sadly left the very quaint, rustic, vine covered town where the vineyard was located, and I could absolutely see myself living in a small town like this one, getting to know the few members living in the town and settling down there living off of wine and cheese, for maybe a year. It probably won't happen, but a girl can dream.
That is all for now! So far my first weekend spent in Rome has been wonderful and I am so happy with the choice I made to study in this city.
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