Un Assaggio di Vino

Most schools would consider themselves lucky to have kids they can trust with overnight trips or to give them free time around a city they are only visiting for a day. At SYA, it's expected we can do these things weekly. However, how many schools trust their kids with a wine tasting!? I can only name one, and I just so happen to go there!

Today, we took a trip to a vineyard on the outskirts of Lazio called Trappolini. Unfortunately, the actual fillare (aka the actual rows of grapes) were too wet for us to visit, but we got a full tour of the facilities and the process of winemaking among incredible views! Trappolini makes 150,000 bottles a year of 7 different kinds of wine; 3 red and 4 white. The grapes they use for all of their wines are grown by them, guaranteeing spectacular quality. They focused for many years on the local specialty of Orvieto, but now have moved on to have a wide variety. I smelled the sweet scent of the grapes being transformed into their various new forms as I walked all around, getting a chance to really get more of a sense of the process (no pun intended...).

The tour taught us a lot of interesting things about wine and wine culture I would have never even thought to consider. For example, most people know vino rosso is made with grapes and the peel as opposed to the sweeter vino bianco is not, but how does the skin stay in the grapes for red wine? Which one is finished first? What's the difference between fermentation and processing in a container standing upright or one on it's side? Well, I now know all the answers to these important questions. Not to mention I got to make my classroom the place it all happens!

The vineyard set up a wonderful tasting for us with one white Orvieto, and one red Cenereto. The owner of the company gave us a very specific lesson on how to host a wine tasting as well as participate in one. He was a lovely host. We were totally responsible and ate pizza beforehand and had only a taste of each- the experience was great and the trip went off without a hitch! Many bought bottles to gift to their host families, and shockingly, a bottle at the vineyard is as cheap as 4 euro!

After our time at la vigna, our afternoon was spent visiting "la città che muore" or "the dying city" of Bagnoregio which is only accessible by a veeeerry steeeep bridge. It is surrounded by badlands and stands out on the top of its own cliff that has been formed over many, many years of earthquakes and erosion. It is a medieval city that has a lot of history behind it (but then again, where in Italy doesn't), yet six people still live there today! Well, I did say people, but I neglected to mention there is a far higher cat population.

 What a day! I am so blessed.








































Location: Castiglione in Teverina, Viterbo, Italy

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