Castello Delle Regine

This past Friday, my group and I, along with our teacher/sommelier, visited the vineyards and winery of Castello Della Regine about an hour and a half outside of Rome. Spanning 400 hectares, we were privy to olive tree groves, farms with cattle and, of course, grapevines. Considering that we visited on the only snowy day that Rome will see in 2010, most of the lesson was kept inside.


Built on sandy clay, the grapes are best made into well-aged red wines

We were shown the room of large steel vats in which the wine is fermented. Violent bubbling creates heat inside the vat, which releases H20 and converts the sugars from the grape pulp to alcohols. The temperature must be highly regulated, because if it is not warm enough, the yeast will not ferment, but if kept too high, the flavor of the wine can suffer.



After surveying the vats, we were brought to the aging room, which was filled with wooden barrels filled with maturing wine. The wood helps the wine to extract tannins from its walls, thus enhancing the flavor. The wines can age from four months to a year, and the smaller the barrel, the higher the complexity of the aroma and taste of the wine. Because of this increase in the general quality, wines stabilized and aged in smaller wooden barrels are generally more expensive.



Excitingly, my group then began the tasting session. However, the staff of Castello Delle Regine created a little game to make the tasting even more interesting. Supplying us with 5 bottles of different grapes and stages of aging, we were given the opportunity to blend our favorite flavors to make the ultimate full-bodied wine. It was a great lesson in perfecting the harmony of the wine, in that sometimes the more bitter or sweet wine would mix in with another vine that one would never expect. Our final product was delicious and something I would buy if it were on the market!


Staff member pushing the cork into our bottle!

All in all, the excursion was extremely informative and gave me a better look at the process of wine-making. I would definitely love to visit other vineyards around Italy to see how different regions differ in the creation of their signature wine. Hopefully, the more wine I try the closer I am to becoming a sommelier!

Ciao,
Sarah