A wine filled weekend in Italy: Part two

Spent all of Saturday at La Tana dell'Istrice (The Porcupine's lair) which is Sergio Mottura's vineyard/villa.

I toured the vineyard and winery (a free planned trip thanks to SAI the study abroad program I am in) along with 35 other students in the same program. We visited the wine cellars and took part in a wine tasting of 10 different wines.



Literally starting from the very beginning we were taught how wine is made. Our guide (who I'm pretty sure was Sergio Mottura, but I was afraid to actually ask... I know his name was Sergio and they way he talked about the estate I was strongly given that impression) brought us out into the vines of the vineyard to taste the grapes (they were Grechetto grapes to be exact) that we would be drinking later that day. He showed us around where the grapes are fermented and bottled. We were able to try some wine that had only been fermenting for a few months so it was very foggy.


I thought it was very interesting how they have the have had this vineyard down to a science for centuries. They even hand pick all the best grapes and use only natural/organic steps throughout the wine process. This spot has been harvesting grapes since the Etruscans first planted them here. They found the volcanic soil to have great conditions for growing grapes. Now the wine from this vineyard is some of the best in the Lazio region.

We were then brought up to the villa where the wine is aged. La Tana dell Istrice (The porcupine's lair) in the middle of a quiet medieval village surrounded by fields and the vineyards. When we were brought down into the wine cellar of "tufo" caves formed by volcanic rock. It was a very creepy feeling. It was like a scene from a movie, I felt like at any moment a swarm of bats could have over taken us... but I was pretty confident that wasn't going to happen.



This is the best picture I could take to give you the "cave feeling"

After touring the wine cellar, learning about all the technique/processes involved in making wine, and even tasting the grapes... it was time to taste the wine! We tried 10 different wines starting with a sparkling white wine working our way to a delicious dessert wine. He let us try his award winning wine the 2006 Mottura Latour a Civetella. Which was really good.

Sergio taught us that asking someone if they like white or red wine doesn't make sense. Of course it depends all on the food! So we tried different foods to see how well they go together such as a spicy pasta with a dry white wine. We also had two rosé wines and two red wines to try with our roasted chicken and potatoes.

I have to say I really enjoyed the dessert wine though, went perfect with the apricot crusty pie we had : )

The final damange:

Some pictures from the little village on the walk back to the bus





I'd say it was a pretty good weekend : )

P.S. Sergio Mottura wine can actually be purchased at Violette Wine Import Inc in Cambridge, MA