Wine Making at Monticino

It was a pleasant surprise for me this morning when Nevio motioned for Katharina & I to follow him to the basement, where he entered another door that led into the wine room. He was simply going to check on the tap but while down there he explained the whole process. I was of course, thrilled by this and I realized standing in the wine cellar, that I am a woman with a lot of questions. Poor Nevio was only trying to check on the tap but I kept blocking his path to the door with more questions. : ) But he thankfully had a lot of answers and it was a good experience to see...no stomping of grapes since it is not the season for that but Nevio did say he did this when he was a child and has been making wine with his father since he was young.

They have a small vineyard on the side of the hill. It is spring time and the leaves have not come out, so you see the bare vines at this point.  They also have another one in a different location not shown. Nevio explained proudly that they do not use any chemicals in their vineyards. Everything is done naturally.

This is the house/restaurant/hotel....where everything takes place in regards to food & sleep. 

Here is Nevio explaining how the vats work, the pressure, the temperature changes.  The bottom left picture in the background you see the pipes going to the ceiling - that connects to the tap upstairs. 

Nevio held the bottle up to the light to show the color, he was proud of.  He explained the barrels as well which was interesting; I think another way to store the wine. 

So the past few days, drinking the wine on tap (both white & red), is the newer wine. It's very light, slightly fruity, and does not have a strong alcohol content. I learned this morning that it's because it is brand new and has not been sitting for years.  The bottles shown are from 2007. 

He said comparatively the vineyard is small and they only make enough for Monticino to serve to guests and to drink themselves...he says he makes around 3,000 Liters per season (September). 

Nevio opened an older bottle for us to try and boy, did it almost knock me over!Wow, it was amazing. He explained all the little pieces that were in the bottom left over that you don't drink (not shown)...it was just cool to see how it works and then to taste the fruit of his hard work.  

Literally passing the bottle to me to show the particles from the grapes...this was all with translation and I didn't catch every part of this explanation. But I could see some tiny spots that were not drunk.  I also think Nevio is like such a cool, older man. There is something about him that I think is like salt of the earth, handsome, weathered, can do just about anything, humble, kind...so glad to have come here and found these folks.  (p.s. yes, that is an expresso machine in the background. I use it every morning & afternoon :). 

This is not wine, it is "grappa" which is the strong liquor that comes from the distilled version of the grapes. It is probably b/w 42-54% alcohol content. Nevio poured me a tiny drink of it at lunch the other day, not knowing he had made it, I refused it at first. Then he just poured it into my glass...whew! man alive. He said it was good for killing germs and bacteria. I would think so. 

That's it for the wine making. I look forward to sharing the pasta making over lunch that happened today but it's getting late and I have over slept almost every morning I've been here. I must go to bed!