Madrevite - Cantine Aperto in Vendemmia

A visit to Madrevite Winery at Vaiano has been on our list of things to do since before we left home. On Friday I Googled to see what their opening hours were and found a notice about their cantina opening before the new harvest and tasting of their new Gamay wine on Sunday. They were offering vineyard tours at 3pm, 4pm and 5pm. The latter sounded good so we booked in and what a time we had.

We were the only English speakers amongst the group of 20 but we were given a personal tour of the cellar and later on the vineyard walk we were assigned another family member to translate for us.

We were given some history of the farm which is now in its third generation and has undergone changes to bring it into the modern era of farming and tourism. They have 18 ha. of vines, 1000 olive trees and also grow crops.

The vines of most interest to us were the gamay di Trasimeno, a local grape which we do not grow in Australia, it has an interesting growth structure with bunches growing low to the ground and it was the source of the wine being released that day. 
We were able to taste the different varieties of grapes straight from the vine - gamay, cabernet sauvignon, ciliegiolo, sangiovese, trebbiano di Trasimeno and others. They expect to pick the grapes in the next week but it will depend on the weather.

They have five varieties of olives which are picked in November and are sent to the mill in Panicale to be crushed for the oil.

This old olive tree has a support holding it up and struts through the middle.

We returned to the cellar and the family home expecting to try the gamay but discovered that they were actually launching their first Gamay di Trasimeno wine, and we were part of their celebration. The bar offered aperitifs such as Aperol Spritz and also the two new wines - a red and a rosè of the same wine. It was a most gorgeous colour and both wines passed tasting with flying colours.

As well as being given celebratory glasses and carriers we were invited to enjoy the food laid out - all local produce, prosciutti, salami, cheeses, bread, various pizze from the wood fired oven.

The garden was scattered with casual seating and the family and friends joined the visitors in enjoying the evening. The family dog was a big hit with me, and the couple of little girls present. She was a very keen rock chaser and retriever; not a good sound, rock against teeth!

We were over-awed by the generosity of this Italian family, we had a memorable evening and as Kel said, this will go down as the best memory of this trip.

As we were leaving the sun was setting over Lago di Chiusi and we just had to stand and enjoy the moment.