Last Monday my class and I went to the Fattoria La Vialla winery right outside of Arezzo. The winery was located up on a small hill and had a quaint vibe with chickens and even a peacock running around the grounds. When we arrived we first made our way to the wine cellar. This cellar looked just like how I had imagined, filled with large old barrels with shelves of dusty wine bottles lining the walls. There we met the winemaker of the winery where he describe some of the unique process of this winery. The winery had a large focus on being all organic. Even the wine cellar used sheep wool for insulation. In the wine cellar they used toasted barrels to help give flavor to the wines.

 After learning more about the fermentation process we had our first tasting straight from the barrel! I thought it was so cool to be able to taste it that way.
The first wine we tasted was a white blended white so it had a cloudy color unlike I had ever seen before. We learned that the fermentation of the white wine is carefully temp controlled so that you don’t lose the aromas of the grape. They also use a second fermentation of malic acid to Latic acid to add softness to the wine. A speciality of this winery is that they don’t filter like most which is make it have the cloudy color. I thought this wine had a sweet aroma when I first smelled it. When I tasted it it had a strong acidic flavor with fruity after tastes. I think that the toasted barrel helped give the wine a very slight vanilla flavor.

The next wine we tried was a red chianti wine from 2014. It was made like most chianti with mostly Sangiovese grapes and had a really dark rich red color. When I tasted the wine it had a very dry taste that left my tongue dry as well. It also left the “sour taste” in my jaw from the tannins.

After our wine tasting we had a lovely meal all together that was so delicious. We got try another vin santo at that meal, but I still have not had a vin santo I have really liked. This winery was definitely a pleasant mid week break and I loved getting to eat and spend time with all my classmates!