Fate can have lovely consequences. Our fortuitous encounter with the Bea family of Umbria of course led to the unearthing of one of the great domaines of Italy. But, we have been additionally blessed as we marched together with Giampiero Bea as he made the acquaintance of the Sisters of the Cistercian order living and working at their monastery in Vitorchiano, ninety minutes or so north of Rome in the Lazio district. Here at this quiet religious outpost eighty women of this religious order work vineyards and orchards and gardens organically.
Today, a ravenous US audience eagerly awaits each new release of “the nun wine,” and we at Rosenthal Wine Merchant cannot even come close to satisfying the huge demand. Even before Giampiero began helping them gently refine their approach and commercialize their wines—only to the US and Japan, it should be noted—he was struck by the frankness of a white wine produced with almost no technology. In a region rife with highly controlled, highly sulfured concoctions, here was a wine of real character, an unadorned expression of healthy grapes grown in a fascinating volcanic-soiled terroir. Each time we visit with the sisters, we are amazed by their warmth of spirit, their serene energy, and the shockingly spartan nature of their operation. The “winery” is nothing more than a toolshed packed to the gills with old steel tanks, fiberglass containers of various sizes, and glass demijohns tucked here and there—proving yet again that it takes the barest minimum to produce a wine of character and truth.
Farming
Certified organic by the Associazione Suolo e Salute since 1993
Treatments
Copper-sulfate only
Ploughing
Annual ploughing to maintain vineyard health
Soils
Volcanic
Vines
Trained in Cordon, oldest vines date to 1963
Yields
Controlled through severe winter pruning, debudding, and green harvesting
Harvest
Entirely manual, usually late September
Sourcing
Entirely estate fruit
Fermentation
Following total destemming, wines ferment spontaneously in stainless-steel and fiberglass tanks
Extraction
Wines see pumpovers during fermentation
Chaptalization
None
Pressing
Hydraulic press
Malolactic Fermentation
Spontaneous, in tank following alcoholic fermentation
Élevage
12 months in stainless-steel and fiberglass tanks
lees
Wines remain on their lees until assemblage prior to bottling
Fining and Filtration
Unfined, plate filtered if necessary
sulfur
Applied at harvest and at bottling, with 80-90 mg/l total sulfur
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