Montefalco Day Eleven

Today we took a day trip to Montefalco where we did a wine tasting, this was my first wine tasting.  I was personally not a fan of wine before this trip and I probably will not love it as much in the United States, but I enjoyed it a lot on this trip. To learn about the production we visited the Pardi cellar: Sagrantino wine production. This was by far one of my favorite days because it was so interesting to learn about wine production and how different the wine is made in Europe. I learned that every winery has its own rules and systems on how to make wine, so every wine will have a different taste because the techniques vary. The technique is also what makes the wine taste different, he mentioned that you can use the same grape but a different technique and that completely changes the flavor. I also did not know you could make white wine from red grapes, if I am not mistaken it's the skin of the grape that changes the color of the wine. Seeing the grape vines was so amazing because there is no mass production. Everything is made on site and you know what is going into the wine. I also did not realize that each tree or vine makes one bottle of wine more or less. I honestly enjoyed learning about the production of wine and the importance of wine in Italian culture. Italians drink wine with almost every meal because they do not drink it to get drunk but rather to enjoy it with the food. The passion that goes into creating the perfect wine was amazing to see. In comparison to the United States, wine is so much better here because there are no additives that make you feel awful after drinking it. The difference in taste is notable and it's so much easier to drink and enjoy in Italy.Regarding the actual wine tasting, we tasted about ten different kinds of wine. Five white wines and 5 red wines. Each wine was paired with an appetizer-like dish. I thought it was interesting to see what dish was paired with what wine. I think my favorite wine we tried was the first sparkling white wine and the last wine we had which was a dessert wine. This was the most wine I have drank in a while but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I will never forget this day.