The tourists who happen to visit Cinque Terre are amazed by unique landscape in the world. Tiny, colorful houses atop of cliff hills, and the slopes covered by infinite lines of stone terraces.
The trees of forests, that once covered the hills were gradually taken away one by one by the workful hands,which build stone walls preventing the soil from collapsing to the sea.
The titanic work completed over 8 millions square meters of stoned walls, total length of which overcome 6,700 km equaling the outshape of the whole Italy.
The terraces are filled with vegetables, olives, lemons and … vineyards.
The valour of the local wine has been already appreciated by Romans, who called it Vinum Corneliae , which means the wine from Corniglia, the oldest mentioned location from ‘5 lands’.
The wine must have been popular in quite large area, as the vases with Corniglian wine were found during excavations in Pompei.
There are the signs of Roman outpost near Corniglia, there were some other troops guarding the area, but surprisingly, significant historical events seem to avoid the tough cliff Ligurian shore.
The lines of murals were slowly growing, the vineyards maturing, gradually establishing the local brand of white wine known as Sciacchetrà.
It is said, that the name derives from two local words ’sciac’ and ‘trac’ ( crush and remove), which describe two operations made in a winery:
crushing the grapes and removing the pomace to preserve the golden color.
But before the crushing, grapes are to lay in the shade for two months, then after processing the liquid has to mature for at least one year to be called the real Sciacchetrà,
the wine with amber colour, the smell of fresh fruits mixed with honey and the taste of all the gradations of sweet drowned into the dryiness.
To make sure that you are drinking the real product, each bottle is labeled with Cinque Terre Doc sign of quality, and this sign can be used only by local vineyards making Sciacchetrà from grapes
Bosco, Albarola and Vermentino.
The wine is a perfect supplement to the local ligurian dishes, sweet cakes and matured cheese.
Where to find Ligurian wine :
try wine restaurant in Monterosso
Enoteca Internazionale
Via Roma 62
19016 Monterosso al mare ( La Spezia )
[photo courtesy of jamesmelzer]
