My First Wine Tasting

Despite growing up in an Italian-American household wine was not big in my family. I do not try to pretend I know anything about it. I know I like it on the sweeter side and I know I definitely do not like it dry. So I never thought of going to a wine tasting as wine wasn’t really on my radar. Well, in May of 2015 I was staying in Corniglia, Cinque Terre, Italy when I went to the bar with a couple of the ladies staying at the same hostel as me. They saw a flyer for a wine tasting and the two guys that owned the bar knew the gentlemen who owns the vineyard so they all planned on going. I was supposed to leave Cinque Terre by then and I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend the money to begin with.

Well my plans changed. I fell in love with Cinque Terre and was able to extend my stay. The girls talked me into going and so finally I relented and I went. It was one of those life experiences I am glad I participated in and will not forget anytime soon.

I won’t go into a ton of detail about the vineyard as you can find a ton of information on it here and here. I will however talk more about my personal experiences there.

We met up at 5 PM Italian Time which meant about 5:30 and we drove up the mountain to the Vineyard. We were greeted by 2 very warm people who spoke Italian and little English. The two ladies in my party spoke Spanish so for the most part they were able to understand everything and the gentlemen on my party all spoke Italian obviously. So the tasting went on through Italian and luckily I can understand a decent amount, however responding back is where I lack.

There was fresh delicious Italian bread, sardines in olive oil, meats, cheese, grapes, peppers, and many more fresh snacks to help sustain us through the tasting of the four wines. I myself of course liked the sweetest wine the best. After the tasting we were able to go down and see where the wine was made. I would love to tell you more about the process, but unfortunately my Italian is not good enough to understand the details of the process.

But what I can tell you is if you are in Cinque Terre you would not be disappointing by this wine tasting as it was a wonderful way to spend my evening. The vineyard is in a village smaller than even Corniglia was and had all the old world charm you would wish and hope for.