January 19th (Katherine)

Now that we’ve been to multiple cities and towns on this trip, I’ve been able to see some cultural similarities across different regions of Italy. At many of the meals we’ve had, wine has been offered, even outside of the two wine tastings we’ve been to. Before coming to Italy, I knew the country was internationally known for good wine, but class readings and experiences have helped me understand the full importance of wine in Italian meal culture.

One of our readings, from the book A History of Italian Wine, discussed the development of the Italian wine industry in the second half of 19th century. Winemaking was shaped by “family businesses strongly linked to the territories they belong to,” and cooperative wineries combining multiple small winemakers that were encouraged by the State (92). These two types of organizations helped regulate quality and successfully market Italian wine, to the point that “the best Italian wines were internationally known” by the end of the 19th century (108). Interestingly, rather than the type of grape taking precedence, Italian wines are very regional, even hyper-local. This is something the winemaker hosting our second tasting emphasized, he said that whether or not people liked their wine, they would know it for its distinctive taste. When I sampled their wine, I did in fact notice a mineral taste which was different from the other wines (from other regions) I’ve had over the past few weeks. 

As I’ve learned more about Italian wine culture, I continue to be impressed with how old it is. An article we read, Wine and Wealth in Ancient Italy, noted that poorer rural populations “depended on crude local wine from time immemorial,” but that a “vigorous drinking-place culture” really began to develop alongside urbanization around the start of the Roman empire (13, 14). Personally, I find it fascinating that wine has been a pillar of culture on the Italian peninsula for some 2,000 years. And not just the consumption of wine, but the production and trade as well! For example, another reading, The Discovery of a Large Vineyard at Pompeii, includes several diagrams showing different ways grape vines were trained, based on written evidence and archeological evidence of stakes and other structural supports. The rows of vines on connected T-shaped supports seen today were also used in ancient Pompeian viticulture (34). Another type of support created a grid, like a trellis, with vines planted at the base of each pole and trained along four lateral supports in a star shape. I have yet to see this second type of vine training, but I’m hoping to catch a glimpse during the rest of our trip. I may not see any ancient vineyards, but I am also looking forward to exploring Pompeii before we go north again to finish our trip in Rome.

Photos in order are of the winery from our second class tasting, the wine cellar from our first class tasting, and of the cathedral in Orvieto. Since wine plays a central role in communion, the Catholic church has also had an important role in developing Italian wine culture. The restaurant which hosted our first wine tasting was right across the square from Orvieto’s cathedral.