Visit Date: May 4, 2019, approximately 3:00 p.m.
This will be the last most beautiful village in Italy on this trip. Montefalco, located in the heart of Umbria, is famous for its wine. The wines made from the Sagrantino grape, a variety unique to the region, are very full-bodied and have a bright taste and color.
Famous for its wine and the most beautiful villages in Italy
Three days ago, I stayed in a hotel with a good restaurant in Montone, a village in Umbria not far from Montefalco, and the restaurant recommended the Sagrantino de Montefalco. The restaurant recommended me to try the Sagrantino de Montefalco, which impressed me with its deep and powerful taste, which I had never experienced before.
This is the wine we had at that time.
A few days later, that is, on this day, when we were looking for the next beautiful village to go to, we found out that Montefalco was chosen as one of the most beautiful villages in Italy. Moreover, it is only 15 minutes away from the World Heritage Site « The Little Temple of Clitunno (Italian Longobards: Footprints of Power) » which I visited just before. We had to go there.
過去の投稿より：2019年4月イタリアNo.7：世界遺産、サン・サルヴァトーレ聖堂、クリトゥンノの小神殿（イタリアのロンゴバルド族:権勢の足跡）
As we approached Montefalco, the vast vineyards and olive groves around us lifted our spirits. Then we arrived at a beautiful village on a small hill, partly surrounded by a wall. There was a huge public parking lot about 10 meters away from the village wall. Very large. It was a space that seemed to be able to park 30 large tourist buses. Although the tourist bus was not parked even one lol. Is it that there are many tourists that the famous wine region after all.
Move from the parking lot to the side with the castle gate through the underpass. Go through the gate and a gentle uphill continues.
If you go straight, you will arrive at the central square of the village, and on both sides of the square, there are a series of enotecas, cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops. I thought again that there are many tourists.
Arriving at the square, we had a light lunch as we had only eaten breakfast that day. We were staying at a luxurious auberge this evening, so we kept it light. We had a little local wine. Sagrantino, of course.
The central square was wider than I expected and surrounded by old and European-looking buildings including the City Hall.
In the village, there is the church of San Francesco, which was built in the 15th century (Assisi is very close to here, by the way). The church is a museum (Museo Civico di San Francesco) and you can see religious paintings owned by the church for a fee. You can see the religious paintings owned by the church. We were also able to see the inside of the church, which was very beautiful, although photography was not allowed.
In addition, wine tasting was included in the admission fee to this museum. However, we didn’t shop here because we had decided to go to a cave on the outskirts of the village as described later. The opposite side of the parking lot seemed to be the main gate. From here we could see the vast vineyards and olive groves of Umbria.
A visit to the carve of the wine we received in Montaigne
After a quick tour of the village, we decided to head to a cave on the outskirts of the village to buy some souvenir wine. When I looked up on Google Maps, I found that the famous Montefalco wine carvings are scattered around the outskirts of the village. Among them, there was the cave of this wine that we had recently received in the village of Montone, so we decided to visit it. As far as I could find on the internet, the caves were open on this day, so I decided to head there.
訪れたカーヴ：TABARRINI
The site is only a few minutes from the village.
We found the place without any problem, but the gate was closed. However, they noticed our presence and opened the automatic door and we were able to go inside. When we parked the car, several winemakers approached us and asked us in English if we were businessmen or wine lovers. Of course I answered « We are wine lovers.
According to their story, they were planning to close it for a while in order to recover the buildings on the site from the next day or so, or they were thinking of closing it again today, but they took the trouble to open it because we had just arrived. We were lucky.
I asked him a simple question about where he came from. I told him I was from Tokyo, Japan.
And when I told him that a few days ago I had a bottle of your wine at a restaurant in a small village in Umbria and that it was very good, he thanked me very happily and asked me where the restaurant was. He thanked me very happily and asked me where the restaurant was. I couldn’t remember the name of the restaurant right away, but when I told him that it was in a small village called Montone, north of here, he seemed to know which restaurant it was right away.
Apparently, because of the limited production, they are very selective about who they offer their quality wines to. This is probably what every winemaker does.
He asked me if I wanted to see how it was made and I said yes, and he took me to the brewing facility in the basement. We took the stairs to the basement. At the entrance, there is a PC here. They seemed to be managing everything here.
However, the door opening and closing, lighting, etc. seemed to be operated by a tablet, and it was much more modern than I had imagined. The person who showed us around was quite young and spoke very good English, and I felt he was highly educated.
I was able to hear again from him at this production site that due to the volume of production, they keep and produce the good quality and good vintage separately.
After the tour, we had a brief tasting, and of course, these are probably for first-time visitors, but they were very good. And we made sure to buy a bottle of Sagrantino wine. At the end of the tour, we were welcomed with smiles all the way until we left the cave, which was very nice.
I’m not sure if this wine is available in Japan, but if I ever see it, I’d love to buy it. But I don’t think you can find Sagrantino in Japan very often.
The most beautiful village in Italy at the end of this trip was wonderful, both for the village scenery and the wine.
