WINEHAPPENINGS @TENUTA VITALONGA

Winehappenings was designed to promote the territory’s agricultural basket through weekly summer appointments, usually on Friday and sometimes Saturday. Each evening had two parts: Aperitivino followed by dinner among rows of Montepulciano and Cabernet, with live swing, jazz, folk, singer-songwriter music or bossa nova. Small farms and artisans supplied selected local foods.

The estate was portrayed as a wooded promontory with 20 ha of organic vines, a small married-vine vineyard, cellar, medieval garden and Osteria, guided by Luigi and Francesco Maravalle. They described short supply chains as an ethical project capable of improving local quality, food-and-wine culture and ecological awareness. Work already under way included organic farming, care of hedges and margins, recovery of the married-vine vineyard, the medieval garden, endangered-variety orchards, woodland and Etruscan caves. Proposed next steps included wine in Ficulle terracotta amphorae, a married-vine selection and a new white wine.