This photo was taken on the my last evening at Cefalicchio. Two friends, with whom I was hitching a ride to Rome, and I shared a bottle of Cefalicchio's award winning dry rose wine atop the viewing tower overlooking the countryside. It was the middle August, my backpack was all packed and I didn't really know what I was doing next. Fortunately, I had already shipped home two crates of delicious, soothing wine and pungent extra virgin olive oil from Cefalicchio's biodynamic farm. The wine and olive oil is stored in an ancient, cool cellar beneath the property. Here is a picture taken from the bottom of the cellar looking up the stairs to the entrance:
And this is what the cellar looks like; racks of wine bottles and olive oil in what used to be a cellar used for drying and storing almonds. The racks are about 6 feet tall so you can get an idea for how high the ceiling is.
I sent home a few bottles of two different kinds of wine. One was the rose, Ponte Della Lama (pictured in the glass above) and the other was an aromatic white wine named Jalal. Ponte Della Lama was named for a Roman necropolis in the Puglia region that is home to many monuments, shrines and tombs dating back to the 2nd to 5th centuries AD. The wine itself is smooth, warm, well-balanced and slightly sparkling. Here is a picture of the bottle:
According to the Oenologist, Francesco de Lillo, the wine should be enjoyed as an "aperitif, or paired with Mediterranean dishes of food, light pastas with vegetable light sauces." It has a fragrance of "wild strawberries and pomegranate" and should be served cool. Here is another photograph of the wine in all its glory, perched on the viewing tower during a sunset, observing its biodynamic cousin grapes.
Finally, in case you aren't ready to pack your bags and go to Cefalicchio, here is a photograph of the swimming pool for those hot summer days:
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