Wine Tasting in Abruzzo, Italy! Plus a Kneeling Ox & a Holy Communion!

For 2 days every year, hundreds of wineries across Italy open their doors to the public, allowing visitors to taste their wines and learn about the winemaking process. We visited 2 wonderful cantine in Abruzzo. I also experienced San Zopito for the first time – an ox ridden by an angel with a carnation in her mouth! Finally we attended a stunning First Holy Communion and ate until we popped. I hope you enjoy this insight into life in rural Italy!

[Music] hello and welcome back to my channel before I get into the main video I just wanted to jump on and say a huge thank you to everyone who watched my last video I realized that the numbers are very small for most people but to get over 3,000 views was a really big moment for me and I also gained lots of new subscribers so hello if you’re new and thank you if you’re still here now I’m hoping the success of the last video wasn’t purely down to the fact it was filmed on the Amalfi Coast because the main reason I set up this channel was to promote the wonderful region I live in which is abuta in central Italy unfortunately it’s not very well known outside of Italy but I think it’s got so so much to offer so I’m going to jump into the main video now and show you what’s been going on here in the last couple of weeks hello hello this weekend the 25th and 26th of May is a really big wine event called Cantina Berta it happens all over Italy where over 600 wine producers open their Vineyards to the public and you pay an entrance V of €5 which gives you a glass and a pass and then another € 5 to try three different wines from that particular producer so we picked two Vineyards that are quite close to us to try out and I’m really excited because this is the first time I’ve ever been to this [Music] event our first stop was conza Wines in K Corino a small family run Wine wiy that makes a range of red white Rosé and sparkling wines when we arrived the band was starting to set up and the place was filling up nicely so we headed to the counter to pick up our wine bags wine glasses and our drinks tokens for the [Music] tasting I started with the sparkling Rosé and just look at how G gorgeous the scenery was I really do think abuto is seriously [Music] [Music] underrated we were really lucky that the company’s wine maker was there to talk us through the tea or the soil characteristics of the land they have around 50 hectares of Vineyards and they’re around 250 m above sea level with a predominantly clay composition with a tiny bit of limestone which obviously creates great conditions for growing vines we then had a tour of the Cantina itself and had a look at all the equipment they used to make the wines he explained to us that the conza philosophy is that wine is made in the vineyard so they let nature do what it needs to do and don’t rush the process because they know that they can only do so much with a half decent wine but if they let it reach its full potential while it’s in the vineyard that’s where they can make the really special products he did mention that although they like to use traditional methods where possible they have resorted to Mechanical picking and that’s because the temperature varies so drastically in the mountains that sometimes time is really of the essence when it comes to picking the grapes the wines are either stored in these steel tanks at a controlled temperature or in fine Oak barrels as you can see [Music] here so we’ve just left the first Vineyard which was great great fun it had beautiful views the wine was pretty good I started with a rosé sparkling wine and then moved on to White and there was music and we had a little tour of the um canina as well which was great we’re now moving on to one that’s about 10 minutes from home so we’ll go straight home after this [Music] I was starting to get a little bit peckish by this point so we headed to get a food ticket for5 and then you could choose from a selection of local specialities poretta a rosini and some local meats and cheeses [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we’re home now and I’m so pleased we went I think Cantina is a great Initiative for getting more people interested in wine making and for these small wineries to be able to sell their wine to the public I’m really pleased we got to try two very different wineries so the first definitely one in in terms of the scenery beautiful views the nice family feel and the quality of the wines I think was better but the second one was really Lively and it was nice to see families dancing and having fun together and just relaxing by the pool now I think most people have heard of monano which is the most famous red wine from the abuto region but it’s also home to some excellent whites such as Tano and Pino and a cheda swalla which is a rosé wine made from the multiple Channel grape so next time you go to the Supermarket stay away from your classic kti and go and have a look for an abuto wine because I promise you you won’t regret it Springtime is when the festas start to ramp up again after the winter break in abuta and today I’m off to one called szopo which has intrigued me for quite some time it involves training up an ox which is referred to as the White Knight to kneel down in various points in the town of Loretto aprutino he wears a gorgeous Red Cloak with depictions of saints and Relics all over it and on his back sits a young girl dressed as an angel with a carnation in her mouth which is supposed to ward off evil and disgrace it all sounds fairly abstract and hard to imagine so I can’t wait to see what it’s all about [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] it was then the turn of the horses to be blessed by the local priest and some of them had started to get quite frisky at this point and I was a little bit worried for the girls riding on the back of them it made me think once again how few of these events would be able to take place in England due to health and safety regulations which is such a shame but equally it’s good to be careful especially when there are children [Music] involved one thing that did make me chuckle was the juxtaposition of these lovely fragrant rose petals with piles and piles of horse and dox done [Music] it’s Sunday the 2nd of June and today we are heading to the First Holy Communion of the daughter of one of our friends um it’s in a beautiful restaurant I haven’t been to before but I’ve seen pictures of it and it’s going to be an entirely food menu which is exactly my kind of thing but first let me show you my dress because I’ve been waiting for an excuse to wear this dress for a long time it’s absolutely [Music] stunning and we are off unfortunately we couldn’t go to the church part of the ceremony because it’s too small for us to fit in with all the grandparents and parents of the children having their Holy Communion so we’re just going straight to the restaurant and I’m starving so I cannot wait to see see what the menu is like [Music] [Applause] [Music] the food was an absolute Dream from start to finish there was tuna Tata oysters octopus salad fresh squid then there were two amazing first courses a lovely seafood risato and karini with raw and cooked prawns I must have got too excited to film my main course but it was an absolutely incredible plate of sword fish and accompanying Seafood [Music] treats they must have saved the best till last because honestly the dessert course was my idea of of Heaven There were so many things to choose from and of course I had to try absolutely everything there was even a chef making fresh waffles to accompany the most delicious artisanal gel [Music] after all that food we definitely needed to head home for a nap so we collected our bombona which is a type of communion favor in this case a pizza cutter and we headed back for a big old snooze [Music] oh [Music]