Visit us to shop and hang in person or order online for quick and easy pick up.
Address
210 EAST VERMILION STREET LAFAYETTE, LA 70501
Hours
Tues-Thurs
1pm-7pm
Friday & Saturday
1pm-8pm
Closed Sunday & Monday
21 and Over Only to Buy Wine.
Choose In-store Pickup To Order Wine Online.
We Do Not Ship Wine or Alcohol.
We do ship Everything Else!
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Grapes grown on different types of soils: volcanic and Sandstone. 10 months of refinement in cement containers and another 6 months in bottles.
As much as out in the vineyard, with our biodynamic practices, we wish to enhance the essential role of soil in yielding different grape varieties that reflect the different soil types at best, in the cellar we strive to express the full potential of an extremely simple equation: vineyard-plot-wine. This is why we believe that rather than selected yeasts one should only use native ones, brought into the cellar with the grapes: this means we make and refine our wine without additives of any kind, with the sole exception of a small quantity of sulphites. After softly pressing the grapes, we let them ferment and mature in concrete vats for two to three weeks, at no fixed temperature and carrying out daily pump-overs. Later, on the basis of the year’s assessment, we refine our wine in either concrete or steel vats or in big and small oak or chestnut barrels. That’s how our Cesanese wines come to life.
Ours is a five hectares wine farm extending through the two neighbouring municipalities of Bellegra and Olevano Romano. We started it in 2010 out of the desire to keep the land in Bellegra that had belonged to Piero’s parents and to his grandparents before them, and preserve its extraordinary plant and animal biodiversity. And it was born out of a dream — that of producing, in the Olevano Romano’s countryside, the Cesanese wine: the native red wine that best represents the Lazio region.
We practice biodynamic agriculture, enriching it with our original ideas drawn from researches and exchanges with others in the field. This means we do not use synthetic chemicals and strive to preserve and enhance our soil’s fertility through green manuring and biodynamic substances, so as to let plants express their specific qualities and obtain wines which, in our opinion, are not only well-rooted in the local land they originate from but are also extremely pleasant, digestible and fine to taste.
In Olevano Romano — and more precisely in the Colle Pazzo area, 300 mt. above sea level — we started two vineyards growing the grape variety called Cesanese di Affile or Cesanese piccolo. Each vineyard is planted on two different types of soil, one of a reddish volcanic nature and the other made of sandstone emerged from the Cretaceous period. We separately harvest the grapes per soil type and, once the refining process is over, we end up with three different Cesanese wines: two resulting from the grapes grown on each soil type, and the third being a blend of the two.
On another plot that lies closer to a stream of the Aniene river we are also currently experimenting a new white grapes vineyard. Some of such grapes are well rooted in the Lazio region, as the Semillon, whereas others will be quite a novelty around here, as in the case of Rhine’s Riesling and Chenin Blanc blending with a typical local white grape – the Malvasia Puntinata. Lastly, in Bellegra, 700 mt. above sea level, right where we live and have part of our cellar, we are busy retrieving an ancient local grape variety that can still be found on a few vineyard terraces around here: the Rosciola grape, a variety that was recently included in Lazio’s vine registry. Our wine farm is certified by the Ente Biologico Suolo e Salute (the Organic Soil and Health Bureau) of the Lazio Region. We are members of the Veneto’s VinNatur Association.
Denny & Katie
Owners
Your friendly neighborhood wine shop and tiny bar, focused on small production wines and conservas. Connect with us on Instagram for suggestions on your next bottle and to follow along in our downtown Lafayette wine journey.
Visit us to shop and hang in person or order online for quick and easy pick up.
Hours
Tues-Thurs
1pm-7pm
Friday & Saturday
1pm-8pm
Closed Sunday & Monday