2006 COENOBIUM $26 (Lazio, Italy)
Produced by the Cistercian nuns in their monastery outside Rome
The second vintage of the lovely, traditional white wine known as “COENOBIUM” has just arrived! The sisters of the Cistercian order organically cultivate their vines at the monastery in Vitorchiano, a hillside town in Lazio about an hour north of Rome. The wine is made from Verdicchio blended with small percentages of Grachetto, Malvasia, and Trebbiano. Giampiero Bea, the son of Paolo Bea in Montefalco, is the consulting winemaker for the monastery. The result is a wine of stunning concentration with herbal and citrus notes, fine density on the palate, and a classic minerality to the finish. This wine is unfined and unfiltered, with a particularly rich, gold-green color which announces this unconventional, but compelling treat.