VITICULTURE CONQUERS ONE OF ITALY’S MOST FAMOUS FASHION CENTERS, TRINITA’ DEI MONTE, FOR THE FIRST GRAPE HARVEST IN THE HEART OF ROME. “GALLICO” TO BE MADE FROM THE ORNAMENTAL GARDENS OF THE FRENCH CONVENT SACRO CUORE

Viticulture has conquered Trinità dei Monti, one of the most famous destinations in Rome for tourists and fashion buffs. In the heart of the Eternal City, the first harvest of the grapevines in the ornamental gardens of the French convent Sacro Cuore has just finished. The students of the Emilio Sereni enological school picked the grapes growing just above Piazza di Spagna. The project was sponsored by winemakers from Narbonne (France), in an accord between the city of Rome, the French ambassador of Città del Vino, and the Emilio Sereni enological school.

Four years ago, vignerons from the other side of the Alps planted grapevines from the Languedoc (Carignan Nero, Syrah, Grenache Nero, Picpoul, Moscato di Alessandria, Mourvedre), and the Italian enological school integrated these grapevines with local grapes for a traditional harvest, complete with hand crush. The enologists following the project have now announced with satisfaction that the sugar levels registered in the musts have reached 22%.
This year, 70 bottles will be produced with the mosaic design of a ship from Narbonne that was discovered at the archeological site of Ostia Antica on the label.
The wine has been named “Gallico” and will be officially presented this winter in Narbonne, the city founded by the Romans in 118 B.C., and still today linked to the Italian capital, testimony of which is the homage made by Luigi Petroselli (mayor of Rome at the beginning of the 1980’s) who donated a bronze wolf to the French city, the symbol of the historical events that united Rome with Narbonne (both of which have been deemed “Wine Cities”).