Saturday Night Wine Class:
An Introduction To Southern Italy’s Most Iconic Wines. Plus 5-Course Dinner With Wine Pairing.
The Saturday before our castle courses we offer a 8-hour wine class that features a 5-course dinner and 15 different Southern Italian wines and grappa.
Where: In the historical centre of Lecce
When: On Saturdays right before any large week at the castle.
Where you sleep: Wherever you like. Write us if you need trusted suggestions.
How much? 245 Euro
Taught in: English
When do we meet? At 17:00 (5pm) and ends roughly at 1 am.
Where do we meet? Under the column in Lecce’s main square, Piazza Sant Oronzo.
We meet at 17:00 in Piazza Sant Oronzo, under the column (Lecce’s main square).
We’ll visit an Enoteca (wine store) and talk about Italian labelling, bottle shape and just how much information producers ache to communicate in the packaging, to anyone attentive enough to lean in.
We’ll return to the Lecce school and have an introductory chalkboard talk, What is Southern Italy? (Geography is always wine’s biggest driver and the fact that the south is a series of islands and peninsulas starts are story).
We’ll blind taste three wines, to really focus on flavour and aroma (there is a lot to learn tasting blind, about wine in general but also, ourselves).
Our first anti-antipasto will arrive and you’ll learn about the difference between white, pink and red wine production.
We’ll talk about wine-making technique and materials, wood, clay, cement, glass, fiberglass and stainless steel
You’ll move between 4 regions of southern Italy, Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata and Puglia.
We’ll saunter through the wines by colour, rather than address, the evening progressing towards the bigger and brawnier wines that really concentrate the sun’s seasonal energy.
You’ll have a staff prepared meal of 4 courses, each course chosen to pair with one or more wines on the table.
We’ll talk about the food of the south and how the wine influenced it as much as the food influenced the wine.
Dinner will run long, and the wines will flow. We’ll have an introduction to Italian chocolate and pair that with a southern Italian dessert wine, then finish the evening a special barrel-aged grappa.
We’ll walk you back to the main piazza and likely see you on Monday morning for our trip down to a course at the castle.
Silvestro has been bicycling Southern Italian wine country for two months each year, for more than 15 years.
This course is the fruit of that research.
You don’t need any prior wine training for this course but you will learn a great deal, in a very pleasurable way, in a very short period of time.
We walk you back to the main piazza after the course.
Q: Do I need to attend a castle course to attend the wine dinner?
A: No, but most do, as we schedule the wine dinners for the Saturday before our castle courses.
Q: Do we spit or swallow?
A: We have vessels for discard on the table but most people drink. A large, rambling dinner during the course helps offset some of the wine’s heft.
Q: Do we need any specific wine training?
A: No.
Q: How do we reserve?
A: With an email. We close the class at ten participants.
