Wednesday night, my fellow students and I arrived at the Villa Caproni at 9 pm, excited for Temple Rome’s official wine tasting night event! We signed up for the event at the beginning of the semester and had been anxiously awaiting its arrival! The night featured a tasting of three different Italian wines: a white, a red, and a sparkling.
But, before the wines could be served, a lesson on wine was given by the host of the night. She went over everything you need to know about vino, including how it’s made, what foods each individual wine can be paired with, and how to correctly taste it. Saying that she really knows her wine is an extreme understatement! The presentation was interesting and informative and helped us learn more about the art of wine and understand why it’s such an important part of Italian culture.
During the presentation, students were taught how to correctly open different wine bottles. When it came time to open a sparkling wine, Gianni was challenged to open the bottle without making it pop- which he found difficult to do. After hearing our laughs, Gianni decided to challenge students to top him, by opening bottles without a single sound! It proved to be an equally difficult challenge for the students who bravely participated.
After the presentation and these hilarious attempts , we were anxiously awaiting our wines to be served! They were served in our beautiful “Temple University Rome Wine Tasting Night 2013” wine glasses that we received as a gift for the evening. The wines were served as sparkling first, white second, and red third. Before we drank each one, we took a close look at the color, smelled the wine, and finally took a proper taste. All of the wines were incredible! We were in awe of the rich colors and smells coming from them and found ourselves savoring each taste of the absolutely delicious wines. My favorite wine that was served was the sparkling prosecco. It was the perfect sweet and bubbly combination!
And so the best part of the night had begun! We hung out together and did everything we had spent all night learning about! We all had a great rest of the night as a group- enjoying bread, grapes, and wine together while talking and sharing laughs. With a full schedule of classes, homework, and excursions- it was a nice night to slow down and take a break with friends!
Once the night came to a close, students gathered their gifts and headed home, feeling satisfied and full from all of the delicious tastes of the night! I think I can speak for the group when I say that we feel more in tune with this large part of Italian culture and that we’re more than ready to go out and put everything we learned into practice (and simply enjoy some more delicious wines!) This was just added onto the list as another fun and unique memory made here as a group at Temple Rome!
