LAZIO, ITALY
Made by Trappist nuns at the Monastero di Vitorchiano in northern Lazio. The nuns planted their first vines in 1963 and have made wine ever since—"Coenobium" means "monastery" in Latin. Giampiero Bea of the legendary Paolo Bea estate in Umbria serves as their consulting winemaker. A field blend of local varieties including Trebbiano and Malvasia, fermented with native yeasts.
 
The Coenobium is the basic wine of the Monastery with an approximate annual production of 12000 bottles. Its intrigue comes from the volcanic soils that underlay the vineyards and the longer than usual contact that the fermenting juice has with the skins … this being a vinification technique encouraged by Bea. The wine’s co-harvested and co-fermented Trebbiano (45%), Malvasia (35%), and Verdicchio (20%) translate the power of Vitorchiano’s volcanic soils with a sombre interplay of smoke and iron with green apple, fennel frond, and honey. These grapes are grown in the Monastery according to natural methods, without the use of synthetic chemical treatments. Coenobium displays notably breadth — yet it is muscular and chiseled rather than corpulent. This natural concentration results in a wine of exceptional mineral-driven tension, with a powerful smoke-iron interplay underpinning notes of green apple, fennel frond, and honey.