Terramante
Claudia Rizza
A warm afternoon in Umbria spent with Claudia Rizza at Terramante, her small family-run organic winery in the hills near Todi.
The family came to Montemolino looking for somewhere to settle. They happened upon the house almost by chance, and with it came an old cellar beneath the Church of San Michele Arcangelo. Wine had been made there for more than 700 years, first by monks and later by the parish priest.
There was already a history here. But Claudia has taken it somewhere new.
Through years of hard work, experimentation and dedication, she has built Terramante into a small organic winery producing wines in limited quantities, with a deep respect for the land. The aim is to make wines that reflect where they come from rather than mask it.
The vineyard sits in a valley beside the River Tiber. The surrounding hills create a particular climate, with cool mornings and evenings and mist often forming over the river. The days, though, can be hot.
And on this afternoon they were.
Claudia took us out into the vineyard, walking between the rows beneath a hard blue sky. The soil was dry and dusty underfoot. The vines stretched away across the valley, with the hills rising and falling around us and the Tiber somewhere below.
It was hot enough to slow you down.
Claudia led us up to her favourite viewpoint and we stopped there for a while, looking out across the valley.
Later, we sat on the open terrace overlooking the vineyard and tasted the wines we had just been walking among.
They are made with the same patience and care that runs through everything at Terramante. Grapes are picked by hand in the cool of the night, fermented naturally and given time to develop slowly in the cellar before they ever reach the bottle.
Sitting there with the vineyard in front of us, the wine seemed to carry something of the place with it. The heat of the afternoon. The dry soil. The cool river below. The long work of Claudia and her family.
