Touring the Speri Winery! 参观斯佩里酒庄！

Author/作者: Isabell (伊莎)

Chinese Translator/中文母语翻译: 杜小雯 （Xiao）

Don’t feel like reading? You don’t have to! Tune in to listen to our authors read you this blog! 眼睛累了不想看屏幕？在路上不方便阅读？您可以来听作者们为您朗读的这个博客喔！

Chinese 中文原声 – 杜小雯 （Xiao）

English 英文原声 – Isabell (伊莎)

The Speri family has been making wine since 1874. Today three generations are represented at the winery, 8 family members. The winery is nestled in the heart of the Valpolicella region just outside of Verona, Italy, and spans over 60 hectares of vines. Their wines are organic as well, after years of sustainable farming, the Winery achieved organic certification in 2015. Speri grows Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Molinara and other native varieties, but this family’s claim to fame lies with their Amarone Della Valpolicella Classico Sant’Urbano DOCG. Made with Corvina Veronese and Corvinone (70%), Rondinella (25%) and Molinara (5%), it is aged for 24 months in 500 l. French oak tonneaux and then 18 months in medium-to-large Slavonian oak casks, thereafter, it is left to mature in-bottle for 12 months. Speri happens to be one of the oldest wineries to produce this wine, producing its first bottles in the 1950’s.

斯佩里家族自1874年以来就一直在酿酒。如今，酒庄由三代人、8个家庭成员共同打理。酒庄坐落在意大利维罗纳郊外的瓦波利切拉Valpolicella产区的中心，葡萄园共计有60多公顷。他们生产有机葡萄酒。经过数年的可持续种植，酒庄于2015年获得了有机认证。斯佩里种植科维纳(Corvina)、科维诺尼(Corvinone)、罗蒂妮拉(Rondinella)、莫利纳拉（Molinara）和其他本土葡萄品种，但这个家族的名声在于他们的瓦波利切拉经典阿玛罗耐Sant’Urbano DOCG。由70%的维罗纳的科维纳和科维诺尼、25%的罗蒂妮拉和5%的莫利纳拉酿造，在500升法国橡木桶中陈酿24个月，然后在大中型斯拉沃尼亚橡木桶中陈酿18个月，之后在瓶中陈酿12个月。斯佩里恰好是生产这种葡萄酒的最古老的酿酒厂之一，第一批葡萄酒于20世纪50年代出产。

Laura one of the Speri family members was our guide for the tour, she walked us through the entire establishment, into all the various rooms filled with casques and steel tanks, everything was so clean and state of the art. It looked like an operation that runs like clockwork. Finally, at one point, she led us into the bottling room located in a huge warehouse style space. The industrial sized machinery used for bottling was quite impressive, she noted that even though some of the other wineries were sharing a bottling station for their wines, Speri preferred to invest in their own equipment so they could control the cleanliness and access to the machines when they needed it. She said that even though the machines were extremely expensive, it was worth it because this way they could oversee the process every step of the way.

斯佩里家族成员之一Laura接待了我们的这次参观。她带领我们参观了整个酒庄，走进了装满了木桶和钢罐各种各样的房间。一切都是如此干净和先进！这里的一切看起来有如钟表般在有序地运转。在最后的一个时间点，她引领我们进入位于一个巨大的、仓库风格的装瓶室。用于装瓶的自动化智能系统给我们留下了深刻的印象。她指出，与其同许多其他葡萄酒厂一样选择共用一个葡萄酒装瓶设施，斯佩里酒庄还是更愿意投资自己的设备。这样他们就可以控制机器的清洁度和拥有随时调用设备的方便。她说，尽管这些机器价格高昂，然而这是值得的。因为这样一来，他们可以监控生产过程的每一步。

As we walked a group member asked a rather intriguing question; having noticed rose bushes at the ends of each vine row as we were approaching the winery, he asked why that is. Laura mentioned that this has been a long-standing tradition for wine-growers. She said that rose bushes are very sensitive, and back in olden times if a rose bush was affected by a blight such as powdery mildew or downy mildew for example, the rose bushes would show signs of problems first, triggering the viticulturalist to act quickly to save the vineyard. The second reason mentioned was the fact that when oxen or horses were used, rose bushes provided a nice barrier so that none of the vines would get knocked about or trampled on and the last reason of course was that roses are beautiful!

当我们在参观时，一位同行的好友问了一个相当有趣的问题；在我们返回酒窖的路上，注意到在每一排葡萄藤末端都有玫瑰丛。他询问这样做的缘由时什么。Laura提到这对葡萄酒种植者来说是一个有着悠久历史的传统。她说玫瑰花丛非常敏感，在过去，如果葡萄园受到白粉病或霜霉病等枯萎病的影响，玫瑰花丛会首先呈现出发病的迹象，这样葡萄栽培学家可以迅速采取行动来拯救葡萄园。提到的第二个原因是，当使用牛或马时，玫瑰丛提供了一个很好的屏障，这样就不会有葡萄藤被撞倒或践踏。最后一个原因当然是玫瑰很漂亮！

The final stop before the tasting session was when Laura led us through a small dining room, we were mesmerized by the rack of bottles holding very, very old vintages in the corner. My friends were a little confused why the Amarone wine bottles were a different shape from the rest of the bottles; how did this come about? She told us that back in the early 50’s when the wine producers in this area started thinking about producing Amarone for sale rather than personal consumption (which, she said, was the case before this point), the old winery owners decided to meet together at one of the winery owners homes to have a meeting, Laura said it was likely that one of the wine producers happened to have an overstock of this type of bottle, therefore, this shape of bottle was then used. They probably did not know that Amarone would become such an international phenomenon, and this very randomly chosen bottle would then become recognized as the “Amarone” bottle.

葡萄酒品鉴前的最后一站：当Laura带我们穿过一个小餐厅，我们被角落里放着陈年葡萄酒的架子迷住了。我的朋友们有点困惑，为什么阿玛罗耐酒瓶的形状不同于其他酒瓶。她告诉我们，早在50年代初，当这个地区的葡萄酒生产商开始考虑生产阿玛罗耐用来销售，而不仅仅是供自家饮用时(在这之前都是这种情况)，老酒庄庄主决定聚在一个酒庄老板的家开会。Laura说，很可能碰巧其中一个葡萄酒生产商这种类型的瓶子库存过多，因此，这种形状的瓶子就被使用了。他们可能不知道会成为阿玛罗耐这样一个享誉全球的优质葡萄酒，这个随机选择的瓶子会被认为是“阿玛罗耐”瓶子。

The tasting encompassed all their signature wines, the Recioto della Valpolicella Classico La Roggia DOCG, Valpolicella Classico DOC, Valpolicella Classico Superiore Sant’Urbano DOC, and the  Valpolicella Ripasso Classico Superiore DOC. While they were all superb, it was the Valpolicella Classico Superiore Sant’Urbano DOC that stood out. This blend is made with Corvina Veronese e Corvinone (75%), Rondinella (20%), and Molinara (5%), the grapes come from a single vineyard of volcanic soil, 300 meters above sea-level, once the grapes are harvested, they are left to dry for around 20-25 days to concentrate their sugars. Then they get destemmed and pressed in November. Thereafter, fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks. Aging occurs for 24 months, in 500 l. French oak barrels and then then wine is matured in-bottle for 6 months. As we savored it, the nose was complex and fruity, the flavors were spicy, round, and the finish was long.

品鉴环节包括他们所有的标志性葡萄酒，瓦波利切拉经典乐巧多La Roggia DOCG, 瓦波利切拉经典DOC, 瓦波利切拉高级经典Sant’Urbano DOC, 和瓦波利切拉经典里帕索DOC。虽然他们都很出色，瓦波利切拉高级经典Sant’Urbano DOC脱颖而出。这种混合葡萄酒是由75%的维罗纳的科维纳和科维纳、20%罗蒂妮拉和5%莫利纳拉酿制而成。这些葡萄来自海拔300米的、火山土壤的、单一葡萄园。当葡萄被收获之后，它们将被晾干大约20-25天以浓缩糖分。然后，他们在11月份被除梗和压榨。此后，发酵在温控不锈钢罐中进行。在500升法国橡木桶中进行24个月陈酿，然后葡萄酒在瓶中陈酿6个月。当我们品尝它的时候，会嗅到它的复杂而有果味，口腔中有果味、香料味道、圆润、余味很长。

Once we had tasted this wine, Laura told us a little secret, she noted that everyone goes for the Amarone, the name carries international fame. Tourists want to order it at restaurants because it is known to be the best wine, this is why it costs slightly more than the Valpolicella – but – it is their Valpolicella wine that is the real star. If people sitting in front of a waiter ask for a recommendation, the waiter might well recommend this one over the Amarone because: the flavors are just incredible, and it is just so easy to drink, it is not heavy at all, but it is so interesting. And she was quite right, I did prefer the Valpolicella Classico Superiore Sant’Urbano DOC over the Amarone, I even bought a bottle, it was fantastic; easy to drink, not heavy but full and round, the flavors kept me coming back for more (I was so sad this was just a tasting!).

在我们品尝了这款酒之后，Laura告诉我们一个小秘密。她注意到因为阿玛罗耐这个名字的国际知名度，所以每个人都喜欢。游客们想在餐馆点它，因为它被认为是最好的葡萄酒，这就是为什么它的价格比其他瓦波利切拉葡萄酒略高——然而——真正的明星却是他们的瓦尔多利拉葡萄酒。如果客人要求面前的侍酒师推荐，侍酒师很可能会推荐这个而不是阿玛罗耐，因为: 味道太不可思议了，而且如此易饮，酒体一点也不厚重。这个现象很有趣吧！她说得很对，比起阿玛罗耐，我更喜欢瓦波利切拉高级经典Sant’Urbano DOC。因为真心太棒了，我为自己买了一瓶；非常易饮，酒体不重，却又饱满圆润，这味道让我想再来续一杯 (我很难过，因为品尝仅仅提供一杯！)。

So all in all, this was a very successful visit, we got a really personal tour from one of the family, Laura was so kind and patient, answering all our questions (and there were dozens!) and we came away with some truly interesting information about the wines and the family, it was clear that they have been doing this a very long time and based on all the tour buses pulling up in the driveway, people love this place.

总而言之，这是一次相当成功的拜访！我们同一个酒庄家族成员进行了一次非常私人的参观。Laura是如此善良和耐心，回答了我们所有的问题(要知道有几十个呢！)。我们带着关于斯佩里家族和他们的葡萄酒的一些真正有趣的故事离开了。很明显，他们提供酒庄参观服务已经有很长时间了。根据停在车道上旅游巴士的数量可以看出：人们是真的很喜欢这个地方！