Today's adventure was in support of the high school seniors' graduation party. In other words, we went to a brewery and two vineyards and the bus fare went to the kids.
Our first stop was Saint John's brewery in Faicchio near Benevento.
This is Gianni. He decided to open a brewery in the wine country. His family thought he was crazy.
The brewery opened in 1999 and gets its ingredients from Germany.
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Kolsh - 5% abv
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Marzen - 5.2% abv
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Tripel - 7.5% abv
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Weiss - 5% abv
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There was also a fifth beer, Dark Strong Ale - 7.5% abv, of which I failed to get a photo.
Across from the brewery were these lovely views of the Benevento countryside.
And these fun magenta flowers.
Our next stop was at Santimartini Winery.
The lady on the right is Maria, she arranged the trip.
We tried a falanghina, an algianico, and some falanghina and algianico blends (not together each other mind you).
The winery had quite a spread.
We tried several of their wines, as well as local cheeses and cured meats.
Vines!
Landscapes!
This winery is located in Solopaca (also in the province of Benevento - think of it like a county).
So the bus we took out here broke and we were divided into two smaller groups to get to the next stop. Luckily people on the party bus opened a bottle of wine and brought cups for sharing, hence the party bus.
Next stop is the Solopaca Cantina.
Here you can get wine by the liter. It comes out of a pump, just like gas, and goes into whatever container you brought. You can also buy plastic containers from them.
This is not how you transport people.
Bottle equipment!
This place had a landslide a few years ago and the cellars were filled with 2-3 meters of mud. Luckily the wine was safe inside the barrels, but it was still a huge mess.
We also tried many wines here. Luckily we were on a bus that had underneath storage for all the wine/beer the group purchased today. Oh, and we got the original bus back!
Our last stop was at Martone, an olive oil production company. They had a variety of infused/flavored olive oils as well as some very good regular olive oil. I apparently didn't take any pictures at this point or didn't like any of them. Oh well. The olive oil was good.
We loaded everyone onto the bus, where most people fell asleep, and went home.
This concludes our adventures for today.
