The Monaci estate is also home to as many as 3000 olive trees and a fascinating museum on the centuries-old wine and olive oil production of the Salento region. Monaci's wine making program is driven by green practices and has been certified as a sustainable winery since 2004. The estate produces a broad array of wines with many varietals; each one of these is worthy of praise in its own right, but here we put our focus to the Acanto Fiano! Wrought from 100% Fiano grape, this expression of the ancient grape is a worthy homage to a millennium of its cultivation in the Puglia region.

The grape varietal boasts a rich and storied past. Once the top-shelf choice for the Roman aristocrats enjoying it on their vacations in Pompeii, it later fell from its place of prominence to one of obscurity but now it is experiencing a great renaissance as one of the best white wines the world over. The Fiano grape is such that can express itself in diverse ways. Native to southern Italy, it is most common in the Campainia region but has also been grown in the Solento region of Puglia as well for a thousand years.

On the Monaci estate it is grown in sandy soil with the day time sun and heat and cool night air that comes from the nearby Adriadic. The practice of fermenting it in it's own skin and yeast gives it the complexities of a red wine and the ability to cellar longer. This pure Fiano is fermented in steel at a low temperature in order to preserve the aromatic characteristics and is then left to age on its own yeasts to enrich the mineral notes and flavor. This is a balanced wine that unfolds in the nose with intense perfumes of fruit and honey and a fresh lively taste with a smooth finish of toasted hazelnut. Served thoroughly cooled, it is ideal with hors d'oeuvres, seafood, salads, grilled fish and fresh cheese.

Slow Wine tour group in the cellar at Castello Monaci