Tour Del Pellegrino

IN THE LATE '60s, ANGELO DUBINI AND HIS WIFE MARIA LOCATELLI PURCHASED THE 'PODERE PALAZZONE' IN ROCCA RIPESENA. 

Identified by Monaldo Monaldeschi della Cervara, a historian from a noble Orvieto family, as the one built in 1299 by Cardinal Teodorico for the first Jubilee, as a hospitalis for pilgrims.

On sedimentary and clayey soils, with a breathtaking view of the Orvieto cliff, they planted 24 hectares of vineyards to produce wines of great complexity and character. 

Starting in the '80s, under the management of their son Giovanni, Palazzone began a journey of small vinifications and bottlings, experiences necessary to build the winery in 1988. Thus, one of the most significant realities in all of Umbria was born, reaching the third generation with grandson Pietro.

Today, after a respectful restoration of its noble architecture, the 'Palazzone' is a boutique hotel with elegant suites. 

It has invested us with a responsibility, with its strong beauty and exceptional potential. It convinced us that Orvieto was a challenge to win, a card to play in total countertrend with the market and fashion. The vocation of the place, the history of the city, and its territory are the aspects that have given solidity to our choices.

The family unites our work, not a simple division of tasks, but a common feeling, as we are in love with what each day spent here gives us. We know that living and working at Palazzone is a privilege, and this feeling becomes a certainty precisely when things get tough. We respect the tradition of Orvieto wine in the composition of the blend, allowing Grechetto, more immediate and fragrant, and Procanico, more serious and mineral, to assert their personality. We love the idea that a profile of a central Italian white can be born: graceful yet incisive, Mediterranean and at the same time endowed with a tight fiber.

We are proud to make a white wine at an encouraging price, we want to invite people to enjoy a reliable wine that 'feels' the difference between vintages.

Our conception of wine is intimately linked to the vineyard, only from there can true satisfactions come, those that remain. The Orvieto grape varieties do not have the sunny expressiveness of some 'easy' grapes, and so their margins for improvement are not so immediate, which is why work in the vineyard relies on continuity rather than miraculous choices. Ours is a true qualitative re-education.

It all started with tasting some artisan-made wines when the company only served to make house wine. We were struck by the integrity of some whites that, although made in a rudimentary way, had easily reached ten years. In the same way, we designed the first sweet wines, from fleeting, striking impressions given by some peasant bottles.

Fermentation and the choice to place them on the market after adequate maturation in the cellar - they are never out before late spring - is linked to the complexity that Orvieto is capable of with the passing months. It transforms before our eyes, lets go of its youthful ease, and takes on a more articulated physiognomy, allowing itself to be discovered without giving itself all at once, allowing itself to be remembered with small emotions and without overdoing it.

We too wanted to try the temptation of an 'important' red, thus Armaleo was born, which will certainly remain a beautiful and precious experience, from which we learned that to stay connected to our territory, native grapes are the primary goal.

For this reason, we will invest our energies in Sangiovese, knowing that the path will be challenging as it is to dedicate ourselves to Orvieto. But being at Palazzone means facing difficult challenges, it seems to us the only way to reward the place that has chosen us.

The territory

Anyone coming from a place different from this cannot help but be captivated by the unique, singular charm of a landscape that still bears the intact signs of its architectural origin.

The tuff atoll that dominates the landscape of Rocca Ripesena is a testament to a tectonic upheaval and is in close harmony and resemblance with the incredible tuff platform that contains the city of Orvieto, both linked in a gigantic creative phenomenon.

The facts of such dynamic vitality are still expressed by multiple signs that the subsoil of this magical place sends us, physically leading us back to the most radical image of creation and its elements: fire and water, inseparable architects of our creation.

Even the vegetation that has clothed and decorated the primitive structures is the expression of a harmonious agreement with such vital power: gigantic oaks and mighty chestnuts are the sculptures of an immense natural 'museum.'

On the gently rounded hills, only the vineyards express the signs of contemporary history and the industriousness of the people who live in these places; they appear as blankets covering the backs of crouched prehistoric animals.

The golden, fragrant grapes and the wine derived from them are the reward for the completion of a grand process and a centuries-old complex phenomenon that is life.

The vineyards

Describing our vineyards in a few words is not easy even for us who know them meter by meter, plant by plant, and who walk them for tens of kilometers a year

We should be able to accompany you, showing you how the terrain changes step by step, how the vines react and grow. Only a puzzle is the adequate image to convey the idea of our vineyards: small, even tiny areas, with different and precise characteristics that only the experience of many years and many harvests allows us to recognize and enhance.

At Palazzone, we are surrounded by vines. Planted on the hillside between Rocca Ripesena and the Romitorio, a stone's throw from Orvieto, between 210 and 340 meters above sea level, exposed depending on the slopes to E or E-NE.

The nature of the rocks in these places consists of clays, silts, and sandy levels; 2.5 million years ago, there was a seabed here on which the finest sediments transported by ancient rivers that crossed what were then the few emerged areas accumulated.

24 hectares of vineyards on hills, in a landscape of rare beauty, cultivated with the traditional grapes of Orvieto: mainly Procanico and Grechetto, then Verdello and Malvasia to complete the blend. But also international varieties, Sauvignon for the Muffa Nobile and Viognier among the first to be cultivated in Italy. And to complete the wines produced, Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon for the reds.

Experiences and renewal are underway at Palazzone because, and we are sure of this, great wines are first and foremost made in the vineyard.