On the first Sunday of October , thousands of Europeans gather in the Roman Hills for La Sagra dell’Uva di Marino . The long - standing wine festival features safe wine-coloured , of course , as well as processions , diachronic costume , euphony and even a jousting tourney .
The festival , hosted in the minor operate town of Marino , Italy , has been around since 1925 , when it was urge for by Leone Ciprelli , a local poet with a recondite affection for history and an even deeper dearest of traditions . He desire a festival to celebrate the return of Admiral Marcantonio Colonna following his victory over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 , as well as the restitution of Colonna ’s 250 sailors . Among the skimmer was a vine agriculturist who , legend says , brought back a Malvasia vine from the island of Candia , a grape which the little town of Marino is now known for .
The local government was all too happy to follow and form a fete to celebrate the victory . If it happen to also provide gravid publicity for their local snowy wine-coloured industry , so be it .
The most famous part of the fete occurs at theFountain of the Four Moors , which sits in the shopping mall of the town ’s court and is name after the Moors whom Admiral Colonna make for back as slaves to work the vineyards .
Each class , at the polar moment of the festival , called the ' Miracolo , ' the jet flows with chilled white wine from a local vineyard ( which the crowd gayly absorb ) as representation of the miracle of turning H2O into vino .
It was at this very pivotal moment of the 2008 Sagra dell’Uva festival that a real " miracle " occur : The priest blessed the natural spring , as custom dictate . The mayor , dignitaries , locals and tourists alike all wait anxiously , glasses and jugs in hand , for the wine to start fall and the political party to start . As their waiting grew , the vociferation of " Miracolo ! Miracolo ! " ring out from the nearby houses instead .
It turns out the city ’s water engineers , in charge of connecting the pipe from the local vineyard to the fountain , made a tiny error . As a result , the wine was not piped into the fountain but into the master piss supply line of the local house surrounding the courtyard . topical anesthetic filling pots with water to boil alimentary paste , or bucketful to clean their floors , were instead met with a free , in - home plate , all - you - can - drink supply of Marino DOC wine flowing from their taps . ( DOC meansdenominazione di origine controllata , and is a caliber sureness labeling arrangement that Italy utilize mostly for high mallow and wine . )
" Apparently the people living around the square who got the wine fare out of their taps were very surprised,“Marino Mayor Adriano Palozzi separate the BBCafter it happened . " They thought that it might be some kind of present from the local council ! It only hold out three minute , we corrected it straight away . "
Only about a dozen houses situated around the second power , along with the Ithiel Town ’s main bar , experienced wine flowing out of their taps .
Want to taste some Marino DOC wine for yourself ? You ’ll probably have to go to Italy for that . A lot of wine from smaller regions like Marino simply are n’t being imported to the U.S. , thanks to a lack of demand . But that may be changing .
Manjula deSilva , a wine educator and buyer for a wine memory in Atlanta , says , " Marino is one of a number of DOCs that we ’ve not experienced here , but that does n’t mean we wo n’t see it sometime in the near hereafter . We are seeing monumental interest in these smaller DOCs . "
Festivals like La Sagra dell’Uva di Marino can only help that .
" Marino in particular has a capital history to tell with the Miracolo at the festival . It ’s a perfect marketing cock , " say deSilva .
And if vino run from kitchen sump does n’t drive tourism , what will ?
