Akron Life June 2023

CANTON LIVING

by Kelly Petryszyn, photos provided by Gervasi Vineyard

BENEATH THE SURFACE A new wine cave provides an intimate tasting experience.

“The tasting room is clad in stonework,” Rabin says. “It gives you a feeling of being in a cave.” Settle at a custom-made circular wooden table crowned by a chandelier made with red Gervasi wine bottles and select a flight: reds, sweets, winemaker’s picks or popular wines. Rabin recommends newbies select the approachable Bella Dolce flight of sweet wines. Pair it with a Vasi spread like a choco late shavings-topped mascarpone dip with ladyfingers. To go behind-the-scenes, take a 45-minute ticketed tour of the barrel cave and learn about winemaking and aging techniques like the use of an amphora, a terra cotta micro oxygenation vessel that slowly develops flavors. Or reserve a spot via OpenTable for a group of 10 to 16 friends at a table in the barrel cave, which is temperature- and humidity controlled at 64 degrees and 66 percent, so you will want to bring a light jacket. Both experiences include a curated flight of a char

donnay, rose, malbec and Nebbiolo and anti pasti including soppressata, Asiago and more. Guests said they have learned more at the Cave than at popular wine destinations like Napa Valley, California, and having ambas sadors guide you through a tasting makes an impression. “They can teach you how to experience the wine, how to taste the wine, how to smell, evaluate the wine,” says Rabin, “in a different way than you’ve ever learned.”

In the Old Country of Italy and France, winemakers developed a way to age their wines. “Back when you didn’t have refrigeration, … to really make the wine great, they would put them in caves underground,” says Eric Rabin, Cave operations manager at Gervasi Vineyard. That inspired Gervasi to build its Cave underground to barrel age and store its wines. It expands storage from 120 wine barrels to up to 350 barrels of Gervasi’s 25 wines and imported Italian collection. The Cave also adds Gervasi’s first dedicated tast ing room, with a focus on flights, styled to look like an Old Country wine cave you enter from a walkout patio.

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akronlife.com | JUNE 2023