Italian wine for free
In the small village of Caldari di Ortona, a local winegrower has made many people’s dream of a never-ending source of red wine come true. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, wine lovers can pour the noble drop from the Dora Sarchese winery into a glass and taste it. And it’s free of charge!
24 hours free wine in Caldari di Ortona
Caldari di Ortona is the name of the paradise for wine lovers, where red wine bubbles 24 hours a day from a never-ending source. The dreamy wine village is located in the Abruzzo region in eastern Italy. The harbour town of Ortona on the Adriatic Sea is only a 10-minute drive from the village, and the famous seaside resort of Pescara is around 30 kilometres away. If you want to buy a property in Italy in this region, you must not miss a trip to Caldari di Ortona.
The red wine fountain is located on a vineyard called Dora Sarchese and the owner was extremely creative in the placement of the fountain. The fountain, including the tap and the stone basin underneath, is located in a wooden hut that looks like a wine barrel cut open from the outside.
Visitors can enter the barrel from one side and tap the noble drop around the clock. The owner of the winery emphasises that the red wine is not provided free of charge to get people drunk. Rather, he says, it is a gift to the thousands of pilgrims who pass by his winery every year, because it is located directly on the “Cammino di San Tommaso” pilgrimage route.
Wine spring on the pilgrimage route
The pilgrimage route “Cammino di San Tommaso” (Way of St. Thomas) winds its way from the west coast of Italy in Rome to the east coast in Ortona over a length of 315 kilometres. It connects the last resting place of St. Peter in St. Peter’s Basilica with the Basilica di San Tommaso Apostolo in the port city of Ortona. This cathedral houses thmake the field to save as tagse tomb of the Apostle Thomas.
The pilgrimage route leads through remote villages as well as nature and national parks such as the Castelli Romani Nature Park and the Majella National Park. Medieval monasteries and hermitages lie along the route. The journey is a mixture of nature experience and spirituality and allows a deep insight into the rural life of the Lazio and Abruzzo regions.
Most pilgrims opt for the west-east route from Rome to Ortona. Finally, shortly before arriving in the little port town, the free wine fountain at the Dora Sarchese winery awaits the exhausted walkers as a special surprise. The thirsty visitors are asked to leave a donation. In this way, the preservation of the pilgrimage route will be financially supported. However, this appeal is not binding. Anyone who wants to can enjoy the noble drop for free and refill the glass or cup as often as they like.
Clever PR idea of the winegrower
The sun-drenched region of Abruzzo is the perfect place to grow wine and press noble drops from the grapes. The idea has only one flaw: it is not new! Numerous wineries are located in the hinterland of the Adriatic Sea, on some of them white and red wine has been pressed for generations. So how can a winemaker stand out from the competition if he is determined to make winemaking his life’s work?
The answer is as simple as it is ingenious: you install a tap in the wine well from which red wine can be drawn 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The winemaker’s idea turned out to be a smart PR campaign, because on the opening day in October 2016, people were already queuing up to get their hands on a drop of the coveted drink. Since it was far from just thirsty pilgrims, the calculation worked out. The bodega was well attended and the turnover was probably satisfactory.
