Sciacchetrà Tasting at the Groppo Cooperative Winery

Sciacchetrà is the sweet wine of the coast, made from grapes left to dry after the harvest. At the Cantina Cinque Terre, the cooperative winery that brings together a good share of the growers of the five villages, you see how the grapes that come down from the terraces are handled and taste it alongside the dry whites of the denomination.

What it is and why it matters

In the Cinque Terre the vine grows on terraces held up by dry-stone walls, so steep that the harvest is done by hand and the grapes come down in baskets or on small monorails. Without the cooperative, many of those plots would have been abandoned. Today it produces the Cinque Terre DOC, a dry white, and the Cinque Terre Sciacchetrà DOC, the dessert wine made from the same grapes dried for weeks.

The winery is in Groppo, a hamlet above Manarola, on the road that climbs towards Volastra. From there you can see the terraces the wine comes from.

Visits and tastings

The winery publishes several formats, all by reservation:

• Tasting with aperitif: visit to the winery and two glasses, a Cinque Terre DOC and a Sciacchetrà, with small local bites. €30 per person, or €50 with a transfer by the winery's car from Riomaggiore, Manarola or La Spezia and a stop at the Costa da Posa viewpoint. In Italian and English.
• Tasting with light lunch: visit and the same two glasses with focaccia, savoury pies, lasagne with pesto and pandolce. €45 per person, or €65 with transfer.
• Winery visit: on weekdays at 11:00, on the history of the area and its wines.
• Walk through the vineyards: a route among the terraces that ends at the winery, €40 per person, with a minimum of four.
• Trekking: a longer walk along the trails and terraced landscape, finishing at the winery. €60 per person, minimum four.
• Symposium: seated tastings from Friday to Sunday and public holidays, by reservation only: a Sciacchetrà on its own, three dry wines, two dry wines with Sciacchetrà or a glass of DOC.

In the shop you can try something without a reservation during its opening hours.

Shop hours

From April to October and in December, Monday to Saturday from 8:00 to 19:00 and Sundays and public holidays from 10:00 to 19:00. In January, February, March and November it opens with reduced hours on weekdays and closes on Sundays and public holidays; the website itself gives two different versions of these hours, so call before going.

Getting there

From Manarola the park minibus goes up to Groppo; with the Cinque Terre Card it is included. By car, the winery has ample parking, rare in the area, on the road that leaves the coast road towards Volastra. On foot, trail 506 climbs from Manarola towards Volastra along the bank of the Groppo stream: it is steep, more than 600 m of ascent to its end, although the winery is on the first stretch.

If you are going to taste wine, do not drive: the bends of the coast road are unforgiving. The format with transfer solves the problem.

Who goes and what to bring

The tastings are for adults. Minors may accompany the visit, but do not drink. Book by phone (0187 920435), mobile or email a few days ahead; for the vineyard outings, bear in mind that they do not run with fewer than four people. Bring shoes with a firm sole if you do the walk or the trek: the terraces have stone steps.

The visit fits with the Volastra vineyard trail, which passes through Groppo, and with an afternoon in Manarola.