In the cooperage, the deepest and final part of the cellar, we have created a space where the works of artists who periodically exhibit with us find their natural home—together with bottles of wine left to age...
The WINE LIST of "L'Ottava Rima" pays homage to peasant culture and the local *terroir*, with occasional forays beyond the borders, featuring producers that may be geographically distant but philosophically aligned. We exclude the "usual wines" of the area—those that invest more in marketing than in the integrity of the wine itself—favoring instead small producers and artisan winemakers who work personally in the vineyard and cellar, respecting their land and its biodiversity. Most are natural and biodynamic wines, free of synthetic pesticides, herbicides or insecticides, with minimal added sulfites and only indigenous yeasts and spontaneous fermentation. Among the more than 200 labels, we hope you'll find your favorite!
Now, let's descend into the cellar, guided by this evocative passage from the “Dictionary of Symbols” (ed. BUR) by J. Chevalier and A. Gheerbrant.
The cellar is a closed space where wine or provisions are stored and may also refer to the treasure room. On a spiritual level, the word 'cellar' has a precise mystical meaning: Bernard of Clairvaux, who likened it to the SECOND HEAVEN, believed that the Holy Spirit leads the soul into the cellar to make it aware of its riches. In monastic terms, the cellar always indicates the treasure room mentioned above; but in this case, the word cellar refers to the secret room into which the soul must enter to gather itself and become aware of the graces received. Taste the wine held in the cellar and savor the spiritual nourishment. The cellar here represents interiority, the secret room.
Remaining on the theme of treasures and secrets, I’ll share a memory by Grosseto-born anthropologist Roberto Ferretti, who in a 1976 sketch spoke of a great army destined to destroy the Maremma, but... some went to besiege Montieri, some died of malaria in Scarlino, some became saints in Montiano, some ruled in Roccalbegna, some got lost in the woods of Tirli, and someone discovered a treasure in Sorano... no more was heard of them.
Surely, a treasure—beyond the one in that tale—does exist and still endures: it is Sorano itself, its extraordinary land, and its powerful *GENIUS LOCI*. Many legends hover over it, adding to its charm. For example, the tale of a magnetic force supposedly hidden beneath the *Masso Leopoldino* in the village center, said to attract the most sensitive and unique souls who pass through—convincing them to settle here (called the "magnetized" by locals); or the story of the magical puma that disappeared from the woods of Sorano around 1972, as Ferretti noted in his drawing for "Something White in the Maremma – Encounters with the Unreal and Fear in the Grosseto Countryside." Much of this material was later included in the book *“The Star Traveler”* edited by Mauro Papa and presented here, at L’Ottava Rima in Sorano.
