Campania: the leading region for white wines in Southern Italy
Wherever you’ll go in Campania, you’ll always find witnesses of a millennium-old viticultural tradition. It could come in the shape of a fresco depicting Bacchus, a bunch of buried doliae (clay vessels) marking the location of an ancient cellar or a hundred year-old vineyard that’s taller than a tree, evoking a time when mixing different crops was the norm. Wine production in Campania has been widely documented by historians from the imperial age of the Roman Empire to the late 18th century, and we all know that Falernum from Northern Campania was one of the most sought-after wines in ancient times.
So how come does Campania still lag behind many other regions in terms of recognition and prestige? Why is it still considered an “up-and-coming” destination for wine lovers?
The answer is that wine production in Campania has stood still for about fifty years. After centuries of prosperity linked to the export of blending wines to northern Italy and foreign countries, speculative building in coastal areas and the depopulation of inland territories in the aftermath of World War has caused the rapid decline of viticulture. The number of total hectares under vine plummeted, and by 1980 you could count on one hand the commercial wineries in the region: there were almost no signs of the big revolution that was taking place in other parts of the peninsula. The earthquake that devastated Irpinia , one of the key wine-growing areas of the region, marked a turning point: it may have dealt a lethal stroke but some producers seized this opportunity to restart from scratch.
The Capaldo and Ercolino families, Antonio Mastroberardino, Silvia Imparato, Antonio Caggiano, Luigi Moio, Antonio and Raffaele Troisi and Leonardo Mustilli are just some of the key figures that relaunched Campanian wine in the early 1990s. By modernizing production, rescuing native varieties and conducting thorough studies, they triggered one of the fastest transformations in the history of Italian wine.
Between those years and the early 2000s, the number of active wineries grew tenfold, and it keeps rising steadily to this date. Although Campania still accounts for around 1% of the national production, it enjoys a lofty reputation as one of the go-to regions for high quality white wine. Fiano di Avellino, Greco di Tufo and Falanghina del Sannio are globally renowned and appreciated for their zippiness and aromatic brightness. Minor varieties such as Pallagrello Bianco, Coda di Volpe and Biancollela are also emerging in the limelight, and the reds are improving as well – if at a slightly slower pace.
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The other Campania
Beyond Irpinia, Sannio and the up-and-coming volcanic areas in the outskirts of Naples, there are dozens of little-known wines and territories that deserve to be discovered.
In the north of the region, the Terra di Lavoro area is still little traveled but offers dozens of hidden gems. On the fothills of Monte Massico, Falerno del Massico Bianco (made with Falanghina) and Falerno del Massico Rosso (either Aglianico or Primitivo) are the descendants of the mythological Roman wine, but they still have a long way to go to match its reputation. A little further south, over 3 meters tall alberata vineyards planted to Asprinio near the town of Aversa testify an archaic winemaking tradition. This is also an area that has had severe issues with organized crime over the years, and one of the most intriguing new projects, Vitematta, farms land that used to be owned by Gomorra clans.
But the winemaking scene of Campania is immensely more diversified, and it would take far longer to discuss everything that deserves being pinned down – from Pallagrello Bianco, the Bourbon kings’ favorite variety, to Mediterranean-scented Fiano and Greco from the coast of Cilento in the south of the region, and refreshing field blends from old vineyards on terraces along the Amalfi Coast. Unfortunately one article is not enough, and while promising to delve deeper into specific appellations in the future, we recommend you check out the full tasting report to read the notes for some of these hidden gems!
