Distinctive and distinguished wines of Campania Ⅱ
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While Italy is generally identified in India with the North Italian wines from Tuscany, Piemonte and Veneto as also Sicily in the South due to its size and attractive prices, Campania with a glorious past of excellent wines makes some unique wines from indigenous grapes from the region that has made it command international respect of late, writes Subhash Arora who tasted several of these wines recently in Vinitaly . |
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6. Ocone
7. Vini Iovine
8. Poggio delle Baccanti- Az. Agr. La Mura
The Rose made from Sciascinoso is pink salmon colour, was not attractive in looks or taste. Though technically a well made wine, it may not seduce the Indian palate, despite its attractive price. Lacryma Christi Bosco de Medici is another unique blend of Piedirosso- 80%, Sciascinoso 10%, and Aglianico 10%, that makes wine with personality but not likely to be a winner in the Indian market. 9 La Fortezza
La Fortezza has already sold a small quantity of 4500 bottles sold after starting their commercial activity in January 2011. They do not buy grapes from outside. 400,000 hLs of wine gives them 300,000 bottles budget 10. Az. Agr. Il Poggio di Fusco Carmine
This area produces no docg wines and only doc-the Spumante Extra Dry doc made from Falanghina grapes is an interesting wine made by Charmat method like Prosecco but this slightly sweet wine will have a niche market only because of its higher prices. Taburno Falanghina doc is a good value for money preposition as is the fuller bodied Rose made from Aglianico and classified as Aglianico Del Taburno Rosato DOC. Mirabilis Beneventano Aglianico IGT is a wooden-vat aged wine that has a good aging potential and shelf life- good quality wine for which you pay a reasonable price. Although wines from Campania will need time as the taste for their wines has to be developed but because of the unique character and personality of these wines, one can expect wine connoisseurs and those with evolved palates to enjoy these wines-especially since they are still excellent value-for-money preposition. The highly complicated names of wineries might get them international awards, but once you go past that, the unique wines from Campania can be quite distinctive and distinguished. |
This 20,000 case small winery makes biological wines with 60% exported to discerning customers in Europe, USA, Canada and Japan. Domenico says he was one of the founders of the Association for biological wines in 1984. Cerere Coda di Volpe e della familia di Fiano 2010 is a golden, brilliant wine with green tinge and has intense and clean perfume with a long end. Apollo Aglianico del Taburno is an excellent wine and perhaps, one of the best value-for-money wines from Campania region. They can be an interesting winery to introduce fine wines to India.
The winery has 60,000 cases production but has potential of 180,000 cases. They are basically selling in the domestic market with only 9% being exported at the moment to USA, Hong Kong, Japan, UK and Denmark. Wines are not the best of quality (generally rated 6-7/10) but are amazingly excellent on price-quality ratio and can dare facing the rigid and high tax regime of India. One can even import for Retail sales, wines like Falanghina Sannio doc 2010- a limy, lemony, crisp wine which at 12.5% alcohol is an excellent aperitif wine. Same goes for Falanghina Pompeiano which is even lower priced and more fruity and intense flavoured. Though Piedirosso Pompeiano disappoints despite its low price, Aglianico Sannio doc 13.5% is a delicious wine with Nebbiolo-like floral aromas, at a very good price. Vinya Micciano, with 50% Aglianico and 50% Piedirosso is an interesting wine with a decent price tag (rated 8/10) 
Relatively new and small winery producing 12-13,000 cases annually, they produce a few interesting wines like Penisola Sorrentina doc, (appellation since 1994) which has 
This is an interesting example of an industrial construction company diversifying into wine business because of the owner’s roots in the wine village and his passion for wine and vines that he grew up with. It’s a very young company which started in 2006, with commercial activity starting only 3 months ago. The winery plans to produce 25,000 cases of wine going on to almost 160,000 cases in future. They are already exporting to Bulgaria, Holland, Romania and UK. 
Il Poggio is located in Benevento province at the foot of Mount Taburno, on a hill at about 300m height. There is breathtaking view from the winery. It is a big sized company making about 190, 000 cases annually and already exporting to Germany, China and USA.