Drilling down: A guide to the wines of Irpinia

Luciano Pignataro, the widely followed wine and food writer for Il Mattino (Naples), has written a number of books on the wines of the Mezzogiorno.  The newest, entitled Guida completa ai grandi vini dell'Irpinia, drills down into what is arguably the best wine district of Campania.  Irpinia, located in Avellino province, is home to the white-wine Greco di Tufo and Fiano DOCGs, as well as the red-wine Aglianico di Taurasi DOCG.  This mountainous zone (vines to over 700 meters, or about 2200 feet above sea level) is surprisingly cold in winter and can be correspondingly cool in summer.  This and the largely volcanic soils give the wines their hallmark minerality and acidic zip.  The grapes that have evolved here over the centuries, particularly Aglianico, Greco and other white-fruit varieties do their part.

Luciano's guide profiles 114 wineries in the district, with listings of 650 "labels" or specific wines.  The aziende range from the huge and ubiquitous Feudi di San Gregorio (3 million bottles per year) to a number of very small family-run wineries producing no more than 5000 bottles on a hectare.  These winery profiles give you a fascinating glimpse into the wine world of Irpinia -- most valuably, as a sort of early-notification system of significant new aziende and trends.

Click on map to see in greater detail

Luciano's introductory pages provide an admirably concise overview of the rapid evolution of Irpinia from a producer of contadino bulk wines to DOC and DOCG wines of increasing quality.  Most striking to me are these points:

* Unlike other great (or potentially great) zones of Italy, Irpinia produces great (and potentially great) red and white wines.  Think of Piemonte and Tuscany, above all, and you will see the justice of this comment.

* Thankfully, due to the very recent emergence of this wine district from its medieval-peasant matrix, there has been little reliance on international varieties.  Local grapes clearly predominate.  That's a very good thing as Irpinia builds a worldwide reputation in what we might call the "post-international" era.

* Amazing and valuable on its own is a simple chart at the very beginning of the book, which illustrates the startling recency of Irpinia's emergence from the bulk-wine days: only a handful of wineries had begun bottling their own wine before 1990.  (Mastroberadino was the first by a long way, 1878, and it actually began far earlier than its official registration with the government.)

* He deplores the tendency, even here and even among very small producers, to make a range of wines, red and white.  He argues that they should stick to red or white, depending on the zone, the terrain and, of course, the interest and talents of the producer.  And it's generally true: a small-volume producer, who also has a small plot of land, is notably better with reds OR whites.  You taste this every day everywhere you go.  I hope more producers take Luciano to heart.

Starting with Pietracupa in 1990, the pace picked up, but the real explosion happened in 2000.  Since the turn of the century, fully half of the wineries presented in this book were registered for the first time.  Naturally, nearly all of these young wineries producer small amounts.  And, crucially, given the lingering traditions of the area, nearly all are owned and worked by farming families who realised that their terreno was good and their old vineyards were producing grapes far too good to sell cheap to a mass-market bottler.

Before I conclude this too-brief description of Luciano's book (jetlag, etc.), I want to make a couple of points of my own:

* This version of Campania is vastly different from the coastal zones, whether we're talking about Naples, Salerno or the Amalfi coast.  Everything is different, not least the attitude and demeanor of the people.  I believe this has a crucial bearing on the character of the wines; let us not be climatic determinists.

* Secondly, the wines of Irpinia and the coastal areas are markedly distinct even though usually made from the same grape varieties.  Soon, I hope, there will be a post from me describing the consistently apparent distinctions between a coastal Aglianico, for example, and a mountain one.  It's somewhat analogous to the differences between California's coastal and valley/inland growths.  Yet not really.  I will eventually explain.

I'd like to send you to a link to order the Guida completa ai grandi vini dell'Irpinia, but such link is not yet on Luciano's web site.  It costs just 10 euro (without postage), and if you read even a little Italian, it will prove very handy if you're interested in Irpinia, which is rapidly evolving.  I suggest writing to Mr. Pignataro at Il Mattino to see if you can order a copy from him.  lpigna@ilmattino.it

Comments

[tracie b]

try a campi flegrei aglianico against an irpinia one...

[tracie b]

better yet, try a gragnano (dry) while you're there. that'll quench your thirst

[th]

campi flegrei? uffa. no grazie.

[fortunato]

irpinia just consists in avellino province mr hughes!! is only nearby benevento one.....anyway is a little mistake, the rest is really well written...! :)))

[th]

but the irpinia wine site said irpinia wine zone was in both provinces.

pero' cambio lo stesso, you should know.