About thirty years ago Peppe Mancini “rediscovered” the pallagrello and casavecchia grapes. These grapes are cultivated only in the Terre del Vulturo wine area. The annual wine tasting will feature Terre del Principe’s Piancastelli 2011, a 70-30% blend of pallagrello nero and casavecchia, respectively and Nanni Cope’ Sabbie di Sopra il Bosco 2012, a 90-10% blend of pallagrello nero and casavecchia with just a slight trace of aglianico. Nanni Cope’s vineyard is adjacent to Terre del Principe’s so it will be interesting to contrast these wines.
Terre del Principe
In each of the past five years we have visited Manuela Piancastelli and Peppe Mancini, wife-husband owners of Terre del Principe. In 2011 we celebrated my mother’s 85th birthday at Terre del Principe. We have brought and sent friends and other family members to Terre del Principe and every visit has been a fabulous experience. Manuela and Peppe have introduced us to many Italian wine makers. We have become good friends, this past May, Ro and I traveled to NYC to spend an afternoon with Manuela and Peppe at a wine tasting event sponsored by Terre del Principe’s importer.
Now for background on Terre del Principe:
Manuela and Peppe are accomplished professionals in the areas of journalism and law, respectively.
They became interested in wine making after they were established in their respective careers. Peppe recalling the days of his youth when his grandfather would make wine from pallagrello grapes (both the pallagrello nero and pallagrello bianco), forgotten grapes from a bygone era, dedicated himself to reviving these nearly extinct grapes. While doing so, Peppe rediscovered the casavecchia grape. Meanwhile Manuela working as a journalist interviewed Peppe about his quest to revive these long forgotten grapes. A lifetime partnership ensued. Manuela and Peppe got married and together they became dedicated to producing wine from the pallagrello and casavecchia grapes.
The pallagrello bianco and pallagrello nero grapes, were the favorite of the Bourbon King, Ferdinand IV. Near the Royal Palace of Caserta the King ordered his gardeners to design the unique “Fan-Shaped Vineyard” which featured grape varieties from the Reign of the Two Sicilies (Southern Italy). The pallagrello grapes were the only varieties from Campania in the King’s vineyard. When the Bourbons fell out of favor during the Unity of Italy 155 years ago, so did everything associated with them, including their wines. The pallagrello grapes were forgotten until the recent revival. The casavecchia grape was “rediscovered” by Peppe during an archeological exploration in the mid-1980’s. Peppe’s research into the grape demonstrated its absolute originality using studies into its DNA and wine making properties.
As a result of Peppe’s success in reviving the pallagrello grapes and rediscovery of the casavecchia grape, the Terre del Vulturo wine area is dedicated to the production of both pallagrello and casavecchia wines. These wines are produced only in this area – nowhere else in Italy, nor the world. There are only several wineries that produce wines from the pallagrello and casavecchia grapes; and Terre del Principe is one of the leading wineries.
After several years of ownership of a winery with others, Manuela and Peppe branched off on their own.
In 2003 they assumed sole ownership over several vineyards in the frazione of Squille in the town of Castel Campagnano, Caserta. Terre del Principe’s estate and cantina are in separate buildings a couple miles apart, the cantina is located in the center of Castel Campagnano. In keeping with their thurst of rediscovering and preserving history, Manuela and Peppe have revived what appears to have been a cellar to preserve food used by nobility 0ver a 1,000 years ago. The cellar is 10 meters deep. The 100 square meter antique cave was dug out by hand out. Terre del Principe wines age naturally at a consistent temperature and humidity in the ancient cellar.
Terre del Principe true to its emphasis on historical grapes produces wines only from the indigenous pallagrello and casavecchia grapes. Terre del Principe produces approximately 55,000 bottles per year. It adheres to a natural/organic method of viticulture.
In 2011 in special recognition of my Mother’s birthday, Manuela and Peppe prepared a dinner that featured local foods and their wines. We started the feast with an antipasti of buffalo meat marinated in a vinegrette dressing, ricotta topped with Manuela’s onion infused marmalade, mozzarella de bufala and bread. Our first course consisted of a ground broccoli type vegetable served in a ball like manner over an onion based sauce that had the texture of apple sauce – called a timbale. There was a battle between the bitter and sweet sensations. Our second course was pasta with fresh olive oil and zucchini. Before the third course, Manuela presented the then current year’s olive oil – made a week before our visit from Terre del Principe olives. We dipped bread in the fresh olive oil. Our third course featured pork topped by a hazelnut sauce and escarole which had been cooked in olive oil infused with juice from anchovies. Lastly for dessert we had a bread based cake (like bread pudding) infused with wild cherry sauce topped by white cream. We completed the feast with a shot of Grappa di Pallagrello Nero.
Each of the courses were paired with Manuela’s and Peppe’s wines. For the third course, they shared a bottle of Centomoggia 2003, their first vintage. The bottle is no longer available commercially, there is a limited number of Centomoggia 2003 in Terre del Principe’s cantina. This special wine had a pleasant bouquet of fruits and flowers and had a strong trace of licorice (my favorite taste in a wine). Since Terre del Principe is less than fifteen years old, it will be interesting to see how the wines evolve over the ensuing years.
This past year it was only fitting that we concluded our trip, which included visits to 21 wineries, by
visiting Terre del Principe. In 2010 the first winery we visited was Terre del Principe which sparked my passion for Southern Italian wine and food. This past trip Manuela and Peppe treated us with a tasting of 2011 Piancastelli, the most recent available vintage – a wine that my family (in particular my Mother) can never seem to get enough of.
Piancastelli wine is a not only a great tasting wine, but it also has beautiful labels designed by different artists. The winery’s website explains the philosophy and history of the labels.
We had a relaxing afternoon catching up on our families, discussing the wine scene in Italy and the USA, and engaging in other conversation. We had had a busy and somewhat exhausting trip and it was nice to conclude our trip with visits with such good friends.
Ci vediamo prossimo anno!
Nanni Cope’
In 2014 on our last day of visiting wineries our first stop was Nanni Cope’ located in Vitulazio, Caserta. We met with Giovanni Ascione, the owner, wine maker, field hand and public relations specialist. A journalist by training, Giovanni does all tasks associated with Nanni Cope. His “magic place” of two and one-half hectares of land is located in the frazione of Squille in the town of Castel Campagnano, Caserta. In the late 1990s and the first part of 2000 an elderly gentleman sold his land to our friends from Terre del Principe and granted them held an option for the two and one-half hectares. In 2007 Terre del Principe transferred the option to Giovanni who quickly exercised the option. Giovanni had
his first vintage in 2008.
Giovanni, who is 51 years old, had a circuitous route in becoming a wine maker. Initially he had a career in marketing in the automotive field. From this position he moved on to a career in television as a consultant and an executive producer. As a hobby he traveled the world visiting wineries. For his honeymoon he took a two month trip visiting wineries in New Zealand, Australia and the United States.
Giovanni started writing about wine in 2000; mainly Italian wine. He still writes about wine, but no longer about Italian wine; just foreign wine.
As if Giovanni is not busy enough he is involved with documenting the Libera Project. The Italian government confiscates land from members of the Mafia who have been convicted of a crime. In Sicily over 1,400 hectares of land has been confiscated by the government under the Libera project. About 30 hectares of land has been confiscated in Puglia. Other hectares have been confiscated in Campania and Lazio. The confiscated land is given to cooperatives of students who in turn produce fruits (including grapes) and vegetables. Giovanni assisted in documenting the Libera project in a book.
Even with these interests Giovanni still dedicates a majority of his professional life to wine making. His base of operation is his childhood home. He expanded the garage into a cantina in which he produces only about 7,000 bottles of wine per annum. Although a “one man show” he does recruit help at harvest time. The only wine that he produces is Sabbie di Sopra il Bosco.
Giovanni is partial to what he calls the pure elegance of the pallagrello nero grape. The casavecchia grape in Giovanni’s view has similar elegance and delicacy as the pallagrello nero grape, but it is less fragrant, a little rougher, stronger and more muscular. Giovanni views the aglianico as a powerhouse grape. He contrasts aglianico from pallagrello nero by describing aglianico as a “heavyweight” and pallagrello nero as a “middleweight”. He adds aglianico to Sabbie di Sopra il Bosco due to the historical significance of aglianico in the Campania region.
Every plant is catalogued on an excel spread sheet. Giovanni strives to have the fruit at the same height on every plant so that there is a consistent “perfection” with airflow and light. Despite consistency with physical characteristics every plant is handled differently with respect to biological needs because of the different ages of the plants. He analogized with humans – how older people have different needs than younger people. Giovanni also allows the plants to have a different number of bunches of fruit. During his two days of harvest each grape is chosen singly for consistency sake. Only perfect grapes make it to the cantina.
When the grapes arrive at the cantina they are placed in a stainless steel tank. There is no press.
Giovanni feels a mechanical press negates the natural aroma from the skins. Generally within 48 hours or so the liquid separates from the skin but he considers the liquid still rough. The liquid for 2014 stayed in the steel tank for about 12 to 14 days. The liquid is then transferred to Taransand (French) oak barrels but only after the previous year’s vintage has been moved out of the oak barrels. Within four hours the current year wine juice is placed in the empty oak barrels. Failure to refill the barrels immediately will result in harmful bacteria setting in the empty barrels. Wine makers eradicate the harmful bacteria by burning sulfites in the barrels. Giovanni bypasses this introduction of more sulfites than what naturally occurs in the wine making process by his speedy “refill process”. Hence his wines have less sulfites.
The timing of a harvest is important for wine growers and in particular for wine growers like Giovanni who abide by organic methods. A balancing act for Giovanni with the pallagrello nero grape is to not wait too long to harvest because a mistimed late harvest could result in more tannins and too much sugar resulting in too much alcohol in the wine. For the 2014 harvest the pallagrello nero grapes in August had what Giovanni referred to as “sweet tannins” which meant that they had to stay on the vines longer. But he ended up harvesting the grapes earlier than when he wanted (September 20-21) because of concerns with grape skin quality due an excessive amount rain in the 2014 growing season. Excessive rain causes too much stress on the grape. Due to the early harvest the 2014 vintage more than likely will have a lesser alcohol content (13% or less) than previous vintages. Also due to the rain which caused the overall lesser quality of grapes, production may be less than 7,000 bottles. Finally his 2014 vintage will not include any aglianico grapes due to the inferior quality of those grapes due to weather.
Giovanni does not produce more than 7,000 bottles even in a great year like 2012. He does not want to disappoint loyal customers with fluctuating supplies. Note he does have excess 2012 wine juice still in oak barrels. Giovanni is thinking about producing a one-time special riserva from this excess 2012 wine juice.
Maleoctic fermentation varies per bottling and as a result Giovanni performs an analysis of the wine juice twice a week. He needs this for the purposes of racking the wine juice. He showed us his most recent analysis and proudly pointed out the extraordinarily low percentage of sulfites in the wine juice. He then provided us a barrel tasting of the 2013 vintage. He commented that the wine had too much acidity. He also noted that the 2013 wine juice had only been in barrel for 8 to 9 months due to the early 2014 harvest. When the wine is not ready to be bottled like the 2013 vintage, Giovanni has to transfer the wine into stainless steel tanks, as Giovanni does not want empty oak barrels because harmful bacteria will grow requiring him to eradicate the bacteria by burning sulfites. When wine juice is ready to be transferred from the stainless steel to oak barrels, the older vintage that is in the oak barrels has to be moved to stainless steel tanks until bottled.
Giovanni addressed the necessity of sulfites in wine. Without sulfites the wine would taste like vinegar. To prevent a “vinegar” wine sometimes sulfites have to be added in addition to the natural occurring sulfites. As pointed out earlier Giovanni like all organic producers shun the use or drastically limit the addition of sulfites to their wines. Many organic producers have developed techniques to minimize the use of sulfites and other chemical interventions. Giovanni said that any wine juice can be made drinkable with the use of chemical interventions, but that organic producers are committed to the natural way of making wine. This results in lower quantities being produced by small organic (or sustainable) producers than large producers.
In short this was a wonderful informative visit hosted by a passionate meticulous producer who is fully committed to sustainable viticulture. Giovanni integrates traditional techniques with current technology.
