The wine tasting will feature white wines from three outstanding small organic producers. I have met each of the owners and all share a passion for making quality wines in a manner that respects the environment. They graciously shared their wine accompanied by an assortment of cured meats and cheeses. The largest producer is Ciro Picariello who has an annual production of approximately 50,000 bottles. Casebianche has an annual production of approximately 30,000 bottles and Bambinuto 22,000 bottles.

Casebianche

Betty Iuorio and Pasquale Mitrano, both natives of Napoli and professional architects, purchased the land for the winery, located in Torchiara, Salerno, from Betty’s father in 2001.  The first year of production was 2007; a fiano wine and an aglianico wine.

In 2014 Ro and I had a wine tasting in their dining room. The first wine tasted was their “fun wine” – La Matta, which has a fiz, but no gas. It is a fiano based sparkling wine that has a light refreshing prosecco type quality. Casebianche also makes an aglianico based fiz wine but only in a small quantity of 1,000 bottles per year. A three star Michelin restaurant in Denmark purchases the bulk of the 1,000 bottles and serves the wine as an apertivo.

Betty and Pasquale took us on a tour of the cantina where we watched the first press of fiano grapes. Freshly picked grapes were loaded on a machine that separated stems and seeds from the berries, and then crushed the berries resulting in juice transferred by a hose to a lower level in the cantina only by the force of gravity. There is no pump. We have noticed how other organic producers use the gravity technique as opposed to pumps when transferring juice, the thought is relying solely on gravity the juice experiences less stress than it would if the juice is transferred by mechanical means.

Bambinuto

We have visited Bambinuto three times. In our first visit in 2013 we met the owner, Marilena Aufiero, at  the “traditional” greco di tufo cru vineyard located in Santa Paolina, Avellino. Greco di tufo grapes are in the photo above.

 

Across the way she pointed out her “Picoli” cru vineyard of greco di tufo grapes. The Picoli cru produces a wine that has more acidity resulting in a Greco di Tufo wine that can cellar longer than wine from the traditional cru.  Picoli has about a one percent greater alcohol content than wine from the traditional cru. Marilena describes her vineyards as having mineral characteristics that create a softer wine with a perfume fragrance.

At the cantina we observed two presses; a larger one for white grapes and a smaller one for red grapes. In addition to red and white wines, Marilena produces a sparkling Greco di Tufo which has an alcohol content between 11 to 12.5%. She would like this wine to be viewed less as a celebratory spumante, and more as an everyday luncheon wine.

Marilena’s father started Bambinuto in 2006. In 2009 Marilena gave up a career in law and joined her father to become a wine maker. Bambinuto has increased its production from the first vintage in 2007 of 7,000 bottles to the current production of approximately 22,000 bottles.

Bambinuto is her mother’s family nickname, which in dialect means “good wind” or in proper Italian “benevento”.

 

 Ciro Picariello

Ciro Picariello and his family — wife Rita, daughter Emma, and son Bruno are all  involved with wine making.  Ciro is a civil engineer, who bought the vineyard in 1990, built the winery in 2002, and had his first vintage of 10,000 bottles of Fiano di Avellino in 2004.  Emma is studying bio-technology at a university in Avellino and Bruno is studying to be an oenologist.  Remarkably Ciro does not employ a wine consultant, he is a self-taught wine maker having only made wine for home consumption before starting his business. He owns seven hectares of vineyard and rents four hectares.

Ciro’s Fiano di Avellino is considered one of the premier wines of Campania. But I have decided to include Ciro’s Greco di Tufo’s at the annual wine tasting to contrast the wine with Bambinuto’s Picoli.  The grapes are hand-picked from 20-year old organic vines located at the edge of the towns of Altavilla and Tufo.  The wine has a floral and citrusy flavor.

During our visit he made a memorable comment when asked if he agreed with many of the wine makers in Campania and Basilicata that 2015 is a great year for grapes.  He replied that we will have to wait and see if it is a good year, but noted that those who are already promoting the vintage have an interest in selling wines.

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