On the first day of our Southern Italy trip Gaetano Petrillo introduced us to a new winery located in his home town of Montemiletto; Cantine De Santis. Alberto DeSantis has been bottling his wine for only five years. The vineyard has been in the family for two generations. Alberto’s family, as many other Southern Italian families, before producing their own wine, sold grapes to other producers; sometimes as far north as Piedmonte.
Alberto produces approximately 15,000 bottles of three red wines; all from the aglianico grape: Aglianico IGT (7,000), Campi Taurasini (5,000) and Taurasi (3,000). He adheres to organic viticulture practices; minimal sulfites are added at the outset of the wine making process and no other chemicals are added.
We enjoyed all three wines at the quaint environment of Alberto’s cantina, which is a converted garage; similar to many cantina of boutique wine producers in Southern Italy. In the above photo, Alberto’s bottle label designer Fabio Pirone is explaining his design to Bob and Karen with Alberto, Gaetano and Gennaro listening.
We are excited that Alberto plans to export his wine to New York by the end of the year. We will be on the look out for these wines and expect the wines to be served at wine tastings next winter.
For more information on De Santis please follow the link to Alberto’s website.
