Andiamotrips on Thatch Travel

 

Ciao,

Maybe you have been wondering what I have been up to lately.  Let me fill you in.  

Andiamotrips has always been about the journey-the adventure.  "So," I thought,  "why not take it to the next level?"  

I've recently opened up a travel shop on the website/app Thatch.  Here I will have a chance to share guides that I have created about the topics we love most- Campania food and wine. 

My digital guides will be your companion as you: • Roam the streets of Naples • Eat at some of the Campania region’s top restaurants and pizzerias • Sip wine at the top wineries in the area My guides will include maps and/or itineraries to help your trip as well as links to my social media posts, blogs and voice memos. This is also a great place to contact me if you would like me to set up a custom made itinerary.

Registration to Thatch is free- as well as some of my guides. 

So, what are you waiting for? Andiamo!

A Wine Tasting Gone Wild -Lunarossavini, Giffoni Valle Piana (Sa)

Chef Angelo Borghese and all of us!

My first baby steps into the blog world were those as a wine blogger.  I loved walking through vineyards, speaking with producers, tasting wines with professional journalists, and attending wine events such as Vinitaly.  In fact, it was that way back in 2012 in Verona I tried a wine from Lunarossavini.  Quartara 2008.  A fiano, that I learned was fermented in amphora.  Amphora? I asked myself.  For me it was the first time I tried a wine of that type.  I will never forget, however, the brilliant straw yellow color of that glass.  Nor the message from enologist Mario Mazzitelli a few days later who 1) apologized that he wasn't at the stand when I stopped by and 2) invited me to taste some wines in his winery Giffoni Valle Piana in the Salerno province.
Well, I time went by learned and appreciated a crucial and  important point, that wine was meant to be paired with food.  Over time, my visits to wineries, ahime', were few and far between in exchange for visits to some of Campania's top restaurants.  And on those restaurant's wine lists, I noticed over and over wines form Lunarossavini.
So I thought - wouldn't it be great to combine a visit to the winery with one of my best friends - who is also a chef?  A fusion of fun.  A wine tasting gone wild...so to speak.  Wine tasting as it should be. Unpretentious.  With friends - where you learn about the wines, the territory, food.  And, magari, have a good, no, great time!

When I arrived at Lunarossavini- that late Saturday morning, I was greeted by Mazzitelli.

Mario Mazzitelli 

 Mazzitelli, enologist and owner of the winery took me right into the cantina to show me around.  The winery has been around since 2006 - after years of Mazzitelli working for other wineries throughout Italy and Europe.  Here's a fun fact - Lunarossavini is the first winery in Campania to use amphoras.  To Mazzitelli it seemed natural.  The ancient Romans used them...why shouldn't he?  They have many benefits over  wood barrels - especially for a Fiano -porous, a longer life.  Mazzitelli gave me a quick run through of how his wines are produced,  His Quartara, for example.

A fiano grape grown in clay rich soil is harvested in rounds.  The first beginning in August.  A series of grapes that are macerated and fermented in amphora, then passed to barrels, then eventually bottles.  As he was explaining the similar vinification  process for his Borgomastro Aglianico wine,

that is when 'the chef' arrived - Angelo Borghese of the nearby Settanta Neo Bistrot. It was time to get wild.

Wines deserve a dish to go along with it. During a series of appetizers prepared by Borgheese which included algae chips with tuna, tasted bread with butter and anchovies, cheese and various deli meats, we had a chance to try a range of Lunarossa wines...
Costacielo 2018 - red, white and rose'.  The winery's  base wines, even if I hate that term.  Fiano and aglianico wines fermented in steel tanks and aged in amphora.

Rossoamarea 2012 - an aglianico with a small percentage of primitivo fermented in steel tanks, then long termed aged in barriques (reds need a bit of wood) and then bottled.

Borgomastro 2015.  Aglianico wine - fermented and macerated in wooden barrels for about 30 months, then aged in bottles for one year.

Then- it was time- to tatste Quartara with Mazzitelli nearby. And he did not disappoint- we had some time to make up!  I had the chance to try 3 vintages, 2017, 2014 (paired with Borghese's tortelli with genovese) and a 2013.

A wine tasting gone wild.  Wine tasting in the company of friends, where you feel free, have fun...and yes, learn something about a territory that maybe you did not know about. There was also a chance to try Lunarossa's Fuorilinea - a moscato orange wine, that was macerated and fermented in amphoras. One of the beautiful things about this wine, besides the taste and aromas, was that the 1,250 labels for the bottles are designed by children AND a portion of the profits go to children's charities.  Wild! 

Thanks, Mario and Angelo for the chance to be wild!
Note - the winery calls itself Lunarossa Vini e Passioni - Wine and Passion.  Coincidence??? I think not!

From an Historical Aglianico Vineyard to a Glass of Wine, Vineyard Hopping with the Mastroberardino Winery, Luogosano (Av)

During the drive from Apice in the province of Benevento  to Luogosano in Avellino, the conversation went from lively  to nearly silent.  It was a late morning towards the end of July, and I was sitting shotgun next to agronomist Antonio Dente of Mastroberardino Winery  for another vineyard hopping adventure.

At first I wasn't sure what we were doing on this side of Irpinia's Aglianico country- mentally performing a quick inventory of  where the winery has their Aglianico vineyards...Montemarano, Pietrdefusi, Mirabella, Pompeii...
But Luogosano?

La vigna storica, Dente said as he turned down a narrow road.  We've spoken about it before.

The historical Aglianico vineyards that have been the roots, so to speak, of an exciting experiment that Mastroberardino Winery has been working on since 2000. Yes - spoken about it, but I had never been. Until today.

Instantly I straightened up in my seat and looked intently out the window as that narrow road became an even narrower path with vegetation closing in around us. Dente continued driving, however, and we eventually came to a small clearing where he stopped the car and parked.

After a moment or two, I exited the vehicle. I was silent as I slowly walked towards a small shed at one side of the vineyard.  A tiny vineyard, with only 30 vines towering overhead.

A vineyard immersed in in a small oak and walnut tree forest - unseen from the main road.  The vines here were around 100 years old.  Ungrafted vines that had lived through and survived phlloxera and an earthquake.

I walked around in that loose sandy soil  and my silent thoughts and emotions nearly drowned out Dente as he reviewed with me what he has told me before on previous occasions.  He reviewed with me that the cuttings from these vines were the ones used in research which resulted in the classification of two Aglianico clones named after the late Dr Antonio Mastroberardino; Antonio Mastroberardino VCR 418 and  Antonio Mastroberardino VCR 421.  

He reviewed with me that cuttings from the 30 vines here were planted in nearby Mirabella Eclano at the winery's Radici Resort, back behind the clubhouse back in 2004.  

Each vine with numbers that matched up with labels in the Mirabella Eclano vineyard in order to track the progress and quality of the vines as well as keep track of their origin.  

Vineyard visit in Mirabella Eclano back in 2011.

He reviewed with me that after a few years of numerous tests and controls, only two vines passed the tests required and were chosen to be grafted onto existing piedirosso vines in Mirabella Eclano.
And in 2008, the grapes from these vines produced the first bottles of RediMore Irpinia Aglianico Doc.

Vineyard visit in Mirabella Eclano back in 2011.

Vineyard visit in Mirabella Eclano back in 2011.

Vineyard visit in Mirabella Eclano back in 2011.

 I looked up towards the vines,  bursting with vegetation, still producing bunches of grapes high high above the ground.  Bellow, willow branches tightly embracing the vines to thick wooden poles. 

 A cool breeze that disguised the fact that just 50 meters or so away, down that narrow path we'd be back on one the town's main road. Where the hot humid late July sun made it almost unbearable to be outside as our watches read nearly 1 pm in the afternoon.

Back in the car. The next stop was obvious. Radici Resort.  Time for a break, time to go over notes, and of course have a bite to eat.  Piero Mastroberardino, president of the winery, arrived about the same time and sat down and joined us.  We spoke about the day, what was going on in the vineyards, etc, etc.
And during the meal, after the appetizers and the first course, the conversation turned from lively to nearly silent.

It was time to open, pour and enjoy a glass of RediMore Irpinia Aglianico Doc 2012.

My silent thoughts and emotions nearly drowned out Mastroberardino and Dente as they continued their conversation...

Vineyard hopping 

full circle....


Further, more detailed information can be found here, in Italian, on Luciano Pignataro's Wine Blog.

Vineyard Hopping - Cantine Villa Dora, Terzingo (Na)

A glass of wine one mid-July evening did more to quench my thirst.  It sparked my interest and curiosity.
A glass of Cantine Villa Dora's Vigna del Vulcano Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio DOC Bianco 2012.
A glass of wine that led me to a town called Terzigno, near Pompeii, in the shadow of Mt Vesuvius.  It led me through the gates of Cantine Villa Dora, down a volcanic road past towering vineyards and impressive olive groves.  It led me to Giovanna Ambrosio, who had just finished up a long day of bottling wines and was ready to spend some time talk about her family's winery.
Exiting from the car to stretch my legs before entering into the small cantina,  I took a look at the area around me. Blackish grey soil typical of these parts, volcanic rocks made into planters, a gazebo hosting   grapes and welcome any vineyard hopper to discover the territory.

It is here where Giovanna begins her story.  The winery began back in 1997 when her father,Vincenzo Ambrosio decided to revamp the existing vineyards that were on the property and transform the vines focusing on grapes that would produce quality and not quantity.  These vines proudly produce the winery's Lacryma Christi red and white wines. Three reds;  Gelsonero, Vesuvio Rosso , and Forgiato  (produced only during particular vintages).  A rose'; Gelsorosa.  And two whites; Vesuvio Bianco, and Vigna del Vulcano which I had been introduced to a couple of weeks earlier.
Walking around the winery, Giovanna pointed out the stainless steel vats, the barrel room and family's stock of older vintages which Vincenzo Ambrosio strongly believes in the importance of holding onto.

I had tasted the 2012 so I was curious about older vintages.  But that would come later.  First a visit to the vineyards - 8 hectares of  Aglianico, Piedirosso, Falanghina and Coda di Volpe growing on vines trained using the Vesuvian arbor system as well as Guyot.

Vento and sole...Giovanna pointed out.  Wind and sunshine.  All day, everyday. It was hard not to notice and appreciate the hard work that goes into maintaining the vineyards.
Gorgeous and impressive.

We headed past the olive groves and olive oil mill on our way back to the winery.  (Yes, the family produces oil as well from the century old olive trees and  I could almost picture the activity at harvest time.)

We arrived to the villa which serves as the winery's showroom and area for receptions, lunches, dinners, and of course, tastings.  And since it was Vigna del Vulcano that had led me here, Giovanna decided to open a bottle of that same white wine, but an older vintage.  We went back in time to 2006. A Campanian white nearly nine years after the harvest.  Beautiful light golden color.  Still fresh and flavorful once again proving how whites from the region can stand the test of time.

Giovanna Ambrosio

It was time to go.  But not before noticing what else the winery produces, including a grappa as well as getting a chance to check out a couple of new wine labels featuring a smoking Mt Vesuvius.

A Mt Vesuvius that watches over this interesting and underrated territory.

Cantine Villa Dora
Via Bosco Mauro, 1
Terzigno (Na)
081 529 5016