The name is glamorous, the place is wonderful but not glamorous. Antoine Gaita’s house is up a small road well above the zona industriale of Montefredane, North of Avellino. The vineyards fall away from the house on a North and North West facing slope, perfect for whites according to him. The villa is a nice,
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On a wine journey, one good thing can lead to another. During our visit to the Contrade di Taurasi, we were quizzed on where we had been eating and then given a number of recommendations. The top one was for La Pergola in Gesualdo, a 30-minute drive away which we took up for lunch as
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I had exchanged telephone calls a couple of times with Flavio before we discovered that his house is about 40 metres from our B&B. He drove us to his father-in-law’s small winery where we found a hive of activity. The first picking of the Aglianico has already been vinified and was now being pumped over
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The road to Salvatore Molletieri’s winery in Montemerano from Avellino is long and tortuous, even after an excellent lunch. After our visit to Mastroberardino, we enquired of a restaurant. While Atripalda’s ‘Valle Verde’ looks like any another industrial unit in this rather unattractive area the food was excellent – cannellini bean and porcini mushroom soup
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Any visit to Campania has to include Mastroberardino. This was the winery which put the region on the map, formally founded in 1874 but much older than that, now in its 10th generation of the family. They started as plain Berardino with the ‘mastro’ being added as an honorific; they virtually drew up the rules
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The Cilento national park is famous for its proximity to the great Greek temples of Paestum and then for white figs – and of course for its wonderful genuinely wild interior. It is not famous for wine. That hasn’t stopped a handful of family wineries proving the potential of the area if you have the
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Sadly, our attempt at a visit to Marisa Cuomo’s vineyards, perched high above the Costa d’Amalfi, did not come off. But at least we visited the spectacular town of Furore, climbed the steeps steps which go straight up from the sea to the town and stayed in a B&B to die for – carved out
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Our autumn holiday started at Naples airport searching for a hire car in a large car park, thinking it has got to be here somewhere. Equally, at 9 pm at night, we found that the coast road to Sorrento is currently diverted through Vico Equense for the winter months (while they repair one of the
Campania is one of the historic wine areas of Italy – the Romans prized the wine from Ager Falernum (now revived as Palermo) – for great fresco from Pompeii, see: Roman fresco at Pompeii No doubt their predecessors, the Samnites, could cook up a great brew or two. As the map shows, they certainly had
Campania – introduction Read More »
One of the risks of going to parties is the range of competent but dull wines you may encounter. Things look up however if the party is thrown by a member of a wine club and lots of the wine club are there. While no one would expect rare or valuable bottles, finding interesting party