Campania

With a name stemming from ‘Campania Felix’ meaning ‘happy land’, it’s hard not to get excited by Campanian wines. Dominated by the city of Naples, this region is home to Italy’s most impressive array of grape varieties – many of which exist almost nowhere else on Earth. Many of its vines descend directly from the ancient Greeks; however, despite its archaic foundations, Campanian wine producers bring a dynamicity to their winemaking methods that seeks to not only improve the quality of Campanian wines, but to create modern wines that pay homage to their history. The result? Red and white Campanian wines that range from fruit-forward and youthful to robust and well-structured.

The Campanian climate and geology consists of a colourful patchwork of coastal hills shaping the Amalfi Coast in the West, volcanic soils of Vesuvius, off-shore islands, inland altitudes and a Mediterranean climate with a long growing season and dry, hot summers. Consequently, diversity is rife, but respect for the land and its indigenous grapes is paramount. Lapilli, a family-run business in the Southwest of the Avellino province, developed their vineyards one grape at a time, from Fiano to Greco onto Aglianico and finally Falanghina. The aim was to learn as much about the land as possible with each planting – and to draw on the experience of previous generations as they went. The perfect way to sustain ‘Campania Felix’. Keep your eye out for Pietracupa too, one of Campania's vinous successes and producer of exquisite, balanced and complex whites from these varieties.

Such respect gives Campanian white wines power – with Falanghina and Fiano sufficiently memorable for Pliny the Elder. Grown well and these grapes, alongside Greco, display striking minerality, a nutty depth and long-lasting elegance, gaining complexity in bottle. Produced from just 3 hectares of land in the Avellino province, Pietracupa’s whites reflect their maker’s ideology: a celebration of originality and loyalty to the land.

Campanian red wines are no less thought-provoking – Sabino Loffredo of Pietracupa’s Taurasi displays a celebrated elegance, depth and refined ageability (perfectly contradictory to the maker’s extroverted character). Happy land, happy producers, happy wines.