Pietracupa

Greco and Fiano: if you’re a fan of either of these stunning, Campanian white wines, there’s a good chance you don’t need an introduction to the Pietracupa winery or its owner Sabbino Loffredo. Pietracupa is a leading example of how small producers can produce world-class wines that are truly representative of their origins. Determined, charismatic and softly spoken, Sabbino Loffredo took over his father’s wine estate in the early 2000s and has taken it to heights unreached by any other Campanian winemaker. After a string of young winemaker awards received early in his career, today, Sabbino is widely regarded as making the finest, most aromatically pure white wines in Campania, despite remaining small and distinctly independent. Pietracupa cultivates eight hectares of vines and produces around 50,000 bottles per year. Wine drinkers all over the world should have Pietracupa firmly on their map, these wines are not to be missed.

 

Based in Montefredane, in the Irpinia area, Pietracupa’s vineyards are situated in Avellino, where the vines are grown at heights of up to 800m above sea level. The perfect altitude, combined with the loamy, calcareous soils and firm south-eastern exposure means that Pietracupa’s white grapes ripen to a wonderful extent without losing their prized acidity. The seamless mix of concentrated fruit aromas, soaring acidity and serious ageing potential in Pietracupa’s wines have gained them fans across the world, not least in the UK and in particular among top sommeliers. Pietracupa’s whites are like little bundles of elegant power and complexity just waiting to be unpacked. Subtle and delicate with quiet aromatics on the nose - smell closely though and you’ll pick up an array of floral and fruity notes accompanied by their hallmark minerality and honeyed edge. The palates are precise, linear and focussed, with incredible concentration and power weaved together by the beautifully pure, stone fruit and citrus character. More recently, Pietracupa has also started making the noble red wine Taurasi from the Aglianico grape which, by anyone’s standards, is an amazing lens into the intriguingly elegant, smoky, red fruit character that this grape variety exudes. Discovering Pietracupa’s wines might just be the best thing you do this year.