Why it matters
The producer
La Fortezza sits in Torrecuso, a commune in Campania's Benevento province, where Enzo Rillo farms the volcanic slopes of Mount Taburno. Rillo grew up in Torrecuso, the son of farmers, and the estate is his return to that land. The winery takes its name and its physical form from the mountain: a fortress-like building carved into the volcanic rock, surrounded by olive groves and vineyards.
The core grapes are Aglianico and Falanghina. The oldest Aglianico vines on the estate are seventy years old. Oenologist Vittorio Festa oversees production, and the estate has capacity for approximately one million bottles annually, with exports reaching China, the United States, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, France, Spain and England.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Torrecuso sits within the Sannio viticultural zone of Benevento province, in the mountainous interior of Campania. The vineyards run along the eastern side of Taburno Regional Park, on the slopes of Mount Taburno, where the terrain alternates between vines, woodland and small clearings. Mount Taburno's highest peak casts shade only at the end of the day, leaving the vineyards sun-drenched through most of the growing season.
That long sun exposure on volcanic mountain slopes gives Aglianico the warmth it needs to ripen fully, while the altitude and the daily temperature drop preserve the grape's natural acidity. Aglianico grown there carries dark fruit and warmth, with acid and tannin that allow it to hold over time.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The estate covers sixty hectares, forty of them owned, as reported in a 2021 feature on the producer. The 2021 publication and the importer give slightly different figures for the total area, but both confirm the Taburno slopes as the base.
Varieties in the vineyard include Aglianico, Falanghina, Greco, Fiano, Piedirosso and Barbera. The oldest Aglianico vines date to seventy years. Farming uses fertigation, a system that allows treatments to be applied only when the vines need them rather than on a fixed calendar schedule.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range is anchored by two grapes across different designations. Aglianico del Taburno DOCG is the red core, with the Riserva at the top of that tier: 100% Aglianico, garnet in colour, with small red fruit, spice and tobacco on the nose, warm and well-built on the palate, and a black-pepper finish. The Enzo Rillo bottling, at the DOCG level, was made from hand-harvested Aglianico with maceration and eight months in oak, giving a full-bodied wine with dark fruit, mineral notes, chocolate and spice and marked acidity.
Falanghina appears as a still wine under the Beneventano IGT designation: 100% Falanghina, with exotic fruit and green apple aromas and a fresh, mineral, persistent palate. Oro del Marchese is Falanghina in sparkling form, made in an extra-dry style with a fine, bright mousse, an exotic-fruit nose and a harmonious, full palate.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Choose the Aglianico del Taburno Riserva. It is a 100% Aglianico wine from the DOCG zone on Mount Taburno's slopes, built on the estate's oldest vine material and shaped by the volcanic soils of Torrecuso. The nose carries small red fruit, spice and tobacco; the palate is warm and well-built, with tannins that stay contained and a black-pepper finish that reflects the variety's mountain origins. It gives the clearest account of what separates Benevento Aglianico from the more southerly Campanian versions: warmth from the long sun exposure, firmness from the altitude, and mineral grip from the volcanic ground.