Why it matters
The producer
For more than a century, the Ercolino family grew grapes in Irpinia and sold the wine in bulk. No label, no estate name, no bottle with the family on it. The grandfather was pressing Aglianico in 1887. That arrangement ended in 2004, when Luciano Ercolino founded Vinosìa in Paternopoli, a hill town in the interior of Campania, built a modern cellar, and put the family's accumulated vineyard knowledge into estate-bottled wine for the first time.
Irpinia is the inland heart of Campania, a landscape of volcanic hills and river valleys southeast of Naples where three of southern Italy's most serious DOCG appellations overlap: Fiano di Avellino for white wine from Fiano, Greco di Tufo for white wine from Greco, and Taurasi for red wine from Aglianico. Vinosìa works all three, with a range built on the same native grapes the Ercolino family has farmed across those hills for generations.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Irpinia sits in the Apennine foothills of inland Campania, elevated above the coastal heat and shaped by a complex series of hills whose volcanic and clay soils vary sharply across short distances. The three DOCG zones are geographically distinct. Fiano di Avellino is centred on the hills around the provincial capital of Avellino, where volcanic clay soils and cooler elevation give Fiano its aromatic weight and the mineral grip that tightens on the finish. Greco di Tufo is concentrated around the village of Tufo to the northeast, where volcanic tuff underlies the vines and pushes acidity higher than Fiano typically reaches. Taurasi, the red appellation, covers hillside parcels at 300 to 600 metres where Aglianico ripens slowly and late into autumn, building tannin architecture and dark fruit concentration.
All three appellations appear on Vinosìa labels. The volcanic origin connects them; the altitude and grape variety separate them in the glass.
Wines to know
The range in view
Vinosìa produces three DOCG lines, each built on a single native Campanian grape.
Fiano d'Avellino Le Grade is a white wine from Fiano grown on the volcanic clay hills around Avellino. Fermented and aged in stainless steel, it is aromatic and rounded, with pear and apricot leading the nose and lighter notes of toasted almond and acacia honey in the background. Lemongrass provides a fresh lift. On the palate it is soft and full-bodied, with a clean mineral finish and good length. It drinks well young and has the body to develop further in bottle.