This was my last
week of maternity leave and I was fortunate to attend at least one
wine event so far this fall at the Winebow's Vintner's Harvest wine
tasting sampling over 50+ Italian wines in the Boston area. To say
the least I was in heaven and could've spent all day there.
This
month's Italian Food, Wine and Travel (#ItalianFWT) group is
celebrating fall in Italy, which leaves a lot open for
interpretation. I wanted share with you today the wines of a very
well respected producer in the region of Campania, Mastroberardino.
As we travel into the cooler weather here in the Boston area I
wanted to highlight the reds specifically of Mastroberardino as we
start to warm ourselves up with sweaters, prepare our pots for soups
and roasts and of course a glass of hearty red wines.
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| Copyright of Federdoc |
Established in the
mid 18th century the ancient headquarters of
Mastroberardino are located in the town of Atripada within Irpinia.
Today the winery is led by Piero Mastroberardino whom is the 10th
generation of the Mastroberardino family. Out of the 4 DOCG's of
Campania, they are producing grapes in 3 of them including Taurasi,
Greco di Tufo and Fiano di Avellino.
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| Mt. Vesuvius from within the ancient ruins of Pompeii |
When
I traveled to Pompeii years ago I came across some of the vineyards
of Mastroberardino within the ancient ruins of Pompeii. Not knowing
much at the time, I have come to learn these are the vines of Villa
dei Misteri. This vines were
established in the early 90's as a project between Mastroberardino
and the Soprintendenza Archeologica of Pompeii.
“The aim of
the project is to investigate methods and techniques of viticulture
and winemaking in ancient Pompeii, as well as to reproduce important
phases of the ancient process on experimental basis”, according to
the winery.
If you've never traveled the ancient ruins of Pompeii it
has always been one of my favorites. To witness how many aspects of
ancient times are still in tact from artifacts, to paintings on the
wall, humans solidified in ash, and carvings on the floors, it's
astounding that they're growing vines on ancient soils there.
The 5 wines of
Mastroberardino I sampled are:
- 2009 Mastroberardino Campania Aglianico (Aglianico)
- 2013 Mastroberardino Fiano di Avellino Radici (Fiano)
- 2008 Mastroberardino Radici Taurasi (Aglianico)
- 2014 Mastroberardino Campania Greco Maestro (Greco)
- 2014 Mastroberardino Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio Rosso (Piedirosso)
It was hard to
just select one when I enjoyed almost all of them, but the one that
stood out the most was the 2008 Mastroberardino Radici Taurasi. A
runner up for it's value was the 2014 Mastroberardino Lacryma Christi
del Vesuvio Rosso and for white the Fiano di Avellino is a pleasure.
The grapes that make up these wines above: aglianico, giano, greco,
piedirosso and others are some of the top indigenous wines of
Campania.
The aglianico
grape is the dominating red grape of Campania and peaks in the wines
of Taurasi, named after the town of which it originates within the
Avellino province. The 2008 Mastroberardino Radici Taurasi is
made 100% from the aglianico grape, which is the top red of grape of
Campania and Basilicata. This wine is a full bodied, complex wine
that is well structured and rich in dark fruit. It's aged 2 years in
French and Slavonian oak and an additional 2 years in the bottle.
ABV 14%. SRP $67 (wine.com).
I'd love to dive
deeper into the wines of Mastroberardino and even better tour the
winery facilities upon my next venture over. Have you
experienced these wines or any of these grapes and what were your
thoughts on the wines of Campania?
Check out the rest of my fellow bloggers as they share their version of Fall in Italy. If you're catching this in time you can join us for a live chat on Twitter Saturday October 1st @ 11am EST #ItalianFWT. Join us next month on November 5th as we share "Unique Towns of Italy" via food, wine or travel. Mike from Undiscovered Italy writes about the Montefalco Vendemmia Festival
Martin from ENOFYLZ Wine Blog prepares Caprese Stuffed Roasted Eggplant and 2013 Josetta Saffirio Barbera d’Alba #ItalianFWT
Gwendolyn from Wine Predator presents Easy Fall Fun Flavorful Food with Italian Wines from a Castle
Jeff from FoodWineClick gives us his Top 5 Reasons to Visit Piemonte in the Fall
Michelle from Rockin Red Blog is Celebrating Italian Harvest with #ItalianFWT
Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla makes Truffles, a Whole Fish, & Barolo
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