In the hinterland of the Amalfi Coast, there are vineyards with plants that are three, four centuries old: a spectacle of nature that is a real open-air museum. From very rare native vines are born wines with a unique character
The curves of the Amalfi Coast with the incredible overhanging views to the beach of Maiori. Then, a detour to the right, uphill, and within a few minutes the geography is distorted: the sea gives way to the mountain, the temperature drops, the crowd disappears.
We are in the heart of Monti Lattari park, with peaks that touch the 1,300 meters of altitude. As the name says, here once dairy cows were bred and the area was rich in dairies. Today, almost no one produces the mozzarella fior di latte and the viticulture resists only thanks to the determination of some willing, who decided to put their free time at the service of a wine heritage that has no equal in the world.
No description can make the beauty of the tiny plots, in which vines with a flat foot they touch the three, four centuries of age. From the huge and twisted trunks, tied with the willow to the chestnut poles, branch tents spread over ten meters long. Obviously the processing is done entirely by hand, the yields are basic, the sale of the wine, made with unknown native vines, very difficult. “For this reason we have decided to call our most important red, based on the dye grape, is iss, which in the local dialect means here he is, "says Gaetano Bove, who together with Generoso Bove, Vincenzo d'Avino and Luigi Giordano founded the Tenuta San Francesco company in 2004." First we sold the grapes, but in that year there was a market crisis, nobody wanted them, we didn't know what to do, so we tried to make wine by ourselves ”.
Without knowledge, the first results were not exciting, but with the arrival of the avellinese oenologist Carmine Valentino, the company has embarked on a path towards quality that today has led it to be one of the unmissable realities of the Amalfi Coast . The annual production is around 65,000 bottles and in the 13 hectares of property, divided into forty tiny plots, falanghina, piedirosso, aglianico, biancolella, biancazita, pepella and broom are also cultivated.
"The vine dyer it was saved in part because it was cultivated in isolated territories, partly because it gave color and acidity to the wines of Gragnano, very popular in Naples, ”says Bove; the particular volcanic soils did the rest, preserving the local vines from phylloxera, the terrible insect that devastated the vineyards of all Europe. È Iss offers, therefore, the unique opportunity to taste the dyer vinified in purity. Its dark color would make you think of a warm and muscular wine, instead the great acidity makes it agile and smooth, a true mountain wine which is remembered for its long and sapid palate, able to gracefully carry the aromas of wild plum and black pepper. It's a really unsettling red that doesn't look like any other wine. Is iss, in fact.
Why now: it is a wine that deserves to be discovered by those who do not yet know it.
As did: ferments in steel with indigenous yeasts at controlled temperature, then refines in wooden barrels of various capacities.
To combine with: meatballs with tomato sauce, pasta with meat sauce, roasts.
Serve it at: 16 ° C.
Price: 34 euros.
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