This is a story of friendship, passion for wine and the desire to make a difference.
Cantina Giardino was officially born in 2003, but five years earlier, thanks to the intuition of Antonio Di Gruttola, they had begun to make wine (experimenting) without resorting to biotechnology.
The idea was to be able to make wine by spontaneous fermentation, without filtering, without clarifying and without the aid of sulphites.
Years of tests and research have confirmed that that could be the right way and resorting to ancient vines would have been the key to making certainly more interesting wines.
The company was born thanks to the support of their historical friends who believed in the project and in the skills of Antonio, the only winemaker and technician of the group.
Born under the sign of red wines
They were born as a red wine cellar. Aglianico is a wine that can hardly be drunk one year after harvest, their youngest Aglianico is produced in magnums, although in small percentages there are also other varieties of red present in the old vines that facilitate drinking.
The other reds are Le fole, Drogone, Nude and Clown Oenologue. Four interpretations of pure aglycanic acid, macerations lasting up to six months from one month, selection of the particles, all historic vineyards of the Montemarano and Paternopoli areas.
Different interpretations, Nude in particular with the choice of releasing on the market after ten years and that wine that we hope will be opened by those who will be after us and that demonstrates where Aglianico can reach.
The choice of maceration in Amphora
The soil has always represented that part of the territory that is impossible to export, so they wanted to create something unique, with the clay from the vineyards. With the collaboration of Brancaterra they have created terracotta jars. They chose to vinify with a maceration that lasts at least six months.
So the only wine that Cantina Giardino produces following a protocol is Sophia, where every year they choose the most suitable vine for a maceration that lasts six months and it is no coincidence that they shift the attention to the container and not to the variety of the vine, bringing back to the earth the fulcrum of everything.
The choice of making wine also in 1000 liter stoneware amphorae was instead born from the desire to produce fresher wines, macerated for a few days and aged for 10/12 months in these amphorae. Bottled only in magnums which for Irpinia represents the bottle that you would sit at the table at home.
The oxygenation in stoneware is lower than that of wood and decidedly lower than that of terracotta, the firing of these takes place at 1300 degrees and therefore transpiration is minimal.
