Cantine dell'Angelo 'Miniere Riserva' 2021 Greco di Tufo Campania

750ml bottle

12.5% abv

A beautiful golden color with elegance, and plenty of acidity; ripe, tender, citrusy lusciousness, and a firm, completely mineral-packed finish. This is a full-bodied white.

100% Greco, hand harvested and sorted. Soft pressing with the stems and spontaneous fermentation for 15 days. Racking and élevage in large stainless steel vats for one year on the lees and then, after a natural decant, bottle aging for 8 months. Malolactic fermentation takes place spontaneously depending on the vintage. No sulfur added after harvest (only at bottling).

The Muto family works its Greco grapes on five hectares of vineyards in Tufo right above a part of the old ‘zolfo’ (sulfur) mines where over 900 people came to work during the 19th century. The oldest vine of the Avellino area is undoubtedly Greco di Tufo, imported from the Greek region of Thessaly, by the Pelagians. 

Third generation, Angelo Muto’s agriculture is low impact like his grandfather and father’s. He follows mother nature but is meticulous about the natural support of the vines from the roots to the leaves. He checks on the vines daily and along with Biodynamic practices, he also uses old methods such as Accapannatura, which protect the grapes by creating a shade by using the leaves of the plant itself.

Miniere is red wine painted white. All sides are surrounded by the most characteristic aroma of sulphur. An outlier wine, the sulfur can sometimes be interpreted as an oxidative note, but it represents the true essence of the wine. Angelo says “It’s like a Cru; vines are planted on top of an old mine so they are literally planted on the sulphur.” The elevage on the lees takes a further step to round the complexity of the wine, but it is balanced with typical minerality and high acidity of Greco. Angelo is the only winemaker in the area that gives eight months of bottle aging before releasing his wines to the market. He chooses to present a wine with fine tension and an elegant aromatic complexity that represents the essence of the soil from where it comes.

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While Angelo Muto comes from a family of winemakers, he is the first to estate-bottle. His five hectares of Greco vineyards sit around the small village of Tufo, center of the Greco di Tufo appellation—the smallest of Campania’s four DOCGs—tucked into a picturesque landscape of rolling hills inland of bustling Naples. Greco, an ancient varietal that found its way to southern Italy from Greece long ago, expresses its full structural and aromatic potential in the volcanic soils that give Tufo its name. These soils offer a complex assortment of minerals to feed the vines: atop the bedrock of volcanic tufo lies a mix of clay and limestone with chunks of chalk, quartz, and yellow striations of elemental sulfur.

Angelo’s flagship parcel is in fact situated directly atop an abandoned sulfur mine, on a very steep slope at high altitude. The vineyards are worked entirely by hand, as much a result of the significant grade as it is Angelo’s determination to bring out the best in his land. He refuses to treat his vines with herbicides or pesticides, proudly pointing out the abundant grasses, wildflowers, and butterflies prospering amid the rows of Greco.

Similarly, he allows indigenous yeasts present in the vineyards to carry out fermentation, after which the wine ages in tank on its lees with little manipulation save racking and a light filtration prior to bottling. Angelo’s commitment to traditional production methods, along with input from his like-minded friend and enologist, Luigi Sarno (see Cantina del Barone), allows for a classic rendition of this unique white wine. His Greco di Tufo is a beautiful golden color with elegance, plenty of acidity; ripe, tender, citrusy lusciousness, and a firm, completely mineral-packed finish. This is a full-bodied white—Greco is often referred to as ‘a red dressed as a white’—that is excellent in its youth alongside all sorts of cuisine, with the potential to age well in good vintages.