There are several example of cooperation in Italy, in agriculture, but above all in the wine business. More than ever “there is strength in numbers”. And the wine, I am talking about, that amused me is a sparkling one, produced by a cooperative, Cavit Trento, i.e. Cantina Viticoltori del Trentino, a really big one, involving about 4500 vinegrowers, from 10 cooperatives in Trentino, in the North East of Italy.

It is told so often about wines, referred as “terroir expression”. I think I have definitely found a wine, really terroir expression and obviously I have tasted it. It is an extraordinary white wine, from extreme vineyards on the Amalfi Coast, in Campania, between Naples and Salerno: this is Furore Fiorduva by Marisa Cuomo. Before telling you more about the incredible tasting notes of this white wine, let me tell you more about it.Who’s the winemaker? Where is it from? What about the vine’s training system? And why is Fiorduva an “extreme wine”? Here we go, with all the replies. 

TheWineReporter go back to Campania, in Southern Italy, to talk about a really rampant woman winegrower. She’s Maura Sarno, currently one of the most important names among the Irpinia producers, in the Region hinterland. Her motto was for a long time: "A single land, a single vineyard, a single wine produced: the Fiano di Avellino DOCG". Surely, this enthusiastic and positive woman is the real key to the success of her own winery, called Tenuta Sarno 1860.

The protagonist of this wine story is a volcanic woman, proactive and full of ideas. She’s Donatella Cinelli Colombini, a great woman of Italian wine. Born in Siena and graduated in History of Medieval Art, in 1993 she founded the “Movimento del Turismo del Vino” (Wine Tourism Movement) and invented “Cantine aperte” (open wineries), the event that made wine tourism known in Italy.

Perhaps not everyone knows that since some years italian winegrowers can create excellent classic method sparkling wines in Italian regions different from those known as "traditional". Well! Today I want to tell you about an excellent sparkling wine that comes from grapes harvested on the slopes of Mount Etna, in Sicily. Of course everybody knows Mount Etna and knows where it is: it’s the highest active volcano in Europe with its 3,350 meters of altitude. All around the mountain - on different sides - the vine has been cultivated for centuries, up to altitudes of 1,100-1,200 meters.



I like to come back often, very nicely, in the beautiful Montefalco (Umbria region, at the centre of Italy), an uncontamined historical land of wine since Roman times. Think about it: it’s one of the few towns where the vineyards were inside their walls: they were really “urban vineyards”.
So, I will tell you the story of Cantina Fratelli Pardi (Pardis Brothers Winery). It began about a century ago, in 1919, when the three Pardi brothers (Alfredo, Francesco and Alberto) decided to produce and sell their local wines. At the time the wines were traveling to the Vatican where they were much appreciated.

The “natural woman” Angela Fronti is the real “fresh face” of a wonderful Chianti Classico Riserva that thrilled me at last FIVI Market. FIVI is Italian Federation of Indipendent Winegrowers. FIVI winemakers in Italy are a clear sample of artisans winemakers, the classic vigneron, who follow in first person all the steps from vine to wine, up to the marketing and communication of their products. Wines that almost always are the result of organic or natural agriculture, without (or almost) use of chemical treatments in the vineyard and in the cellar.

Few years ago I had the pleasure to meet winegrower Andrea Cortonesi, the Uccelliera owner: I saw in him a strong determination and desire to improve his viticulture and his wines always and continuously. Currently can confirm it: he has achieved great results and never stops. Andrea Cortonesi is a forward-thinking and ambitious man.
"l became a farmer by deliberate personal choice – says -. Although I come from an agricultural family, I could have chosen a different path--until, in 1986, I purchased the Uccelliera farm”. Uccelliera means bird house.