Today’s wine is the brainchild of Mario Falcetti (oenologist and agronomist, former Contadi Castaldi, Terra Moretti group), and it has the distinction of being produced by a winery I like to call “unconventional”. Falcetti, the manager of the Quadra winery since 2008, has a reputation for taking things into his own hands and revolutionizing both management philosophy and winemaking techniques.

Irpinia is, without a doubt, a great land for red wine (but also for white wines). Also known as the province of Avellino, north of Naples, it’s the home of Aglianico, its most important red vine and the source of the most structured wines on the market. Such grapes are particularly suited for cultivation in the Taurasi Docg territory, which employs them in order to produce an excellent southern Italian red wine: the Taurasi, which some oenological critics have described as "Barolo of the South”.

I want to tell you about a nice sweet wine that deserves to be known better: Malvasia delle Lipari Passito. Vintage 2014 of this wine is produced by Barone di Villagrande Estate which has its basement in the territory of Milo, to the south shadows of Mount Etna which is the highest active volcano in Europe (3.329 mt altitude). In June 2013 Etna was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.