Gismondi, "Pietre" 2021

Though they have been farmers and grape growers for many generations, the Gismondi family were not professional winegrowers until 2018. If the light, minimally & attractively labeled, skinny bottles capped with colored wax and cork remind you of a certain Catalonian producer, the hunch goes a bit further than mere aesthetics; Antonio Gismondi took the plunge into making wine from their expertly farmed organic fruit at the insistence of some family friends, Massimo & Antonella Marchiori, also known as Partida Creus. Working with around 3 hectares of farmland under vine, La Vinícola di Antonio Gismondi, is situated in Ceretto Sannita, a small village about an hour's drive northeast of Naples along the southern border of the idyllic, unspoiled Matese Regional Park, a habitat for so much rare flora and fauna endemic to the area, including golden eagles and apennine wolves. The varieties of grapes that he works with Falanghina, Malvasia di Candia, Sangiovese, Merlot, and (oddly for the region as it's a northern native) Freisa, in vines ranging from ~6~30 years in age planted in stoney clay. The resulting wines share something with the influence of their friends at Partida Creus who also work in a Mediterranean regional park upland from a coast -- they are light, fresh delights that burst with a really lovely combination of salty/minerality and light, florally-inflected tropical fruit. Wines to watch, given how good they have been out the gates and it's only been 5 vintages!

Biodynamic. Campania, Italy. A blend of Falanghina & Malvasia from 30-year-old vines, macerated on the skins for a few hours in stainless steel. Fermented with wild yeasts and aged in the same tank. Unfined, unfiltered, no SO2.