When Alexia Capolino Perlingieri left a banking career in Milan to take over her family's vineyards in the Sannio hills, she set out to make honest, terroir-driven wines from Campania's native grapes.
Backstory
Alexia is the third generation of her family to make wine. She grew up in Solopaca, in the province of Benevento, where her mother was one of the region's pioneering producers. In 2003, at the age of thirty, she left Milan and her job as an investment banker to resume winemaking, an activity her grandfather and mother had largely set aside. Today the estate is centered in the Castelvenere area of the Telesina Valley.
The Region
The Sannio sits inland in Campania, roughly 45 miles from Naples, near the Taburno Camposauro massif. Vineyards lie at around 300 meters above sea level in the fertile Telesina Valley, a zone long associated with Falanghina and other indigenous Campanian varieties.
Vineyards & Farming
The estate comprises about 12 hectares of vineyards and 5 hectares of olive groves, all farmed organically. Alexia works only with indigenous grapes and harvests by hand. No chemicals are used beyond occasional copper and sulfur treatments. Different plots are dedicated to different varieties, with rare Falanghina and Sciascinoso in one parcel and Greco, Fiano and Aglianico in another.
Winemaking
The wines are made with a minimal-intervention approach in a restored old stone house near the vineyards, a building that appears on the labels. Alexia vinifies with evident care and attention to detail, letting the native grapes and the volcanic-influenced soils of the Sannio set the tone.
The Wines
The range showcases Campanian classics: a Falanghina del Sannio (Preta), Greco (Vento), Fiano, and the Aglianico-based red Brizio. They are fresh, mineral, and clearly rooted in their place.
