Frank Prisinzano spent decades building a restaurant life in New York. In July 2022 he bought an 822-year-old palazzo in Scala, high above the Amalfi Coast, and began turning its terraced land into a working farm and winery.
Backstory
The property, now called Palazzo Prisinzano, came with 14 acres of farmland alongside the medieval building. Prisinzano, an Italian-American chef and restaurateur, envisions it as a future hotel, winery, and cooking school, and as the birthplace of his Prisinzano Products line. The first tomatoes and olives were harvested in 2024; the wine is among the project's earliest releases, the start of a long-term build rather than a finished estate.
The Region
The Costa d'Amalfi DOP runs along Campania's dramatic coastline, where vineyards cling to terraces cut into near-vertical slopes above the sea. A Mediterranean climate, constant sea breezes, and a mix of limestone and volcanic soils shape wines of brightness and salinity. Farming here is heroic by necessity, with everything carried up and down by hand.
Vineyards & Farming
The estate's terraced vineyards are farmed organically, without synthetic inputs of any kind at any stage. The vines are the region's indigenous reds, grown on the steep, stony ground that defines this stretch of coast. Everything is farmed, picked, and bottled on the property.
Winemaking
The wine is made with the guidance of Bruno De Conciliis, the acclaimed Cilento producer, lending the young project serious cellar experience. Fruit is hand-harvested on the terraces, destemmed, and fermented with indigenous yeasts through skin maceration. The approach is minimal intervention, with no synthetic additions used.
The Wines
The flagship is a Costa d'Amalfi Rosso DOP built on Piedirosso, known locally as Per' e Palummo, with Aglianico, the two principal indigenous red varieties of the appellation. It is a dry, medium-bodied red that carries the salt-and-stone signature of vines grown on terraces above the sea.
