Three generations live on in the heart and passion of Sara Carusone, whose smile glimmers like her beloved Rosato. “It was fate that I would discover this passion. I fell in love with the story of Pallagrello out of nowhere while discussing my thesis in His- tory of the Mezzogiorno on the wine history of Terra di Lavoro. After graduating, I felt a powerful desire to get my hands dirty and get involved. Among these vineyards I have found my place in the world and I am moved when I talk about it. La Masserie - which can be pronounced in both French and Neapolitan - is a slice of authentic Campania Felix. And Sara transmits joy, happiness and contentment like her wines which perfectly match the labels designed by artist Bruno Donzelli. “Veritas, an elegant and sweet rosé from Casavecchia, delicate and silent, is the wine I feel most my own. I am thrilled by its pleasant ever-changing complexity. I love Pallagrello and Casavecchia as much as I do my land.” 

Just outside Capua, there is frenetic activity at La Colombaia, a biodynamic farm with two souls. Joined by an umbilical cord, one is set in the valleys and hills, busy with the sustainable rearing of black pigs and Marche cattle, with Barone, the young bull, watching over the cows; the other, covering 100 hectares, slumbers down on the plains, producing cereals and winter vegetables exported all over the world: lettuces, cabbage, fennel, spinach, maize, chard, strawberries and pumpkins. “Our business began 30 years ago,” says Francesco, “through the inspiration of three siblings, Enrico, my mother Orsola and Pasquale.” Two souls but a single structure. “Our goal is not so much livestock rearing in terms of meat production, but rather the manure produced by animals that eat only our own produce, light years away from chemicals and pesticides.

Sixty hectares of green shimmering with a thousand shades. A corner of England in the Capua countryside. It looks like the home of the Windsors, but instead, tractors and workers are in operation on the farmstead. “Joe Sole,” says Nicola, “has been a multifunctional farm for 30 years. We work on agricultural crops, processing raw materials, running rural tourism activities, and producing electricity using photovoltaic systems. The largest of the latter, 1,000 kW, was installed on the agricultural greenhouses where nectarines are grown. This plant makes the company independent in terms of energy use.

“Our hens are free to follow the rhythms of nature, waking up with the sun and going to sleep at sunset.” Nothing like the intensive concentration camps where the life of hormone-stuffed hens is spent in a space the size of a shoe box with lights on at all times. Barbara and Pietro have an “extended” family: 3 children and 150 chickens. Leghorn, Fulva del Sannio, Cucula campana also known as “Cicirinella” and some Araucana with baby blue eggs: all living side by side in the pursuit of freedom and wellbeing. They scratch roots, herbs, insects and earthworms and 100% organic grains. The result? Very good eggs with qualitative and nutritional values that far exceed those on the market. Excellent eggs that testify to choices that prioritise life, human values, affections, and a love of the land.

Masseria del Sesto is both the vertical link be- tween grandparents and grandchildren and the horizontal link across a network of other local companies. Biodiversity and sustainability are the cardinal principles that inspire the work of Anna and Crescenzo, who witness daily how past values are even more important in a contemporary world driven by hyperproduction. “In a flattened and standardised market, authenticity is a value increasingly appreciated by conscious people.” Legumes such as the giant Lupine of Vairano and the Teano Chickpea (both Slow Food presidia), ancient grains, saffron, traditional native corn and ancient tomato of Pietravairano are all Masseria products.

Mimmo Barbiero, poet of the earth and passionate traveller, shares his thoughts under the hashtag #resistenzacontadina (#farmersresist). Cultured farmer and anthropologist, he switches easily between Italian and the local dialect, expresses revolutionary ideas such as the red energy of the Riccio tomato, an ancient nineteenth-century cultivar. Along with his naturalist brother Lino and his partner Jurate, a design engi- neer, he is the life and soul of La Sbecciatrice, an agricultural company that combines ancient family teachings and current tecniques to fortify the plant biodiversity of the Alto Casertano area. In addition to the Riccio tomato, they work with precious products such as lenzariello beans (cultivated in small plots of land known as “lenze”), curniciello or munaciello beans and chickpeas from the hills of Caiazzo. Preserves, creams and jams are the essence of a noble, tiring lifestyle choice, just as Mother Nature intended.

Welcome to Alife, a fortified city with imposing Roman walls that embrace the city for approximately 2 kilometres. Here, life is simple and precious like Antonietta Melillo’s onions. Antonietta herself is a great little woman with a strong spirit and a touch of genius. It all began when Aunt Mariannina, a kind soul with eighty-three springs under her belt, gave her some seeds for a variety of onion that had almost disappeared. The very same onion that Roman gladiators rubbed onto their bodies to tone their muscles and which it seems the Lombards used for bartering. Antonietta is the Alife onion lady; it is thanks to her that there is now a Slow Food Presidium dedicated to the Alife onion with its sweet, tasty, delicate and pleasant taste. In her workshop, she pickles them or creates the cream that tops the Memento, one of the most elaborate pizzas on the Pepe in Grani menu.

In Squille, Giuseppe Coscia is the master of the Caserta black pig, an ancient pig that dates back to Roman times. The family farm has been producing excellent cured meats and sausages for five generations, like Uncle Pascale shown in a photo from the 1950s along with Pachiacchione, a fine example of this type of pig. Ham, capocollo, guanciale, bacon, loin, salami and three special sausages are obtained from the Casertana breed pig: ‘a sasiccia, a’pezzente and c’a vufara. Passion, competence, and a love for his land and family traditions represent the values of Giuseppe, the company’s deus ex machina.

In the hermitage overlooking the dense woods above Castel Campagnano, amidst olive trees and shady oaks, mother Adele entrusts the flowers of the locust tree to the boiling olive oil. The meal based on vegetables is served on a wooden table, overlooking wild views: sage fritters, pasta and chickpeas with chard and salted anchovy, savoy cabbage rolls in red cabbage leaves, wild broccoli meatballs, stuffed onions. You eat above the vegetable garden where herbs, peas, broad beans, onions, salad, artichokes and wild chicory are grown, in the shade of the old house with its original floor and oven. “When I arrived here 20 years ago in search of a soul place, it was a ruin with trees growing inside”. She was advised to turn it into a Hollywood-style house, but in actual fact it became a kingdom of silence. There is also a cellar built for enigmatic reasons by her dad Carmine, an All Blacks super-fan.

Sergio’s surname is Amore (love) and his wife Michela’s is as well. No activity could have a more romantic appendage in its genome. Sergio worked as an IT specialist in Rome, then one day he decided to return. In the village, Frasso Telesino, his grandfather Salvatore’s olive oil mill was waiting for him. It had been disused for 25 years, with the chimney like a sentinel. “I wanted to create something of my own.” The transformation took about a year. Then, in 2016, Birrificio del Sannio, the Sannio Brewery, was born.

In the 1960s at the farmstead I Cacciagalli, not far from the emanations of the Roccamonfina volcano, grandfather Florestano uprooted native vines in order to plant international grape varieties. The decision was dictated by economics: at that time, the core business was selling grapes. When his granddaughter Diana, an agronomist, took over the family business 20 years ago, she decided to go back to her roots. She uprooted her grandfather’s vines in order to privilege terroir. “We wanted to make a new start from the vines that identify our land. The whites Fiano and Falanghina, and the reds Aglianico, Piedirosso and Pallagrello Nero.”

Welcome to Conciato Romano paradise, where the Lombardi family stands in for Saint Peter. Conciato is an extreme cheese and at 2,500 years old, it is also one of the world’s oldest; a raw milk pecorino characterised by a tanning process in terracotta amphorae with chilli, dried wild thyme (nepitella), EVO oil made with Caiazzane and Leccino olives and Casavecchia wine. The cheese is refined in the amphora for between six months and two years. As Manuel says, it is a domineering surly, presumptuous character with a hard head (tiene a’ capa tosta) but it hides unexpected sweetness. It is profound. It is conservative and will not accept any new modifications. Upon contact with the palate, it triggers strong sensations, opens up gustatory pathways and reveals a truly rare wealth of aromas. When grated onto the Franco Pepe Mastunicola pizza as soon as it comes out of the oven, it explodes with an almost balsamic effect. Family hospitality, kindness and direct sales.

The soul of the Matese, a passion for their land, the implementation of ideas and skills with a contemporary vision and the aim of making agricultural activity economically sustainable. This is the project that Giandomenico D’Ambrosio, Domenico D’Orsi and Matteo Cinquedita have called Terre dell’Angelo. The first step was the recovery of the olive tree, symbol of ancient agricultural heritage, and then the rediscovery of native vines such as Pallagrello and Casavecchia. Green manuring with a scientific method, maniacal care when harvesting, rigorous processing and vinification in amphorae to ensure excellent oxygenation while avoiding contamination of the wine with tannins from the wood: these are the salient points of a work that results in highly distinctive wines. Deep local roots are represented on labels whose colours are those of the frescoes in the cave of Saint Michael of Alife, a rock sanctuary dedicated to the cult of Saint Michael. Essential shapes and colours…

The Alois family, historically linked to the valuable textile production in San Leucio, has been a reference point in wine produc- tion since 1992, thanks to Michele, dedicating itself to the rediscovery of ancient native vines near a nineteenth-century Bourbon farmhouse. A splendid location with three vineyards set in the harmonious landscape of Pontelatone: Audelino, Cesone and Morrone-Casalicchio. The Alois mis- sion is well explained by Massimo who sees the micro zones as the perfect expression of the diversities that characterise this territory blessed with both limestone and volcanic soul: “Our project focuses on a genotype-environment study in relation to the different types of soil in order to optimise the production of Casavecchia and Pallagrello.” The maximum expression of the company philosophy are the three crus: Morrone (Pallagrello Bianco) fresh and with a marked sapidity; and Murella (Pallagrello Nero) from the Casalicchio vineyard; and then the Trebulanum…

We are a stone’s throw from the confluence of the Calore and Volturno rivers, a place of powerful energy, just like Davide Cam- pagnano’s character and story. “Knowing, preserving and developing the roots of a peasant family are the passions that my grandmother Filomena passed on to me.” After graduating in Agricultural Sciences, Davide devoted himself to the family land and concentrated on making wine. Here Davide produces Pallagrello Bianco and Nero, Barbera del Sannio, some Fiano and the delicious Pizzutiello, “which we call Nativo because it does not yet exist as a catalogued species”. The production is beyond organic because the company philosophy is to generate resistance inductors that naturally stimulate defence of the plant. Vinification in steel and fermentation with indigenous yeasts to safeguard the identity of a wine that must represent the local territory when poured. Direct sales on the farm, tastings in the vineyards or in the cellar directly from the…

The hills that overlap like waves between Caiazzo and Alvignano are a triumph of bi- odiversity where the presence of vineyards alternates with areas of scrub and arable land. In the locality of Spinosa, with its stony and clayey soil, brothers Raffaele and Bonaventura Tralice spotted the right place for quality wine production: “It wasn’t easy to transform the hostile land into gentle vineyards”, emphasises Raffaele. Two hectares are destined to the production of Pallagrello Nero and Rosato, while Pallagrello Bianco is cultivated in the Castel Campagnano area. The company philosophy aims at production that favours working in the vineyard, minimising interventions in the cellar. It all starts with the guyottrained vineyard, mechanical weeding, oxygenation of the soil and fertilisation with products that respect nature. A very particular microclimate characterised by accentuated thermal excursions guarantees the ideal conditions for quality grapes and wines.

EVO oil flows alongside blood in the veins of Paolo Mastroianni, born in 2001, and perhaps the first Gen-Z oil maker. Five generations dedicated to the harvesting and pressing of olives have formed his DNA. He is the future of these hills. Here they work with three pressing systems: stone grinders, hammer crushers and disc crushers in a continuous line. “At the age of three I was already immersed in the life of the mill, I remember the scents and sensations perfectly. My dad Tommaso passed on his passion to me, helping me to understand quality oil and to develop relationships with the olive farmers, characters who require great sensitivity and attention.” The Caiazzana and Corniola olives have no secrets from Paolo and his extra virgin olive oil tells the story of these hills. But that’s not all. Paolo also knows how to make wine: Pallagrello Bianco, Nero and Casavecchia.

Tradition and quality. The olives are harvested by hand slightly in advance of the ripening time and the pressing takes place with the traditional stone “molazza”. The result is the Oro di Caiazzo, a high-quality EVO. In the 1940s, the olive oil maker was Costantino Cervo, who had built an animal traction oil mill. In the 1950s, technological breakthroughs led to mechanisation and the Mondrone family ensured that traditions continued: pressing with stone millstones within 24 hours of harvesting. The company also sells artisanal pasta made with Senatore cappelli wheat flour.

Mimmo La Vecchia, a long-time cheese maker, is the life and soul of this magical place where the scent of milk is all-enveloping. The fusion of hot water and curd transforms the stringy mass which is pulled, raised and turned over until it is compacted into a single, elastic form to be cut off and transformed into rounded shapes or braids. It is an ancient ritual where men and women bring a candid dance to life in among the vapours. 

A temple of buffalo mozzarella and more, La Baronia is a local historical landmark. The Cutillos started out as breeders in the 1950s and in 1986 they opened the dairy. The quantity does not preclude serious quality because their establishment remains artisanal: the curdling takes place with the whey (it works a bit like sourdough) which is a residue from the previous day’s processing; the mozzatura (cutting off) is done strictly by hand. As well as mozzarella, buffalo milk is transformed into ricotta, burrata and stracciatella. The company shop is a faithful representation of the local territory: wine, beer, pasta, bread, biscuits, friselle, preserved vegetables and cheeses produced in collaboration with other dairies.

When God created the world, he decided that Angelo Santabarbara would be a dairyman. “Uncle Costantino taught my parents to make ricotta, who passed on that traditional knowledge to me.” Technology is important, but in the art of turning milk into cheese, nothing is more essential than the intuition of the dairyman. And Angelo makes works of art here: he produces mozzarella with milk from Friesian cows reared on the farm; and then ricotta, primo sale, caciocavallo, scamorza and the extraordinary spreadable soft paste Lingotto. “It is a job that requires sacrifices but in return I receive the happiness that comes with being able to build my future in my land. Through mozzarella, I am sharing my territory, my family, my world.” And his mother Teresina enjoys a son whose talent is inspired by all-round sustainability, starting from the wellbeing of his Friesians.

Mario Cipriano is the master brewer who we need to thank for some excellent beer production closely linked to the territory. Mario favours local ingredients for his beermaking and promotes a local ecosystem among other local producers. Of his different bright and cheerful beers, Marylin especially stands out, a clear, top-fermented beer with herbaceous, citrus and floral notes; as well as Lemonale, spiced with coriander and Amalfi Coast citrus fruits; and the extraordinary Centesimale, beer par excellence of Campania Felix made with cooked must from Pallagrello and Annurca apples.

While waiting for Alice, who is one year and one month old, to take over, Cesare and Monica are running the winery set up seven years ago on the edge of the three-hectare vineyard. It took the place of the farmstead owned by Antonio Melillo, Cesare’s great-grandfather. On the paving of the courtyard, where the cows and barn once stood, there is a foundation stone with the year and initials, M.A. 1934. The newlyweds started from scratch. They put their identity and sweat into it. This is not far from Monticelli, where the sweet wine Pallagrello that intoxicated King Ferdinand IV of Bourbon was made. Rivers of this wine flowed during court feasts.

The road that leads from Caiazzo to Castel Campagnano is a journey into beauty. This is where the Piccirillo family farm is located. Here, in addition to the legendary Sunday lunches with Zero-cm products, visitors also drink very well. Carmine, passionate grower and maker of Pallagrello and Casavecchia along with his wife Claudia, does the honours; they are Giovanni’s parents, it was Giovanni who transformed the Beati Colli winery into a place of skilful creativity after graduating in oenology in Avellino and specialising at the Institut des Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin in Bordeaux. His degree thesis on “the aptitude of the Pallagrello Bianco grape to become a sparkling wine” would be the inspiration for his work of art: Prima Gioia, the first pure Pallagrello bianco sparkling brut wine, obtained with the classic method and refined for 26 months. It was 2017, the consolidation of a family endeavour and the beginning of a brand-new and talented direction.