Cantine del Mare. Falanghina 'Luce Flegrea'

Campi Flegrei DOC
Grape: Falanghina

Torn basil, pea and asparagus, mint tea and honey aromas, there is a lightness of touch, a salty freshness that perhaps reflects the coastal outcrops of vines responsible for this wine.  Mint, apricot and tangerine; unforced and excellent. 12%

Cantine del Mare producer page

The Campo Flegrei is an extraordinary promontory to the west of Naples, encircling Monte di Procida, crisscrossed by 100s of ancient, sulphurous chambers below ground and sea.  The area is intensely populated, Luce is made from 7 miniscule plots, each one with a sea view and a soil called ‘vulcanico sabbioso’, sand mixed with pebble-like volcanic rocks, phylloxera never took root, and the vines are ‘Piede Franco’, ungrafted Falanghina.  The vines are between 25 and 90 years old, some Gugot and others Espalier trained.

The Falanghina is hand-picked at the end of September and taken in small plastic boxes to the winery.  The bunches are destemmed and gently pressed; the juice chilled for 12 hours before fermentation in temperature-controlled steel tanks.  Malolactic is blocked by low temperature. 

25,000 bottles made of the 2020