Casa d'Ambra Ischia Biancolella Frassitelli

In Ischia, and not only in the western part of the island where it abounds, Frassitelli is not just a vineyard: it is a legend, an institution of great Italian wine. The first white from Campania to obtain the Tre Bicchieri award from Gambero Rosso, managing to amaze from vintage to vintage, Frassitelli takes its name from the best cru of Ischia, an incredible small amphitheatre perched just below Pietra Martone, on the slopes of Mount Epomeo, from which one enjoys a spectacular panorama of the Ischian coast.

Andrea D'Ambra, visionary oenologist inspired by Luigi Veronelli, created here the temple of Biancolella, a native vine that owes to this company an actual codification of the rank of great grapes. The four hectares of Frassitelli are located overhanging the sea at an altitude of about 600-700 metres: these characteristics undoubtedly qualify the viticulture of Casa d'Ambra as heroic. Here too, as in the Cinque Terre, a wire carriage is a fundamental ally of the grape harvest, and here too, the apparently Mediterranean viticulture is incredibly mountainous. The soils, which cannot fail to be noticed among the rocky outcrops that rise from the steep terraces, are of a green tuff typical of this area of the island. A very draining tufa that slowly returns the collected water and that once upon a time was dug by the farmers to obtain tanks and small houses, today gives the wines a sensational minerality and guaranteed longevity.

Ischia is, of course, one of the thousand volcanic areas of Italian wine, in direct continuity with the wonderful skyline of the Campi Flegrei. Here, however, it is Biancolella who is the master, and to produce, with Frassitelli, a wine of sensational complexity. Vinified since 1985, Frassitelli has a straw-yellow colour with golden reflections. On the nose it opens with a complex bouquet of aromatic herbs, rosemary, thyme, loquat, white currant and broom, followed by saline and iodine notes. On the palate it is greedily flavourful, with a round but slender body and a long honey finish. Excellent served with appetizers and first fish courses, such as linguini with scampi.