The 'terroir' and his history
THE PLACE
The
winery is situated on the hills of Caiazzo, in the area called "San Giovanni e
Paolo", in front of the Matese mountain. Vestini Campagnano works just with two varieties of vines,
which nowadays is difficult- almost impossible- to find somewhere apart
from the area known as “Terra di Lavoro”, which comprehends almost all
the province of Caserta.
This
area can be considered as a microcosm, in a reduced scale, of the
whole Italy: it has an historically important river, called Volturno,
which goes through it; it has mountains that become covered with snow in
winter, such as the Matese massif, it has a coast on the Tirreno sea,
furnished with pinewoods and its landscapes are different and nice; it
has smooth hills as the 'Caiatino' ones; it is possible to find in this
area small lakes as the Matese and the Falciano del Massiccio ones; there
are territories that have a volcanic origin, such as the area of
Roccamonfina and the neighbouring districts, like Conca della Campania,
Galluccio and so forth.
 The
area is well stored also with historic finds and monuments of
exceptional value as proof of how the man, on his long way through the
time, have had constantly left signs of his existence through
the time. Just to provide some examples we could mention: the
prehistoric finds in Prata Sannita (dated back to the Stone Age),
evidences of the Copper age and of the Italic society existing before
the Roman empire in Maddaloni, called Calatia (these evidences have been
collected in a new interesting Museum); Roman monuments as the
amphitheatre in S. Maria Capua Vetere (the second all over the world for
its majesty and importance, beside the Colosseo), the Roman theatres of
Sessa Aurunca and Teano, the ruins of Trebula (close to Pontelatone),
the Roman walls in Alife; there are also other significant evidences of
the architecture from the XI and XII centuries, as the great basilica in
S. Angeloin Formis and the equally awesome Romanic cathedral in Caserta
Vecchia; for all the evidences concerning the successive times it is
enough to mention all the Medieval or Renaissance structures and
buildings in Capua (where of exceptional importance there is the
Campano Museum, with its ancient Matres Matutae, rare examples of
votive sculptures belonging to a pre-roman age), to end into one of the
most beautiful and important monuments for the XVIII century in Europe,
or the Royal Palace of Caserta with its huge monumental park.
 It
has to be remembered that the kings of Borbone family cared a lot for the
agriculture of their estates, also thinking of the vines; they had also in
the territories of S. Leucio a vineyards called “fan-shaped vine” where have
been collected and placed all the most important vines that were
cultivated in the kingdom. Within this impressively shaped collection,
there was also the vine “Pallagrello”, by the time known as
“Piedimonte.” At the beginning of each single row there was a stone in
which was sculpted the name of the vine.
In
such a context- the province of Caserta was, at the beginning of the XX
century, one of the territories in which were recognised dozens and
dozens of typical vines, the majority of which have disappeared- and in
such a environment, looking for the best part of what was about to get
lost, it began the story of the Vestini Campagnano firm.
The history
of VESTINICAMPAGNANO
YESTERDAY
Once upon a time... two lawyer friends, who - to relax from their professional activity - had the hobby to research the oenogastronomic traditions of their land and to 'make wine' themselves from the cultivation of a small vineyard, got together and started vinifying the 'pallagrello': an ancient grapevine that produced both black and white grapes and that was, even though in ever diminishing quantities, still cultivated on the Caiatine hills and at the foot of the Matese. They obtained a strong and sweet white wine from those ancient vines (called in dialect 'pallarella'...), they liked it very much as they liked the red wine (called 'black' in the area), with its heavy and imperious structure, rich in scents and flavours, excellent for maturing. These vines also had a history of their own and this made them even more interesting. The two lawyers kept on researching tales and legends and found another vine, also cultivated only in the central area of the province of Caserta, in the communes neighbouring Caiazzo. It was the 'casavecchia', that produces a wine that is red with a tendency to purple, full but soft with an exceptional flavour and rich in scents. The small production for a few close friends began to grow, but always in a limited way. Now they could start producing these wines for people who appreciated them and were willing to make a small economic sacrifice to have them. As a result recognition and prizes started coming
TODAY AND TOMORROW
The hobby had by now been transformed into a small production, for which they formed a company the 'Sviluppo Iniziative Agroindustiali s.r.l.' (S.I.A.), whose partners are the family of the lawyer Barletta and another family, the Quaranta (the family of the other lawyer, Mancini, has left). S.I.A. always has been, and always will be, committed to the development of the 'Vestini Campagnano' company to produce high quality wines, always respectful of traditions and territory - it is also committed to the new ventures they are about to undertake in the wine sector and in the agricultural and food sector in general, to refuse 'omologations' and to keep on discovering productions that have, on one hand, deep roots in the territory from which they come from and, on the other, the cult of quality.
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