SommSelect headquarters is what a comedian would call a “tough room” for Italian white wine. Given all the elite white Burgundy, German Riesling, and Austrian Grüner Veltliner we get to taste around here, my Italian favorites go up against some very stiff competition—but Vestini Campagnano’s landmark Pallagrello was up to the challenge.
Not only did it survive the initial gauntlet, your rave reviews deemed it grand enough to offer a second time. Upon first tasting this in 2019, it evoked comparisons to top-tier Chablis, Santorini Assyrtiko, and several other world-class whites—although I could not identify it blind, it was undeniably serious. When it was revealed to me as Pallagrello I did a little fist-pump, because even the most die-hard Francophile would have no choice but to agree: Vestini Campagnano’s Pallagrello Bianco is legit! Working with a well-known professor from the University of Naples, Vestini Campagnano and a handful of others spearheaded the revival of the Pallagrello grape more than two decades ago, and their investment has paid off handsomely: To put it as bluntly as I can, you don’t drink this 2017 because it’s a sentimental nod to Italy’s ancient wine history. You drink it because it’s a mouth-wateringly delicious, age-worthy white that eclipses bottles costing twice as much. Now with an additional year of aging, this final batch has entered a supreme drinking spot!
It’s almost impossible to discuss the wines of Campania without at some point mentioning the Roman-era naturalist Pliny the Elder. He listed the region of Falernum, north of Naples, as one of the great wine appellations of his time. The modern-day equivalent is the province of
Caserta, home of today’s evocative and powerful white. Although Rome lay further north, Naples is really the cradle of ancient Italian wine civilization, the point of entry for countless grape varieties later diffused throughout the peninsula. The grape in today’s wine, Pallagrello Bianco, was essentially lost to history until a local grower discovered a few vineyards still planted to it and endeavored to bring Pallagrello and another ancient variety, Casavecchia, back to commercial life. I love stories like this—Italy has more than its share—and I love it even more when the wine is so exceptional!
This wine carries the designation “Terre del Volturno,” referring to the Volturno River, which flows through the Caserta province out the Mediterranean Sea. This is an IGP (Protected Geographical Indication) designation, which carries fewer prescriptions than a controlled appellation (DOC/AOC/DO, etc.). In this case, it covers a geographic area roughly equivalent to what was once Falernum. Pallagrello, which has both “green” and “black” versions, was often confused with another classic Campanian variety, Coda di Volpe, but with the help of one of the region’s most prominent viticulturists and professors, Luigi Moio, the Vestini Campagnano team—now headed by Alberto Barletta—have put that to rest. The entire Vestini Campagnano project, launched in 1990, is focused on what Barletta and his partners call “viticultural archaeology,” but the wines are modern in every way: This bottling was fermented and then aged in a mixture of French oak barriques and stainless steel for six months, followed by six more months of bottle aging before release.
Grown in clay soils mixed with volcanic sands, this Pallagrello Bianco is considerably more textured than Coda di Volpe, but shares some of the latter’s chalky, smoky minerality. And although there’s no indication of it in any literature we found, the color of this 2017—a deep yellow-gold with flecks of copper—suggests at least some brief contact with the grape skins during the initial fermentation. The aromas are a mix of yellow apple, quince, dried apricot, crushed chalk, dried herbs, a hint of forest floor (like many Campanian whites, there’s a pine-bough green-ness), and a touch of almond skin on the finish. Medium-plus in body, it is deeply mineral and loaded with fresh acidity, lending the wine an intriguing push-pull of viscosity and grip. It is ready to drink now at 45-50 degrees, and a brief 15-30 minute decant certainly wouldn’t hurt. It has a great salinity/savor for Mediterranean seafood preparations like the attached Neapolitan-style scoglio. Killer pasta with seafood, rich and expressive white wine…Italy wins again!
