San Francesco – Costa d’Amalfi 
San Francesco is a small winery situated in the fairy tale beautiful Costiera Amalfitana region of Campania / Italy, recently founded by three families of farmers native of the area and determined to save and safeguard the last pre-phylloxera vineyards found in the mountainous area of Tramonti. In a place like Costiera Amalfitana a couple miles can make a world of difference as for altitude, climate, soil and viticulture.
The village of Tramonti faces onto the Amalfi Gulf and yet is nestled at 600 mts of altitude, so steep is the rugged Amalfi coast that rises from the sea shore up to 700 mt in the space of a 1-2 miles! The Tramonti area has been long recognized for producing lean, nervy, marine whites from a blend of indigenous white-berry varieties: Falanghina for the most part with a little parts of Peppella and Biancazita.
Thanks to the altitude and the cold winds constantly blowing back and forth from the seaside to the mountains, the local vineyards have been spared from the attack of Phylloxera Vastatrix at the beginning of XX century. As a result, a notable heritage of ungrafted old vines, well over 100 year old, is still found today in the Amalfi / Tramonti appellation.
Sadly, most of these ancient vines of Falanghina, Peppella and Biancazita are abandoned and left thriving in a semi-wild state: the ancient ‘Raggiera’ training-system is labor-demanding and delays harvest time as late as the third week of October. Few local growers are motivated to embrace such a time-absorbing, all-manual type of viticulture any longer.
Three years ago the Salvino, Di Palma and Bove families founded San Francesco winery to make their dream come true: bringing back to production the oldest plots of ungrafted vines found in the area and bottling a distinctive white wine true to the traditional Tramonti style, in order to safeguard those unique ancient vineyards at risk of extinction.
Estate vineyards are split up in 15 different micro-parcels scattered all over the commune of Tramonti, for the most part situated on steep mountain slopes exposed to south. 2006 Costa d’Amalfi Bianco Tramonti Doc is the first release ever, a delightful light-alcohol, mouthwatering white with radiant perfumes of ripe citrus, Mediterranean herbs and sea air.
Costa d’Amalfi – Tramonti Bianco Doc
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