The result of years of experimentation conducted by Antonio Mastroberardino, who has dedicated a lifetime to enhancing viticulture and the native Campania wines, within a centenary vineyard, ungrafted, which survived phylloxera, a clone of Aglianico of prephylloxera origin called "VCR421 Antonio Mastroberardino” obtained inclusion in the National Register of Vine Varieties, with publication in the Official Gazette.
It is a story that starts from afar, that of Aglianico. Already in 75 after Christ we find news of it in the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder; to then continue over the centuries, up to the present day, with stages that have decreed the success of this vine of Greek origin - according to the prevailing literature - considered among the most valuable of our peninsula.
“It is a source of extreme satisfaction for us – declares Piero Mastroberardino, tenth generation at the helm of the prestigious Irpinia company – the culmination of the long work of my father Antonio who for years carried out an ambitious project with the primary objective of recovering the original characteristics of the historical vines of Campania Felix, which through the work of man, following the production choices of replication of genetic material, were slowly changing over the decades”.
A work of absolute value, the one carried out by Antonio Mastroberardino, which induced Hugh Johnson, one of the most prestigious names in the literature linked to the wine sector, to define him "The Grape Archaeologist", or the archaeologist of viticulture. It was 1989 and at the time the Campania winemaker had already been engaged for some time in an incessant research activity relating not only to Aglianico, but also to the other great vines of the area such as Greco and Fiano.
“A real journey through time – underlines Piero Mastroberardino again – which saw in this official recognition not the final stage but simply a fundamental turning point. “Redimore”, Irpinia Aglianico DOC, is in fact the first fruit, in wine, of the single-variety vinification of this ancient clone brought back into the field, an important trace for continuing our research and experimentation work on the roots of our viticulture. On an emotional level, the satisfaction and pride of having completed a project that brings back into the glass those characteristics that my father had known and loved and which for him, as for all my family, represent the very essence of Aglianico ”.
