From the viewpoint of most winemakers (or most business owners for that matter) Nanni Copè would seem as a project so driven by passion as to border on economic and logistical madness. One tiny vineyard, planted to an obscure southern varietal, and a production that barely totals 7500 bottles each year; it’s clear that Giovanni Ascione is not in this for the money, nor for the sanity for that matter. Giovanni (known colloquially through his childhood as Nanni Copè) founded the Azienda Agricola Nanni Copè in late 2007, his path as a revered Italian wine writer and reviewer quickly redirected to that of vigneron with the unexpected discovery of an untended vineyard near his home of Caserta, deep in the heart of Campania’s Terre del Volturno region. Farming without the use of pesticides or herbicides, Ascione toils a way as a true one-man-show in his minuscule vineyard surrounded by wild Campanian forestland.
The tiny 2.5 acres of Vigna Sopra il Bosco is planted predominantly to the native Pallagrello Nero, with smaller portions of Aglianico and Casavecchia. Each vine here is managed and noted on fastidiously throughout the year, and come harvest, multiple passes are made through the vineyard over the space of 4-5 weeks to ensure that each bunch is picked at perfect ripeness. The iconic 2015 and 2016 vintages saw Giovanni take this even further, with the very best individual bunches selected in pursuit of a truly special riserva-style bottling that was intended to be kept just for private consumption among friends and family, hence the moniker ‘Collezione Privata.’ There’s a veritable explosion of blue fruit here across both wines, but the ripeness is spot-on. Blueberries, hot stones, violets and roasted herbs emerge with force, the 2015 offering more woodsy elements of bark, tea leaves and cedar, the 2016 doling out more scorched earth and iron tones, with a slightly more spicy and gamey quality overall. Only 36 bottles of each vintage were released from Giovanni’s private collection to the US market, and you can be the proud owner of one of them! Drink 2030-2045.