Cherished by emperors and senators for its exceptional quality and ability to age, Falernian wine was among the most prized in ancient Rome. Now, after two millennia of obscurity, this legendary Campanian wine has been restored to past glories with meticulous attention to historical authenticity by a single remarkable family.
I am on the Bidder Terrace of the Grand Hotel Parker’s, one of the most renowned and celebrated hotels in Naples, Italy, since the days of the Grand Tour. In my hand, I hold a goblet of yellow-gold wine, Villa Matilde Falerno del Massico Vigna Caracci, deep in color, redolent of peaches and white fruit, broom, and a touch of honey, concentrated and persistent. I roll the wine around in my mouth while enjoying the spectacular view from the terrace. To my right is Cape Posillipo, which bends around to Pozzuoli, Baiae, and the Campi Flegrei, the “burning fields” of antiquity where the Sybil sat in her cave at Cumae in prophetic judgment. The Bay of Naples glistens before me and ahead lies Capri and, stretching toward that beautiful island, the Sorrentine Peninsula. Below me is the modern city of Naples, one of the most vibrant, captivating, ambiguously menacing, and always exhilarating places in Italy, a historical, architectural, and cultural palimpsest, scratched out and overwritten by the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Spanish, French, Savoia, Germans, British, and Americans, too. And overlooking everything is Mount Vesuvius, a somma-stratovolcano with twin peaks, its highest cone steeply rimmed by an enormous caldera. From virtually anywhere you find yourself in Naples, Vesuvius is ever present, a looming presence that seems not so much a threat as a constant memento mori, an invitation to live life to the fullest, every single day, as the Neapolitans themselves do.
I sip my calice of Falerno del Massico and consider the precariousness of life. Who can stand here looking across the stunningly beautiful Bay of Naples and not think of that fateful day in 79 ce when Vesuvius erupted with such spectacular malignance? Pliny the Younger wrote a detailed eyewitness account of the ferocity and immensity of this natural phenomenon, describing the terrifying moment, in a letter to the historian Tacitus, when a mushroom cloud of eruption suddenly appeared in the sky across the bay “like an umbrella pine, for it rose to a great height on a sort of trunk and then split off into branches.” It is estimated that the two-day eruption reached some 20 miles (33km) into the stratosphere, dropping tons of molten stone, ash, and pumice, followed by pyroclastic surges of superheated gases that instantly scorched and suffocated anyone remaining who had not been able to flee.
Pliny also described how his uncle, the great naturalist Gaius Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder, on witnessing the eruption from Misenum where he was in charge of the Roman navy, mobilized the fleet and immediately set sail in order both to observe at closer hand the astonishing natural happening that so fascinated him, as well as to assist in the rescue of those who would have had no other means of escape. The letter describes in detail how his uncle perished, probably from asphyxiation, and he further recounts his own terror when, escaping with his mother, darkness came upon them—“a dense black cloud was coming up behind us, spreading over the earth like a flood”—and ashes fell that threatened to bury and crush them beneath their weight.
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The glass of Falerno del Massico in my hand links me directly to the ancient past and indeed to that terrifying moment in time nearly 2,000 years ago. For Pompeii was a city awash with wine, a trading hub, with wines from throughout Rome’s extensive empire arriving and being shipped elsewhere. Its hinterland was the Campania Felix, the fertile and plentiful source of not only good things to eat but also some of Rome’s best and greatest wines, produced from grapes grown in the surrounding vineyards of Vesuvius, Sorrento, the Phlegraean Fields, Monte Massico, and Roccamonfina. There were even scores of vineyards cultivated within the city walls of Pompeii, providing everyday wines to sell young, perhaps to be purchased from the wine stands that lined the arena where gladiatorial contests took place. Wine estates were also dotted all around the slopes of Vesuvius to supply wines to the surrounding communities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae, Oplontis, and Neapolis. Just outside Pompeii, a small wine farm at Boscoreale has been excavated and demonstrates precisely how wine was produced in Roman times.
For a small city, Pompeii had an extraordinarily well-developed café-bar culture, with taverns all along the streets, lined with counters into which were set large terra-cotta jars, possibly for the service of wine, possibly the service of food. Some 150 such establishments have been excavated so far, and they give a vivid impression of a city overflowing with life and activity, as residents and visitors alike strolled and paused for a drink or a bite to eat, much as people in cities do today. In one such place, known as Taberna Hedones on the Via degli Augustali, there is a price sign that reads, “For one as [a small coin] you can drink wine; for two, you can drink better; for four, you can drink Falernian.”
Falernian was among the most famous, the most prized, the most valuable wines in ancient Rome. Indeed, as a premium product from a specified territory of Campania Felix, it was available only in limited supply and at considerable expense and thus came to represent something of the opulence, luxuriousness and excesses of life in the imperial age. It was a wine appreciated and consumed by Roman emperors, senators, the elite, and the very wealthy. The very origin of this exquisite tipple was rooted in divine intervention; according to Silius Italicus, in an Epyllion written in the first century ce, he recounted a legend that an old Roman farmer named Falernus, toiling on the slopes of Monte Massico, on the flank of the extinct Roccamonfina volcano, was visited by a deity in disguise—Bacchus, the god of wine, agriculture, and fertility, no less. Falernus had little to offer but nonetheless granted Roman hospitality to his unknown guest, sharing his meager offering but serving milk not wine, since he had no vines. This act of kindness touched the deity who rewarded him by planting quantities of vines on the fields all around, vines that were subsequently to flourish and produce the most divine wine ever tasted.
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Legend notwithstanding, Falernian came to be considered one of Rome’s greatest grands crus, the most famous wine in ancient history, and the wine that all Romans were talking about. It was a favorite of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Cleopatra. Almost all the great writers gave Falernian pride of place as the greatest of all the many great wines of Rome.
An early literary reference to Falernian wine is in the Roman love poet Catullus’s Poem 27:
O servant boy of old Falernian wine,
pour pungent cups for me,
as orders the law of the mistress Postumia,
drunker than a drunken grape.
But go as far away from here as you please, waters,
bane of wine, and to the sober ones
migrate; here Bacchus [the wine] is pure.
Martial wrote repeatedly of Falernian in his epigrams, such as in 1.18, where he laments metaphorically on the pointlessness of mixing Falernian, a great wine, with inferior vintages from Rome. Virgil, the Augustan author of The Aeneid, admitted that “nothing can compare with Falernian.” Horace, in his Ode II.3, extolled the importance of keeping a tranquil mind when times are good, as well as in moments of sadness, and to be able to “find delight in a famed vintage of Falernian wine.” In Petronius’s Satyricon, written in the first century ce, the vulgar and arrogant Trimalchio delights in astonishing his guests by serving them course after course of the most exotic delights, such as live birds sewn inside a roasted pig, or a boiled calf wearing a helmet, to be sliced up by a slave dressed as the hero Ajax, who serves the meat brandished on the point of his sword. In all, some 62 menu items were offered to Trimalchio’s guests. And the wine? Of course, for a nouveau riche like Trimalchio it had to be Falernian—the most prestigious, the most famous, the most expensive, and from the most celebrated vintage.
Pliny the Elder, in his great opus Naturalis Historia, or “Natural History,” a hugely ambitious and encyclopedic 37-volume work, attempts to catalog and bring together all known human knowledge about the natural world. In Book XIV, Vines and Viticulture, he writes extensively about wine in general and about Falernian in particular. As one of the world’s earliest wine writers, Pliny conclusively linked vine to place and, indeed, helped to establish the principle of terroir—that specific grape varieties thrive best in certain localities dependent on soil, climate, microclimate, and more, a guiding concept that underpins the great vineyards of not just Italy but Europe. Pliny identified three different areas for the cultivation of Falernian wine, all located on the volcanic slopes of Roccamonfina: Caucinium from vineyards on the hilltop; Faustinianum, the most highly prized, from the middle of the hills; and Falernum from the slopes leading down to the plain. Pliny furthermore distinguished three different styles of Falernian wine: austerum (dry and tannic), dulce (sweet), and tenue (light). This remarkable wine apparently could reach such a high degree of alcohol that it could be ignited by a naked flame. Pliny did warn, however, that the reputation of Falernian wine was at risk through overproduction, with some wine growers choosing quantity over quality.
Like all the greatest wines of ancient Rome, and like the greatest of today, the best Falernian wines were capable of aging and evolving for lengthy periods of time—even for upward of a century. Such wines had the potential to increase considerably in value through lengthy aging in amphorae. Pliny singles out one exceptional and legendary vintage, harvested when Lucius Opimius was consul (121 bce). Indeed, he claims to have tasted it himself nearly 200 years later, though it seems that drinking such aged rarities, then as now, was probably something of an acquired taste; said Pliny, such wines “have now evaporated to the consistency of honey and have a rough taste. Such is the nature of wines when old.”
Connecting to the ancient past
How, today, do we connect to the ancient past, to its wines, certainly, and to the vitality of a civilization that had such a profound impact on Western civilization as a whole? The story of Falernian wine—so well documented and recorded in ancient times—was, like many others, gradually lost over the centuries, seemingly buried as comprehensively as the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
In the 1960s, a young lawyer from Naples, Dr Francesco Paolo Avallone (1925–2006), who taught ancient Roman law at the University of Naples Federico II, became intrigued with the story of Falernian wine. Dr Avallone was from the postwar generation that had helped to rebuild Naples after the devastation of the German occupation and the Allied bombing. As a young man, he had already found a way with colleagues to purchase the Grand Hotel Parker’s, which was in ruins after the retreat of the Nazis, who had used the historic building as their headquarters. Dr Avallone’s aim was to restore this grand and famous old place back to its former glory. Having achieved that (the hotel is still in Avallone family ownership), he decided to turn his attention to the rediscovery of Falernian, Rome’s greatest wine.
Dr Avallone’s inspiration came mostly through literature, fascinated by the legendary status granted to Falernian wine by all the great writers. Their descriptions of a wine that became the symbol of opulence and celebration in the time of the Romans made him want to know more, made him want to rediscover and re-create it so that he could know what it tasted like.
“The search to rediscover Falernian wine became something of an obsession,” explains his son Salvatore Avallone, “not just as a curiosity but as a vital part of our cultural patrimony and heritage. My father felt it was his duty to bring it back to life.”
Thus began an unquenchable quest to research and re‑create an ancient wine and to bring it back to greatness. It was an intellectual challenge, as well as a practical one, through meticulous exploration of ancient texts, archeological evidence, and viticultural and ampelographical research and finds. The first step was to identify the ancient Ager Falernus, the countryside where Falernian wines had historically been made. Dr Avallone’s daughter Maria Ida takes up the story. “My father spent years mapping the terroirs of Monte Massico and Roccamonfina, guided by local insights, research, and traditions. His notebooks, sketches, and photographs [sadly lost in the devastating earthquake of 1980] are a testament to many weekends of exploration and a demonstration of his indefatigable passion.”
Dr Avallone estimated that the Monte Massico area once had as many as 140 wine cellars in Roman times, a demonstration of how important—and how economically valuable—the production of Falernian wine was. For this specific terroir, then as now, offered ideal conditions for the cultivation of vines: mineral-rich volcanic soil, proximity to the Gulf of Gaeta, with a refreshing thermal sea breeze that keeps the vineyard well ventilated, and protection from colder winds by the high range of the Apennines, giving a good diurnal temperature variation. Moreover, its position at the border between present-day Campania and Lazio, along the Via Appia, one of ancient Rome’s most important roads, as well as its proximity to the port of Minturnae, meant that it was easily possible to transport Falernian wine to Rome and beyond.
In his search for the origins of Falernian wine, Dr Avallone’s research concentrated on vine ampelography. Phylloxera had all but destroyed viticulture in the Monte Massico and Roccamonfina areas. Many vineyards were abandoned, and those wine growers who chose to replant in many instances eschewed more challenging grape varieties indigenous to the area and brought in easier-growing varieties from elsewhere. Basing his search on descriptions of wines and vines in classical literature (Pliny the Elder, for example, highlighted the excellence of the Aminaea and Apian vines) and through collaborative research with the faculty of agriculture at the University of Naples Federico II, he and his colleagues searched and researched tirelessly, weekend after weekend.
Salvatore and Maria Ida recall those weekends spent heading out to the country. “My father’s passion was part of my childhood,” recalls Salvatore. “Every weekend he went to Roccamonfina, often taking us with him.”
Eventually, Dr Avallone and his colleagues identified 15 vines that were utterly unique to the Falernian terroir, pre-phylloxera examples of Falanghina, Aglianico, and Piedirosso that were scientifically analyzed and proven to be biotypes distinct to this area. Falanghina Falerno, for example, has a completely different bunch shape, grape color, and characteristics to Falanghina from either Sannio or Campi Flegrei—to such an extent that it can virtually be considered a unique variety. The same is true for the Falerno biotypes of Aglianico and Piedirosso. Having found these unique biotypes, Dr Avallone then propagated the vines plant by plant—a lengthy process that took years—until he had enough to cultivate an experimental vineyard, confident that he was restoring to their original home precisely the same ancient vines that had once yielded the greatest of all Roman wines, Falernian. Once planted, more patience was required for the vines to establish themselves and yield fruit that could be fermented into wine.
Between 1965 (the start of the project) and the first vinification in 1974, there was an immense amount of work. Avallone built the Villa Matilde winery (named for his wife, the mother of Salvatore and Maria Ida) and continued with experimentation in the wine cellar, as well as research in ancient texts. He was fascinated to learn why Falernian had been so highly prized. He discovered that the strictest rules were laid down for its production, rules that were almost a religious ritual, with holy music to be played when the grapes were pressed, slaves dancing to a rhythmic beat following steps unique to the production of Falernian. This rhythmic regularity of movement, he conjectured, was one means to ensure consistent high quality, rather than the haphazard foot-stomping methods used for lesser wines. Falernian wines destined for lengthy aging were sometimes put in a fumarium to lightly smoke—a process that not only aided in conservation but also added prestige and extra value, with such wines reserved for the most special occasions.
“Those years,” says Salvatore, “were spent nurturing a dream, making sure that the wine and its history were completely authentic.”
Rediscovering Roman techniques and varieties
When, following a period of ill health, Dr Avallone was obliged to reduce his activities, Salvatore made a life-changing decision in 1984 to leave his career as a lawyer in Naples to devote himself to continuing his father’s legacy at Villa Matilde. “Modern Falerno would not have existed without the considerable efforts of my father. It became clear to me that his vision—born from passion and scholarship—needed to continue. I felt a responsibility to carry on the Villa Matilde project, not only for his sake but also for the legacy of this great legendary wine, Falernian.”
Maria Ida, who joined her brother Salvatore at Villa Matilde in 1989, concurs. “Together with my brother, I share a deep sense of mission in carrying on our father’s wishes. Together we work to honor the family legacy, ensuring that our wines remain authentic and, at the same time, innovative, in line with the expectations of the present and the future.”
Dr Avallone’s legacy was one of defining the territory where Falernian had once been produced, as well as of rediscovering the unique biotypes that had been cultivated in antiquity. This was a significant contribution. Falanghina Falerno, for example, has properties that lend itself to the production of ageworthy wines. The grape has greater structure than Falanghina varieties from Sannio or Campi Flegrei and is able to maintain a well-presented acidity that is fundamental to guaranteeing freshness and longevity. This is the result of the influence of the sea and the particular nature of the soil, as well as of the winemaking vocation of Villa Matilde. The same logic applies to the Falerno biotypes for Aglianico and Piedirosso: The terroir gives great personality and character to the grapes, differentiating them from other biotypes, something that Pliny the Elder had himself recognized and written about.
Ancient grape varieties were identified and propagated—but what of the wine itself? The greatest wines that the ancient Romans consumed, such as Falernian, were very different from what we consume today: oxidized, amber, and with robust profiles that would intensify from lengthy aging in amphora. To make them more palatable, Roman wines were often mixed with water, seawater, spices, honey, or any number of other additives.
In the early years of the Villa Matilde project, the Avallone family explored Roman winemaking techniques, fermenting whole bunches, including stems, without racking. Long before others were doing it, they experimented with vinifying in terra-cotta amphora, lining the vessels with beeswax, as well as with pece bruzia (larch resin), a traditional method that had been used by the Romans. They tried different amphora shapes, such as the Dressel 2B, the shape believed to have been used for Falernian wines.
These trials and experiments were of immense interest and value in trying to understand this great wine that had been consumed and celebrated by the Romans. But it was acknowledged that such wines were not necessarily to the taste of today’s wine drinkers, nor was the intention ever to try to reproduce the wines of antiquity on any commercial scale.
Riccardo Cotarella—one of Italy’s most acclaimed winemakers, who has been involved as a consultant on the Villa Matilde project since the early days—takes up the story. “I first heard about Francesco Paolo Avallone’s project many years ago, his dream of bringing Falernian wine back to life. Francesco was a person of great culture, deeply attached to his land, and his desire to rediscover a wine so steeped in history was something fascinating. The idea of bringing a legendary wine back to life, reconstructing its identity through in-depth studies, could only excite me. As an enologist, facing such a challenge means dealing not only with technique and science but also with history and tradition, trying to respect its soul without renouncing innovation.”
“Working with Riccardo has been exciting and enlightening,” says Salvatore. “It became our aim to recapture the spirit of a great wine from 2,500 years ago but reinterpreted in harmony with the modern palate, produced using the technologies that we have today. It was our mission to respect ancient tradition while at the same time using modern tools to express most fully the unique character and personality of the precious Falerno biotypes that my father rediscovered.”
Riccardo confirms this approach. “Every wine, regardless of its history, needs a production process designed to make the most of its characteristics. When one is confronted with a grape variety so bound to tradition, respect for its peculiarities becomes even more important. Falernian was the most famous wine of antiquity, and this meant having to interpret it as authentically as possible, balancing historical fidelity and modern techniques.
The real challenge was to find a balance between the historical identity of the wine and the need to produce a wine that would meet the expectations of the contemporary consumer.” For example, while the amber wines loved by the Romans were historically produced from white Falanghina Falerno grapes fermented on the skins to extract both color and tannin, the goal was never to make an “orange wine.” They did, however, want to extract to the fullest the character and personality of their unique and historic biotype, and skin contact was one way to achieve this. Therefore, a process of cryomaceration was trialed, and this continues to be used for the production of Falerno del Massico Bianco Vigna Caracci.
By this means, the harvested whole-bunch grapes from a select single cru vineyard are first chilled to a temperature of 32°F (0°C) then left to macerate on the skins for up to 12 hours. This process lends an increase in aroma through the extraction of aromatic precursors contained in the skin of the grapes and contributes to the structure and texture of the finished wine. After cryomaceration, the grapes are pressed and about 30% of the must is fermented in above-ground amphora of differing sizes (ranging from 400 to 1,500 liters), with the remaining 70% vinified in stainless steel.
Falerno del Massico Rosso Vigna Camarato, Villa Matilde Avallone’s flagship red wine is from a single vineyard first planted by Dr Avallone in 1965. Though the individual sites have not been classified, this is considered Monte Massico’s outstanding cru, with soil rich in pyroclastic matter and benefiting from the influences of cooling sea breezes that come up from the Gulf of Gaeta. It is only produced in the best years, and like ancient Falernian wine, it undergoes the most meticulous handcare in the selection of the grape bunches, with only the healthiest and most perfectly ripe being used. The grapes, 80% Aglianico Falerno and 20% Piedirosso falerno, are lightly crushed, then fermentation on the skins takes place in stainless-steel vessels for about 20 to 25 days, with temperature control at 77°F (25°C). Afterward, the wine ages in French oak barriques for 12 to 18 months (one third new, one third second passage, one third third passage), followed by 12 to 18 months’ further aging in the bottle before release. If the Campania Felix was the source of the Roman’s greatest wines, Vigna Camarato today is considered one of the great red wines not only from Campania but from all of Italy, consistently winning the highest accolades and awards—a wine that is a truly fitting heir to the great Falernian wines of antiquity.
Centuries slipping away
Through the efforts of Villa Matilde Avallone, the Falerno del Massico DOC for both white and red was established in 1989. Today, about 25 producers in the Monte Massico and Roccamonfina area are producing Falerno del Massico wines.
At Villa Matilde Avallone, the next generation is now in place to continue the work of this pioneering family. Salvatore’s son Francesco Paolo and Maria Ida’s daughter Maria Cristina have both joined the team, Maria Cristina as head winemaker.
Says Francesco Paolo, “We are custodians not only of our family’s history but also of a tradition that spans millennia. It is both an honor and a responsibility.”
Back on the Bidder Terrace of the Grand Hotel Parker’s, I gratefully raise a glass of Falerno del Massico in honor of Dr Francesco Paolo Avallone, the visionary who, out of the ruins of World War II, not only restored this beautiful and historic hotel to its former grandeur but who also worked tirelessly to rediscover and re-create the modern version of a beautiful and historic wine, Falernian—a wine that was drunk, enjoyed, celebrated, and written about in this same area 2,500 years ago.
Wine uniquely has the power to be a bridge between past and present. Overlooking the Bay of Naples, the dark silhouette of Vesuvius ever present, the centuries seem to blur and time slips away. I sip and consider the words of the Roman poet Horace, writing in the 1st century bce:
Be wise, strain the wine, and restrain long hope
For a brief time. While we speak, envious time will
Have fled: seize the day, trusting as little as possible
in the future.
