On the mineral hillsides of Cirò — where Italian wine was born — Vigne Brigante tends ten hectares of ancient vines with the care of people who understand what they have. The estate is defined by Gaglioppo, one of Italy's oldest grape varieties, cultivated here with obsessive attention to individual rows and individual vines. Eight wines spanning the full range of Cirò's personality: from approachable and fragrant to structured and profound, from pure Gaglioppo to Greco Nero, from the estate's singular Pecorello white to its most ambitious barrel-aged reds. Wines that speak of a land that is at once tenacious, harsh, gentle, and strong. Ancient Calabria. Indigenous varieties. Available through UniqueWines.
Request a quoteIn the heart of ancient Calabria — the region where Italian wine had its birth — the Vigne Brigante estate extends for approximately ten hectares between gentle hills lapped by sea breezes from the Ionian and cool air flowing down from the Presila valley. Cirò, in the province of Crotone, is one of the oldest continuously cultivated wine territories in the Mediterranean world, and its central protagonist is a grape that has occupied these soils since Greek antiquity: the Gaglioppo.
Gaglioppo is the forefather of some of Italy's most celebrated wines. At Vigne Brigante, it is treated with the reverence it deserves — cultivated with attention to each individual row and each individual vine, as a founding value carried as a dowry and expressed through wines of absolute excellence. The estate also raises Greco Bianco, the historical companion of Gaglioppo in the Cirò appellation, completing a portfolio rooted entirely in the indigenous heritage of Calabria.
The terroir of Vigne Brigante is geologically specific: a steep hill offering maximum minerality of soil, with clayey earth rich in valuable geological contributions. The result is wines of unusual structural depth and aromatic persistence — wines that, in the words of the estate, speak of a unique land, tenacious and harsh, gentle and strong.
The range opens with the estate's most accessible expression — an easy, pleasant Cirò of fruity notes and immediate aromas of hilly herbs and flowers, mellow and attractive in its lighter form. Moving upward in complexity, ESSENZO presents Gaglioppo in its most authentic territorial expression: wide and enveloping on the palate, deep and balanced, preceded by intense and unforgettable scents of red berries, undergrowth, and leather, with dark cherry and jam at the dominant core.
727 is the estate's most structured Gaglioppo — silky and elegant, a harbinger of aromas of violet and rose, with a palate correlated with hints of humus and berries. Refined and suited to great gastronomy. MANYARI takes the Gaglioppo further, aging it for 24 months in French oak barrel and 12 months in the bottle — an intense and complex wine from 60% Gaglioppo and 40% Greco Nero, aged to reveal the full breadth of Cirò's capacity for serious wine.
JACCA VENTU is, in the estate's description, the most authentic expression of the Gaglioppo's personality and the terroir simultaneously. Its birthplace is the Melissa DOC — an olfactory fan particularly wide and deep, with a palate of great character and thick but smooth tannins. ANNO QUINTO goes further still: a wine of 24 months in French oak and 12 in bottle from Gaglioppo and Greco Nero, offering the widest oenological experience the estate produces.
ZINGAMARO is the estate's red from 100% Greco Nero grapes — warm and soft on the palate, supported by good persistence, pairing perfectly with red meats, game, and aged cheeses. MOLARELLA completes the portfolio as the white expression of the territory — from the native Pecorello grape in purity, intense and shimmering gold, fruity with hints of honey and citrus, full and tasty on the palate, designed for maritime cuisine.
Vigne Brigante represents one of the purest expressions of Calabria's ancient winemaking vocation. Available through UniqueWines.
