ARGILLA MADRE

Argilla Madre — Mother Clay — is the companion limited edition to Fiore Clastico: 1,494 individually numbered bottles of Casavecchia (85%) and Sangiovese (15%) from the Volturno vineyard, a magical garden of just over one hectare on the slopes of a plateau overlooking Mount Taburno and the meeting of the rivers Volturno and Calore Irpino. The setting is as specific and as atmospheric as the wine demands.

The Casavecchia vine — already encountered in the Campania Felix portfolio as a variety of ancient and romantic origins, discovered as a pre-phylloxera stump in the ruins of Pontelatone — here finds expression in a context of particular mineral richness: the clay soils of the Volturno vineyard, which impart to the Casavecchia a signature of typical notes of violet and small field flowers accompanied by light spicy hints and red fruit. These are the specific aromatic contributions of Casavecchia grown on clay — a combination so specific that it functions almost as a fingerprint of origin.

The label itself is a work of considered artistic intention: it represents red clay warming and tarnishing the perfect image of a metallic surface, its grooves and streaks underlining the imperfection of the material and the continuous evolution of wine. This is design as philosophy — a visual argument for the same values that govern the production: that imperfection is integral to authenticity, that evolution is the nature of living things including wine.

Argilla Madre is described by the estate as a living wine: perfect and imperfect, enveloping and warm, dry and rough but soft in its evolution. Clear and intense with violet reflections, enveloping and fine at the same time, balanced and elegant with a persistent aroma of red fruits to the back-nasal. Each of the 1,494 bottles is individually numbered. A wine of genuine distinction and genuine rarity.

Available through UniqueWines in the most strictly limited quantities.