“This is the promised land, in the countryside you can see festoons of vines attached to trees with scattered bunches of grapes much more beautiful than those that the Jews brought to Moses.”
It was in 1808 that Carolina Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte’s last sister, wrote these words from the countryside to her husband Gioacchino Murat.
The history of the Asprinio vines attached to up to 20-meter-high elms and poplars, is however much older and goes back to the cultivation of vines among the Etruscan populations. In fact, these populations used to cultivate vines by leaning them against tall trees. The vines twisted around the trunks of the trees and grew in height. The production of sparkling wines can be traced back to Robert of Anjou (1277- 1343) who asked the cellarman of the Royal House Louis Pierrefeu to find in the Aversano countryside a place where to grow grapes for the production of champagne without importing them from France.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the Cosentino family bought some hectares in the Casal di Principe area of these ancient plantations and still today with the Bonaparte Winery (Cantine Bonaparte) they take care of these bicentennial plants and from some of them they even give life to new plants. The harvest is obviously done by hand by skilled workers.
These men climb up very narrow customized ladders, placing the golden bunches of Asprinio in ancient baskets, as it has been done since the dawn of time.
These men have been nicknamed “Spiderman” long before the famous comic book superhero was created. The famous Italian author Mario Soldati defined Asprinio di Aversa with these words: “Asprinio has a little scent that al most reminds of lemon: but, on the other hand, it is of such a substantial dryness, which you cannot imagine if you don’t taste it… What a great little wine!”
