Agnanum Piedirosso 'Sabbia Vulcanica' 2017

Agnanum's Sabbia Vulcanica is 100% Piedirosso from the Campi Flegrei, the supervolcanic caldera on the western edge of Naples. The vineyard sits within the crater of Agnano, adjacent to the Astroni Natural Park, on steep hand-cut terraces of black volcanic sand. The soils have four distinct layers of volcanic deposit, all loose and sandy, which is precisely why these vines survived the phylloxera epidemic — the louse cannot travel through dry, friable volcanic sand. Vines here are 50 to over 100 years old and grow ungrafted.

The name Sabbia Vulcanica means 'volcanic sand' in Italian, a direct reference to the terroir that defines this wine. All work in the vineyard is strictly manual: no mechanization is possible on these terraces, which must be continuously rebuilt by hand after rain. Raffaele Moccia shapes small concave basins next to each individual vine to capture rainwater, the only source of irrigation. Yields are capped at 30 to 40 quintals per hectare, and harvest is intentionally late.

In the cellar, the wine is fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel and aged entirely in stainless steel to preserve the wine's freshness and varietal character. Only a minimal amount of sulfites is added at bottling. The result is a light-to-medium-bodied red with bright ruby color, delicate tannins, lively acidity, and a pronounced mineral salinity driven by the volcanic sandy soils and proximity to the Tyrrhenian Sea.