APULICA / WINES
Alberata aversana (Asprinio vines trained on poplars)
Slow Food Presidium · Wines · Campania
In brief
- In the Aversa countryside, between Naples and Caserta, the vines are married to poplars and climb past ten metres, forming green walls strung on wires from tree to tree. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Alberata aversana)
- Only one grape is grown on the alberate: asprinio, a white variety with a slightly tart taste. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Alberata aversana)
- The harvest is done from the scalillo, a long, light ladder, and the bunches are lowered in a pointed wicker basket called a fescina. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Alberata aversana)
- From about 16,000 hectares in the 1960s the area has shrunk to fewer than two hundred. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Alberata aversana)
History and origin
The alberata is a way of growing vines that for hundreds of years shaped the landscape of the agro aversano, the plain between Naples and Caserta. The tradition of marrying vines to trees, especially poplars, goes back as far as the Etruscans, and the rows often follow Roman centuriation, the grid Rome used to organise farmland.
The system had a practical advantage: the vine grows upwards and leaves the ground below free for other crops. Around these green walls a very particular wine culture developed, with its own pruning rules and tools designed for the purpose.
In the 1960s alberate covered about 16,000 hectares; today fewer than two hundred remain, scattered in tiny plots, often of a single hectare. Population growth and urban sprawl led to their abandonment. The Slow Food Presidium was created to save the surviving alberate, keep them in production and promote wine made only from these vines.
Area and method of production
The area includes nineteen towns in the province of Caserta, among them Aversa, Casal di Principe, Lusciano, Orta di Atella, Sant'Arpino, Teverola and Villa Literno, and three in the province of Naples: Giugliano, Qualiano and Sant'Antimo. It is the same area as the Aversa DOC. The soils are volcanic and mineral-rich, north of the Campi Flegrei, with tuff rock in which countless caves were dug over the centuries to store food and wine.
The vines, centuries-old plants, climb poplars to more than ten metres and stretch from one tree to the next along galvanised iron wires, forming true walls of branches, leaves and grapes.
The harvest is done only with the scalillo, a long, narrow and very light ladder that one man carries resting it against his ear and slides along the wall. The bunches are lowered to the ground in the fescina, a wicker basket pointed at the base which, dropped quickly, sticks into the soil without tipping over.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Alberata aversana · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura: DOC Aversa (Asprinio)
How to recognise it
Only one variety is grown on alberate, asprinio: a white grape with long, conical bunches and a slightly sour taste. This natural acidity is what gives the wine its character.
Aversa DOC wine, made with at least 85% asprinio, is straw yellow of varying depth, with an intense, fruity nose and a fresh, dry taste. There is also a sparkling version, from asprinio alone, valued for its natural freshness and fine, persistent bubbles.
An alberata can be recognised from afar: on the plain, rows of poplars covered in vines, over ten metres high, are the mark of an ancient farming landscape. The caves dug into the tuff, still found around Aversa, complete a historic heritage that the Presidium wants to protect together with the vines.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Alberata aversana · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura: DOC Aversa (Asprinio)
In the kitchen
Asprinio is a wine for seafood. The regional sheet describes it as ideal with seafood salads and shellfish, especially raw, with fried rock fish and crustaceans, and also with vegetable soufflés.
Its most traditional pairing, however, is from the land: ham and the mozzarella of Aversa, the town that gives the denomination its name and lies at the heart of the alberata area.
The sparkling version, from asprinio alone, is much sought after for its natural freshness and fine, persistent bubbles: an elegant version that brings to the glass the same liveliness as the grape grown on the poplars.
Sources: Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura: DOC Aversa (Asprinio)
Where to taste it
Alberate can be seen on the plain between Naples and Caserta, in the towns of the agro aversano: Aversa, Sant'Arpino, Orta di Atella, Succivo, Lusciano, Villa Literno and the other Presidium villages, as far as Giugliano and Sant'Antimo.
The most spectacular moment is the September harvest, when pickers climb scalilli along the walls of vines and lower fescine full of grapes. The wine can be sought from the area's wineries making Aversa DOC, including the sparkling version; Presidium growers are few and small, and many make wine for their families.
Aversa is the natural starting point to discover the area, pairing the wine with the ham and mozzarella that tradition serves alongside it.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Alberata aversana · Regione Campania, Assessorato Agricoltura: DOC Aversa (Asprinio)
Protection
- Slow Food Presidium — alberata-aversana (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Alberata aversana)
When
- Harvest: September (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Alberata aversana)
- Autumn