Ponza Island Wine

Ponza is a small island 23 miles off the West coast of Italy mid-way between Rome and Naples. Favourite playground for Romans both ancient and modern it is practically free of visitors from outside Italy. If you do bump into Americans they are likely to be descended from Ponzesi and other nationalities may be off visiting yachts. Some of these may be celebs. Beyonce is a regular for example.

Nearly 300 years ago, the population had fallen to a very low level so Carlo di Borbone decided to bring in some inhabitants from Ischia with the promise of land.

the Punta Fieno vineyard is so steep the grapes have to be brought up by 'telepherique'

In 1734 Piero Migliaccio was given a steep plot named Punta Fieno which was - with a lot of terracing work - suitable for grape cultivation.

There are in fact grapevines dotted all over Ponza but the Punta Fieno estate is the main one and wine has been produced from that vineyard almost continuously since its inception. It is still pristine thanks to its inaccessibility. Even today it takes a 40 minute hike to get there. This is the very definition of agricoltura eroica.

The grapes brought from Ischia included Biancolella, Forastera, Guarnaccia, Aglianico and Piedirosso. Ponza is in Lazio and Ischia in Campania. Some of these varieties are forbidden to Lazio with the exception of Ponza so there is a number of factors which make the wine of Ponza special.

The present owners of Antiche Cantine Migliaccio are Emanuele (Manolo) Vittorio and Luciana Sabino. Manolo is a nephew of a Migliaccio and is in his other profession a dentist. In fact it seems the whole family are dentists across three generations.

view from the terrace with a few vines in the foreground

The Vittorio-Sabino family live in Naples but a dozen years ago Manolo and Luciana bought a property in Ponza Porto and established their winery there.

natural light and ventilation

the original breakthrough hole now bricked up

By remarkable good fortune, they discovered a large cistern below their house which is now used as part of the winery and for storage.

If this sounds like a mom and pop operation, nothing could be further from the truth. Antiche Cantine Migliaccio is a serious and professional operation producing wines of international standard. An enologist has always been on hand - these days Vincenzo Mercurio.

full page article in 'Corriere della sera'

The fame of Antiche Cantine Migliaccio wines has spread and no doubt will spread further with the present standard of production.

Luciana holds tastings every Wednesday and Saturday. When we announced ourselves our only opportunity was a Friday. Luciana was kind enough to lay on a tasting especially for us on this day off.

It began with a very professional video presentation, then a tour of the facilities. Finally a tasting with 'aperitivi.' We learned that in Italian this means 'bits' not aperitifs.

Manolo and Luciana are 'personi deliziosi' and their wines are deliziosi too.

We started with the Biancolella (production 1,500 bottles approximately). We had been aware of Biancolella previously but it took a visit to Ponza and Ischia to realise what a great grape this is. We had several examples on this on our trip around the Gulf of Naples. The Migliaccio Biancolella is a dryer one than some.

Then came the signature Fieno di Ponza, Biancolella blended with Forastera (5,000 bottles).

 

As with the red, the rose blend is Piedirosso and Guarnaccia. 1,000 of this rosato is produced.

Rosso from 2017 bottled in May 2018

Manolo and Luciana insisted on us taking a fresh bottle each as a going home present. We chose the Fieno di Ponza white and Fieno di Ponza Rosso  (1,000 bottles produced). Unfortunately we couldn't resist breaking into them late on our trip much as we would have liked to take them back to London.