Quintodecimo Fiano di Avellino, Exultet | 2021

The wines of Quintodecimo seems to do the impossible: balance power with lightness. 
Located in Mirabella Eclano, Luigi and Laura planted their vines on the Apennine ridge where a mountainous terroir collides with volcanic, clay, and limestone soils. The winters are harsh and snowy, but the summers are dry and mild, a happy ground for grapes, which forge a long trail of minerality on the palate. Family-owned, everything at Quintodecimo is done by hand, with no use of chemicals in the vineyard, and since their first vintage in the early 2000s, production still hovers around a conservative 5,000 cases.

A great introduction to the estate, the Fiano comes from the single vineyard Exultet, a 570m high with clay-calcareous soils that faces southwest. Whole-bunch fermentation takes place in combination of stainless steel (70%) and new oak barrels (30%), followed by eight months of aging on the fine lees. The wine is brilliant in the glass with flecks of platinum, blonde, and green, and the first sip unlocks all the wonderful smells of an enchanted forest. There’s honeybee, acacia, linden, fennel pollen, exotic pear, apple, and yellow citrus. The palate is lithe, almost weightless, yet overflows with succulent cold minerals. Surely on the pricier end for Campania whites, Quintodecimo is not your typical Fiano. It’s an exquisitely honest expression of Mirabella Eclano, one of Italy’s finest terroirs, and that’s worth every penny. ~Allegra A