Rocca del principe
Small, independent grower-producer founded by husband-and-wife team Ercole Zarrella and Aurelia Fabrizio, whose families were growers who used to sell their grapes to other winemakers (including Mastroberardino). But that was all to change when the couple took the helm: early believers in the potential of the native Fiano grape, they shifted their focus to it and in 2004, the family made their first vinification under their own label.
The winery has not looked back since: Rocca del Principe is now a reference point in the region for its wines, particularly its beautiful, age-worthy Fiano di Avellino, a regular recipient of Gambero Rosso's Tre Bicchieri. The winery is also a shining example of the small, dauntless artisan wineries involved in Campania's continued winemaking renaissance.
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Today, a new generation is writing the next chapter of the winery’s story. Winemaking is now in the hands of Simona Zarrella, the winery's winemaker-agronomist, who brings a bold, personal perspective to the wines, with the couple's other daughters assuming other key roles in the winery. Excited about their future? So are we!
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Niche
The winery is considered a benchmark producer of Fiano, a native white wine, for which it has been awarded a long line of accolades in Italy; its only other wine is made from Aglianico in accordance with time-honoured traditions.
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Grapes for the winery's Fiano and Aglianico are harvested from the "grand cru" sites of Arianiello and Contrada Campore.
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Total annual production ~ 30,000 bottles.
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Representative wines
By focusing on low yields in the vineyards and growing healthy, high quality grapes, the winery is able to reduce interventions in the cellar to produce complex, long-lived wines representative of the finest Campania has to offer.
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The winery expresses their unique vision for their local wines with flair and conviction, including sur lie aging of their Fiano and single-cru Fiano bottlings.
Future
Despite its remarkable success so far, it is always working on new ways to bring to life its vision of winemaking: to produce unique, expressive wines which speak proudly of their territory.
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Enology is now in the hands of Simona, who confidently lends her unique perspective on the wines to the mix.