Article by Matteo Donelli
Flawless shirt. A hot Tuesday afternoon in July but without a crease. He talks fast, topic after topic with those eyes that never stop smiling.
Here he is in front of me Andrea Ferraioli for the first time. Unexpectedly. Because that day I wasn't supposed to be from his basement and he wasn't supposed to be in his basement.
Friends of mutual friends make us meet knowing of my hunger for human stories of producers and him, Andrea, not so accustomed to writers and journalists.
There are no trophies on his desk, nor newspaper clippings celebrating him on the walls.
Crow's feet that accentuate the positivity of that look made up of good eyes.
A true visionary for the world of wine.
It went, he and his company where exactly other companies didn't want to go.
Countercurrent. Where there were potential massive productions with relative important turnovers that could be grasped, he went the opposite. With tenacity. Or as her wife Marisa says, jokingly "from blockhead".
Because in the end he believed in something that was difficult to think only. A vine that is born in places where man struggles to reach. And that sometimes grows horizontally, where the root has embraced itself in an artificial wall, expanding in an impossible growth almost against the laws of nature.
In via GB Lama 16 in Furore, just below the winery, the force of nature is feared by vineyards with impossible logistics, as opposed to the equally strong man of Andrea.
Able to tame the impetuousness of nature with grace and respect. And Andrea could only be the father of Fiorduva, a heroic wine with a horde color and a taste of rock and sea.
Son of man's sweat and industriousness. Often produced in inaccessible areas or in tiny plots torn from the mountains and rocks. Fiordo di Furore overlooking the Gulf of Salerno. From there began the novel of Andrea and his wife Marisa Cuomo from which the company takes its name.
“Gran Furor Divina Costiera” is today among the best brands of Italian winemaking. Andrea Ferraioli is descended from an ancient family of local winemakers who bought the brand, born in 1942 to identify the sale of Costa di Furore wines, obtained from the vineyards lying overlooking the Gulf of Salerno
A brand that is synonymous with very low yields per hectare and a late harvest.
180.000 bottles per year of which 60% is white wine.
Grapes Falanghina and Binaconella form the “Furore Bianco”, while the Furore Rosso has a composition of Palummo and Aglianico. The latter ages twelve months in new French oak barriques which give the wine an unmistakable soft taste.
A lot of technique but also a strong desire to re-read the past of production. A sartorial production. Led by the oenologist Luigi Moio who immediately guides the company towards a high quality choice focused on bringing out the unique flavors of the territory of the coast of Furore.
Then the medals and certificates. Heavy rain on the Cuomo winery since the early XNUMXs.
From the "Tre Bicchieri" of the Gambero Rosso guide to international awards such as the US one of the "Best of Class" Award Limited Production and other thousand.
Selected as one of the four super labels of the Italian wine culture. Sassicaia, Masseto, Barbaresco Gaja and Fiorduva Marisa Cuomo were given in homage to the American President Joe Biden in an institutional mission by Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
Soft to the taste, with an aromatic persistence of dried apricot, raisins and candied fruit, Fiorduva has been consecrated as the best white in Italy for almost twenty years.
Honors for Andrea and his wife Marisa who have also become reasons for responsibility towards the community of the Amalfi Coast.
One hundred local families. Which give their grapes. One hundred families who base their daily lives on Andrea's “vision and strategy”, capable in over twenty years of listening to and supporting nature, knowing how to get the best out of it.
The thrill of entering his cellar for the first time. Loud. Like the wall of cold that welcomes us on a very hot July day.
Low lights convey harmony to the cellar. But also mystery.
It is a real cave, wanted and excavated by Andrea.
An energy so strong in Andrea's narration that it seems to have been dug by him with his bare hands.
A cave with high-tech machinery concentrated in a small space.
Every corner exploited with wit. Then the coast of Furore, which embraces the cellar. He wraps her with the angularity of his rocks. Hundreds of bottles that emerge from the many ravines of the "cave". Wine and his rock in a symbiosis that is very strong even on the first visit.
At five hundred meters above the sea, the vines grown mainly in pergola and often planted on vertical rock walls, extend over ten hectares of which 3.5 hectares are owned.
The natural spectacle of the plant which over the years has been able to develop real "abstract paintings" attraction for the tourist and then the built spectacle of the cellar. A single thread of emotions that Andrea and Marisa have been able to create and strengthen on a daily basis.
With the infinite love of one's land and the respect of its peasant collaborators, that red thread is increasingly thick, strong and capable of binding the lovers of those who know how to read the emotions of a unique wine.
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