I FAVATI
The I Favati winery dates back to the early 1900s, when the family’s ancestors began making wine for their own table and for a few close friends. The winery is located today in Cesinale, a town and surrounding hilly area in the heart of Irpinia (east of Naples, in the region of Campania), a land with a profound capacity to produce quality grapes. Irpinia’s unique, indigenous grape varieties make up all of I Favati’s 16 hectares of vineyards.
I Favati’s pressing facility, located in the town of Cesinali, is the crown jewel of the winery. It was built in 1998 and the first wine – Fiano di Avellino – was produced in 2000. The wines currently produced are: Fiano di Avellino D.O.C.G. (Denomination of Origin Controlled and Guaranteed); Greco di Tufo D.O.C.G.; and Aglianico d’Irpinia I.G.T.
I Favati are practicing organic. They only intervene in the vineyard when necessary and even then will spray with copper or sulfur, organic approved chemicals that help prevent fungus and rot. Their philosophy is that the “vino e’ fatto nelle vigne”—wine is made in the vineyards. If you grow healthy grapes with minimal or no chemical intervention, the hardest part is over. In the cellar, they truly go to lengths to make sure the wine is of highest quality—a wine that can maintain its integrity without additives. The grapes go directly to press after picking and are pressed in an anaerobic (no oxygen) environment, the wine is fermented at low temperatures and without the presence of oxygen (keeping oxygen from contacting the wine is a difficult process and expensive, which is why conventional winemakers use additives so they do not have to worry as much about keeping the O2 out). They use 2g of Sulfur per quintal of grapes (~200lbs). They do not add anything else to the wine. There is no fining or filtration, only racking, which is the process of keeping the wine at cool temperatures and letting the sediment fully settle before simply draining the wine off. It is a process that happens multiple times in a wine’s life, especially if the winemaker chooses to not use additives to help claify and filter the wines. The small annual production between 40,000 and 50,000 bottles reflects their mission to achieve the highest quality rather than the largest quanity.
The winery is managed by Rosanna Petrozziello, her husband, Giancarlo Favati and his brother Piersabino Favati. Carmine Valentino is the winemaker.
