In the year 2000, Mila Voulo took an opportunity to leave Rome and return home to the Salerno countryside to live out her dream of restoring the historical vineyard and farmhouse her father bought when she was sixteen. The telecommunications company she worked for started to lay people off and she volunteered to be cut. She explained, “It wasn’t a bad job, but I had to go. I had no family and other people needed my job more than I did.” She felt the calling to come home and work her family’s land. Despite having 6 other siblings, no one was quite as interested as Mila to take it over.

The Voulo family property is known locally as Passione, a fitting name for this once famous vineyard that made some of the finest wines in the are. Upon her return, Mila committed the property to organic farming and began to reestablish the vineyards, hazelnut trees and olive groves. With the help of a well-known enologist and viticultural specialist, Guido Busatto, the Aglianico vines were the first to be planted, in 2001, followed by Fiano in 2004.

Located in southern Italy’s Campania region, the IGT Colli di Salerno (hills of Salerno) is a sweeping appellation that covers the coastal land from the Amalfi Coast to the Cilento Coast along many of the hills close to the Mediterranean. While there is a tighter DOC region within the Colli di Salerno, the Castel San Lorenzo DOC, practically no one bottles under it. “The denomination doesn’t really do anything,” Mila explains. “It allows for all kinds of grapes and right now the name does not help us promote the region.” In fact, Mila is on the committee to resurrect the Castel San Lorenzo DOC and change the wine production laws to only allow for native grapes.

Passione is located just north of Salerno, on the sparsely populated north face of Giovi which has a local historical reputation for quality wine production. Despite being North facing, Mila’s vineyards receive ample sunlight during the Summer and Fall. In such a warm and now drought prone region, the northern exposition provides her an advantage and the cooling nighttime winds from the neighboring Monti Picentini bring cooler air breezes needed to produce wines of freshness with good acidity.

Mila’s hazelnut & olive trees as well as a wild forest surround the vineyard on all sides. The vines are planted on clay soil rich in limestone and organic matter with a good natural water storage capacity to keep the vines nourished. Beneath the clay are deposits of limestone pebbles that rest on a limestone bedrock. The limestone gives the wine its bright elements and fresh acidity, while the clay and warm weather pumps out riper grapes and therefore a richer fruit profile.

SHOP MILA VUOLO WINES

Mila’s Aglianico is a great introduction to the grape if you are unfamiliar. What’s even more special, her Aglianico wines come into the American market with significant age on them, making an otherwise tannic and age-worthy wine, ready to pop and pour.

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