The island of the grape - Visiting wineries 2014
Perhaps what fascinates most of the island of Ischia is its story. Not the story of great or rich men “whose names are carved on the buildings”, as Michael Ondaatje, that also is interesting here, but the “common story” of whom the French call “le petit peuple” that is “lower classes”.
Mr. Benedetto Migliaccio, heir to an ancient family of Ischia, passionate historian and bibliographer, has recovered after 100 years of neglect his vineyard Jesca which is located in the municipality of Serrara-Fontana and extends for about 14 hectares. He has called the “vineyard of the thousand years” because it has a thousand years of history, having found the first document in the archive where in 1034 a notary archive the donation of the estate "Jesca" of Mellusi to the Benedictine monastery “for the redemption of soul”.
“Here are layered thousand years of history - he says - and the memories of the ancient illiterate peasants are entrusted to the terracing without parracine, because here there is no green stone as in Forio, the caves dug into the tuff and the same way to dig the earth since the quality of the soil and how to cultivate it make a difference to the quality of the grapes and therefore the wine”.
After 100 years of abandonment the estate Jesca with the D’ Ambra Vini by Andrea D’ Ambra has produced a magnificent red wine which is the “vine of the thousand years”, and this year there will be on Sunday, September 14th for the third time the “auteur vintage” that will transform for a day, lawyers, journalists, architects in short, men and women of pen and of chair into farmers as a tribute to the memory of those that Mr. Migliaccio called “heroes” because they were able to dominate nature that here is impervious but with an indescribable view it does take the visitor spellbound the island of Sant’ Angelo and the island of Capri in his arms, stopping the breath.
“The harvest is a feast for the vineyards return to a handful of heroes, the fruit of a commitment that knows no pause in the arc of year”, says Mr. Migliaccio.
Great archaeologist Amedeo Maturi (1886-1963) was enchanted by the Ischian vintage walking “along the trails that descend from the chestnut of Barano, Serrara and Buonopane to the hot sands of the navy of the Maronti to the jeweled charm of the promontory of S. Angelo” and on this ground upset, landslide, bibulous, such as pumice, dry as a bait, browned by the sun and sea wind, made warm by boiling underground, heat secret that will run in as the blood in the arteries, thrives sovereign the vine”.
“Wine is the ‘water of Ischia”, writes Norman Douglas (1868-1952) in his extraordinary book “Summer Islands”, telling of Ischia and recommending to taste “the wine of each degree of latitude of the island, from golden stream of a thousand barrels of Forio to the pale lily "ichor", divine nectar exuding from the grapes of the dwarf mountain”.
This island of grape there is still with its vineyards, cellars and all its typical production and one can see from September 14 to 18 with the event “Visiting wineries” organized by the Pro Loco Panza that we present in this special issue.
Not only we pay homage to an ancient civilization but present economic segment, on which the people of Ischia have lived for centuries, became modern with terrific wineries and integrated with all other segments of the tourism of Ischia from the beach to the spa, from the cultural one to that in open air for young people.
This ancient island is always renewed and asks all visitors to be loved and preserved with care and respect because life is not enough to know it all.
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