Calòs Hedoné
Valeat qui legerit.
Hedoné dicit:
assibus singulis hic bibitur;
dupundium si dederis,
meliora bibes;
quartum assem si dederis,
vina Falerna bibes.
.

This inscription found on the wall of a famous tavern at the time of the Roman Empire.

The translation from latin is:

Beautiful happy home
greets whoever is reading.
Happy house informs:
here everyone to drink pays an axis,
if you pay two axes will drink better wine,
if you spend four aces
will drink wine Falerno.

“Severus, fortis, ardens”: such was the description of ancient Farlernum, ancient literature’s most famous wine, lost to views in the early 199s and re-introduced in the 1970s in Ville Matilde’s  hillside vineyards of on the slopes of the extinct Roccamonfina volcano.

The history of VIGNA CARACCI began in the 1960s, with passion for ancient wines and an abiding interest in the “vinum Falernum” described in the accounts of Pliny and in the poetry of Virgil, Martial, and Horace, decided to bring back to life that legendary wine, which had disappeared in the early 20th century. With the assistance of the department of Crop Sciences at the University of Naples, was able to identify, after years of study, the grape varieties that had produced Falernum in Roman times. With the help of local farmers, have been re-planted the handful of vines that had miraculously survived devastation by phylloxera in the late 19th century, right in the Monte Massico area where they had flourished in ancient times.

Ceaseless research and avant-garde technologies flesh out tradition through intelligent, dynamic innovation that focuses on careful protection of the growing area. The “Zero Emissions” project is the fruit of a desire to demonstrate that one can produce wine while focusing on low impact on the environment, through utilisation of the most up-to-date technologies for lowering levels of consumption. The vineyards, trained to the Guyot system, are planted at a density of 6,000 vines per hectare.

VIGNA CARACCI wine is the fruit of uninterrupted study and research aimed at identifying the grape varieties that yielded the ancient wines of this area, as the falanghina variety from which white Falerno is made. Going back to the past is in any case constantly enriched by revisiting and modernising that viticulture through use of state-of-the-art tools. Nor is innovation limited to just technology: it is the fruit of a creative imagination that centres its attention on the local growing area and its winegrowers, which testify to the self-confident identity of Campania Felix, ranging from the area of the Ager Falernus.

VIGNA CARACCI is produced only in the finest growing years, from grapes from the vineyard of the same name, one of the oldest and best-aspected parcels on the slopes of the extinct Roccamonfina volcano. Appearing an intense straw yellow with golden highlights, its highly-distinctive bouquet releases wild rose, banana, pineapple, William’s pear, and cocoa butter, flanked by hints of musk, toasted hazelnuts, and vanilla. Full-bodied, velvet smooth, and long-lasting, it is undeniably an elegant wine of noble character.

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Quality, eco-sustainability, local culture, respect for tradition, growth, technological development, support for scientific research. The ethical principles and values that Villa Matilde winery represents are inscribed in its history and in the growth of the winery itself. The crucial importance of quality is the first rule. Villa Matilde concentrates on breed; it does not produce endless lines of wines, but elite wines, and VIGNA CARACCI is the most appreciated. 

If the Roman emperors drank falerno wine there was a reason, do not you know it yet? Well, you must drink this wine and you'll find out why!

GRAPE VARIETIES: 10% falanghina 100% (falerna della vigna caracci biotype)

ALCOHOL: 13,5° 

CELLARING CAPACITY: 10-12 years

SOIL PROFILE: Volcanic, with abundant phosphorus, potassium, and microelements

YEAR VINEYARDS PLANTED: 1968

VINEYARD ELEVATION: 150 metres

HARVEST PERIOD: First decade of October

VINEYARD DENSITY: 3,500 vines per hectare

TRAINING SYSTEM: Guyot, with about 6 buds per vine

VINIFICATION: The grapes are cryomacerated to increase aromatic extraction and to improve structure, then part of the must ferments in steel and part in medium-toasted Allier oak barriques for 20 days, in order to fully bring out the harmony and suppleness that are naturally present in the grapes grown in this very distinctive terroir.

MATURATION: In steel and then in bottle for a minimum of 8 months