Food Tours · Tour

Six Wines Including Taurasi, and a Day in Irpinia

A full day, eight hours, out of Naples and into Irpinia, the upland part of Campania behind Vesuvius where the altitude and the volcanic soil produce wines that taste nothing like the coast. Cortecorbo is a small organic winery near Montemarano, run by the family that owns it. Transport is included, leaving from Piazza Bovio in Naples, in front of the metro entrance, or from Pompeii. There is also a booking option without transport, in which case you meet at the winery itself. A winemaker walks you through the vineyards and the cellar and explains how the wine is actually made here rather than in general. Then the cooking, hands-on: pizza in the wood-fired oven, or ravioli and tiramisù, whichever the day is set up for. Lunch is long, in the countryside, and poured against six of the estate's wines. One of them is Taurasi DOCG, made from Aglianico grown on these hills, aged for years before release and often called the Barolo of the south, which is a comparison Piedmont accepts more grudgingly than Campania makes it. The dishes are chosen to sit alongside the wines rather than compete with them, and coffee closes it. Up to fifteen guests, hosted in English. Every area and surface is wheelchair accessible, and so is the transport, which is rare for a winery visit. No alcohol is served to anyone under eighteen.