Featured Wines - April 1999

In the south of Italy, about 60 miles northeast of Naples, beyond the gleaming azure of the Tyrrhenian Sea and far from the corniche, flower-bedecked tourist towns of Amalfi, Salerno, and Sorrento, lies the Campania, the garden and vineyard of ancient Rome. Known to the Romans as the Campania Felix, the face with the open smile, its produce of grain, nuts, vegetables, fruit and of course wine, flowed north along the Appian Way...

Deep in the heel of the Italian boot, amid the hills of central Apulia, there lies a little gem of an estate - Colli della Murgia. One of the few true estates or azienda agricola in the region, Colli della Murgia is the handicraft of two brothers, Franco and Valentino DiBenedetto. With a vision and a lot of hard work, the "fratelli" DiBenedetto have developed a distinct style of wine making. By rooting themselves...