From the atlas
La Fortezza Società Agricola
A Campanian estate on the volcanic slopes of Mount Taburno, where Enzo Rillo farms Aglianico and Falanghina inside a winery carved from the same rock the vines grow in.
At A Glance
| |
| Region | Campania, Benevento province |
| Village | Torrecuso |
| Main grapes | Aglianico, Falanghina |
| Signature wine | Aglianico del Taburno Riserva |
| Defining feature | Fortress-like cellar carved into Mount Taburno's volcanic rock |
The Producer
La Fortezza sits in Torrecuso, a commune in Campania's Benevento province, where Enzo Rillo farms the volcanic slopes of Mount Taburno. Rillo grew up in Torrecuso, the son of farmers, and the estate is his return to that land. The winery takes its name and its physical form from the mountain: a fortress-like building carved into the volcanic rock, surrounded by olive groves and vineyards.
The core grapes are Aglianico and Falanghina. The oldest Aglianico vines on the estate are seventy years old. Oenologist Vittorio Festa oversees production, and the estate has capacity for approximately one million bottles annually, with exports reaching China, the United States, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, France, Spain and England.
Place
Torrecuso sits within the Sannio viticultural zone of Benevento province, in the mountainous interior of Campania. The vineyards run along the eastern side of Taburno Regional Park, on the slopes of Mount Taburno, where the terrain alternates between vines, woodland and small clearings. Mount Taburno's highest peak casts shade only at the end of the day, leaving the vineyards sun-drenched through most of the growing season.
That long sun exposure on volcanic mountain slopes gives Aglianico the warmth it needs to ripen fully, while the altitude and the daily temperature drop preserve the grape's natural acidity. Aglianico grown there carries dark fruit and warmth, with acid and tannin that allow it to hold over time.
Soil And Site
The soils on the Taburno slopes combine clay, limestone and volcanic rock. Clay retains moisture through dry stretches and moderates the rate of ripening; limestone provides drainage and contributes mineral character; volcanic rock holds heat through the night and concentrates the flavours of both Aglianico and Falanghina. Sun exposure is high across the vineyard area, and the altitude of the mountain site keeps the diurnal range wide enough to slow ripening and maintain acid freshness.
Story
Enzo Rillo describes himself as the son of farmers, born and raised in Torrecuso. His decision to build a serious wine estate in his home village was a deliberate return to that background rather than a departure from it. He planted the estate on land he knew, using varieties his family's generation had grown on the same slopes.
Rillo's choice to build the winery from and into the volcanic rock of Mount Taburno was not purely aesthetic. The stone building sits at the centre of the vineyards, physically integrated with the landscape. When Rillo brought in oenologist Vittorio Festa to run the cellar, the estate gained a technical voice for what the mountain could produce: Aglianico capable of the Riserva designation, Falanghina made both still and sparkling, and a production system with capacity to reach international markets while keeping the wine rooted in one Campanian hillside.
Vineyards And Cellar
The estate covers sixty hectares, forty of them owned, as reported in a 2021 feature on the producer. The 2021 publication and the importer give slightly different figures for the total area, but both confirm the Taburno slopes as the base.
Varieties in the vineyard include Aglianico, Falanghina, Greco, Fiano, Piedirosso and Barbera. The oldest Aglianico vines date to seventy years. Farming uses fertigation, a system that allows treatments to be applied only when the vines need them rather than on a fixed calendar schedule.
The cellar is equipped for both traditional method and Martinotti-Charmat sparkling production, giving Rillo the means to make Falanghina as a still wine and as a sparkling wine by two different methods. The Aglianico del Taburno Enzo Rillo bottling, documented in the 2021 feature, was made from hand-harvested fruit, macerated in the traditional way, and aged eight months in oak.
Wines
The range is anchored by two grapes across different designations. Aglianico del Taburno DOCG is the red core, with the Riserva at the top of that tier: 100% Aglianico, garnet in colour, with small red fruit, spice and tobacco on the nose, warm and well-built on the palate, and a black-pepper finish. The Enzo Rillo bottling, at the DOCG level, was made from hand-harvested Aglianico with maceration and eight months in oak, giving a full-bodied wine with dark fruit, mineral notes, chocolate and spice and marked acidity.
Falanghina appears as a still wine under the Beneventano IGT designation: 100% Falanghina, with exotic fruit and green apple aromas and a fresh, mineral, persistent palate. Oro del Marchese is Falanghina in sparkling form, made in an extra-dry style with a fine, bright mousse, an exotic-fruit nose and a harmonious, full palate.
In The Glass
Aglianico from this part of Benevento is a warm, full-bodied red with dark colour, pronounced acidity and substantial tannin. The Riserva shows garnet, with small red fruits, spice and tobacco on the nose; on the palate it is warm and well-built, with tannins that sit quietly behind the fruit and a finish defined by black pepper. The Enzo Rillo bottling adds mineral notes, wild berries, black cherry and ripe banana peel to the aromatic picture, with chocolate and spice on the full-bodied palate and a long finish driven by the variety's natural acidity.
Falanghina in its still form is lighter and more direct: exotic fruit and green apple on the nose, then a fresh, mineral palate with a clean, persistent finish. As Oro del Marchese, the same grape becomes a straw-coloured sparkling wine with a fine mousse, fruity intensity and a harmonious, full feel across the palate.
A Bottle To Understand It
Choose the Aglianico del Taburno Riserva. It is a 100% Aglianico wine from the DOCG zone on Mount Taburno's slopes, built on the estate's oldest vine material and shaped by the volcanic soils of Torrecuso. The nose carries small red fruit, spice and tobacco; the palate is warm and well-built, with tannins that stay contained and a black-pepper finish that reflects the variety's mountain origins. It gives the clearest account of what separates Benevento Aglianico from the more southerly Campanian versions: warmth from the long sun exposure, firmness from the altitude, and mineral grip from the volcanic ground.
Anecdote
When Enzo Rillo decided to build his winery in Torrecuso, he did not construct it on the slope. He built it into the slope. The building was carved from Mount Taburno's volcanic rock, its walls formed from the same material that lies beneath the vineyard soil. The building became known as La Fortezza, the fortress, named for the mass of stone it recalls. Every bottle of Aglianico and Falanghina made there is stored and aged inside the mountain that shaped the grapes. The name printed on the label is also a description of where the wine was made.
Final Word
La Fortezza produces Aglianico del Taburno and Falanghina from volcanic mountain land in Benevento's Sannio zone, with a cellar built from the same rock the vines grow in and an export range that takes Torrecuso's indigenous grapes to markets across three continents.
Sources
- https://vinilafortezza.it/en/pages/azienda
- https://www.kysela.com/producers/la-fortezza.html
- https://www.apronandsneakers.com/2021/12/la-fortezza-in-sannio-wines-of-great.html
- https://vinilafortezza.it/en/products/aglianico-del-taburno-riserva
- https://vinilafortezza.it/en/products/falanghina-beneventano
- https://vinilafortezza.it/en/products/oro-del-marchese-spumante-extra-dry-di-falanghina