Who makes it
In the winter of 1986, when Irpinia was still clearing rubble left by the November 1980 earthquake, the Ercolino brothers and the Capaldo family opened a wine estate in Sorbo Serpico, a hilltop village in the province of Avellino. Fewer than ten estates in all of Irpinia were bottling under their own label at that moment. The decision to found Feudi di San Gregorio was, in part, an act of regional reconstruction.
The choice they made at the start was deliberately contrary. Irpinia had spent two thousand years producing red wine from Aglianico. Feudi's first argument was for modern-style white wines from Greco and Fiano, native Campanian varieties that the local tradition had long treated as secondary. Today the Capaldo family owns and manages what is widely described as the largest family-owned winery in Southern Italy, farming 740 acres across more than 800 individual plots in the hills above Sorbo Serpico.
Where it grows
Irpinia sits inland from the Bay of Naples, away from the coast's maritime warmth, in the Apennine foothills of central Campania. The province of Avellino rises steeply from the coastal plain. At altitude, growing seasons stretch longer, nights are cooler, and the native white varieties hold their acidity rather than surrendering it to summer heat.
The 800 plots Feudi farms are not a single continuous vineyard. They sit at varying altitudes and with varying exposures across the Sorbo Serpico hills, meaning ripening conditions, drainage, and wind exposure differ parcel by parcel within the same vintage. That fragmentation is not incidental. It gives Feudi access to meaningfully different raw material from a compact geographic zone.
How it is made
The cellar
The Dal Re vineyard's old, ungrafted Aglianico vines produce lower yields and denser concentration than younger plantings. Pre-phylloxera Aglianico on its own roots has a different extraction profile, and the wine it gives is darker and more mineral than fruit from modern grafted vines.
Across the broader 800-plot holding, altitude and exposure variation means that Feudi is effectively working with a mosaic of micro-climates rather than a single growing environment. Plots at higher elevation ripen later and hold more acidity; lower-lying parcels tend toward fuller body and more immediate fruit.
What they make
Fiano di Avellino DOCG is a full-bodied white wine from Fiano grown on clay-limestone and volcanic soils at altitude in the Avellino hills. Fiano di Avellino has the weight and acid line to age. The aromatics run toward toasted hazelnut, lemon pith, and white peach, with a firm, saline finish that tightens and clarifies with several years in the bottle. It is not a neutral white; it has both grip and length.
Greco di Tufo DOCG is a white wine from Greco grown in the tufa-dominated soils of the Tufo subzone. Greco carries higher acidity than Fiano, with a more angular mineral quality and citrus-driven aromatics. The texture is leaner, and the finish tends toward bitter almond and grapefruit pith.
Wines to try
First bottle
Start with Fiano di Avellino DOCG. It is a full-bodied white wine from native Fiano grapes grown at altitude in the clay-limestone and volcanic soils of the Avellino hills. In the glass it gives toasted hazelnut, lemon pith, and white peach, with firm acidity and a saline, mineral finish. It is not a delicate wine. It has weight, grip, and the structural density to develop over several years. Fiano di Avellino explains what Feudi does with the altitude and the native varieties of Irpinia more directly than any other bottle in the range.