Costa delle Parracine

Costa delle Parracine works on Ischia, the volcanic island in the Bay of Naples, where vines are grown on terraces cut into steep slopes above the sea.

Ischia has an unusually long viticultural history even by Italian standards: Greek settlers from Euboea founded a colony here in the eighth century BC, the earliest in the western Mediterranean, and brought vines with them. In 1966 Ischia became one of the first Italian regions ever granted DOC status.

Its grapes are its own. Forastera and Biancolella are found essentially nowhere else, both suited to volcanic soil and sea air, and both giving whites of pronounced salinity and moderate alcohol. The terraces are supported by dry stone walls called parracine, which is where the estate takes its name, and everything is worked by hand because nothing else can reach it.