From Naples to North Jutland: Should Christmas wine and Christmas tree be from the Arden area this year...?
The mention below is from Vores Avis and can be read here.
Over the past two years, the Janner Olesen family at Rostrup Hedegaard, located at Rostrup southwest of Terndrup, in the Arden area towards Hobro, has worked intensively to establish a collaboration with a local wine producer from the Campania area near Naples in Italy near Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii.
It all started back in 2015, when Jeppe, son of Ruth and Christian Janner Olesen, got in touch with a now former colleague with whom he had worked at the company DuPont in Geneva, Switzerland. Until Christmas, anyone interested can partly taste the exquisite Italian wines and buy decorative greenery/Christmas trees at Rostrup Hedegaard.
Jeppe has lived and worked in Geneva for the past five years and for a long time had exchanged interest in wine with his colleague Giuseppe Ceperano, who is co-owner of the wine house Vitis Aurunca. The two quickly agreed that it could be interesting to start a collaboration regarding the import and sale of wine from Italy to Denmark and the rest of the Nordic countries.
A fantastic resource
Vitis Aurunca is a relatively young company which planted
the first vines in 2008 and produced their first vintage in 2014. Production has so far been focused on red and white wine grown respectively on Barbera and Primitivo for the red wine and Falanghina for the white wine. In the near future there will be a new strong red wine produced from the Aglianico grape as well as a sparkling spumante brut rosé wine made primarily from Falanghina. All the wines are named after women who have been important to the stakeholders at Vitis Aurunca, and this year it was a great honor for the Janner Olesen family when they chose to name the new sparkling rosé wine after Ruth, respectively for the Danish market, and Sara, who is the daughter of Ruth and Christian, for the Italian market.
In addition, Lemoncello and Meloncello are also produced, which are made from fruit grown at Vitis Aurunca, as well as Grappa, which is made by distilling the grape pomace that is left over after pressing the grapes.
- We are down to visit Giuseppe Ceperano and his family a couple of times a year to audit that everything is going according to plan and that the harvest and maturation of the wine is going according to plan, explains Jeppe Janner Olesen.
Requires endurance
The exact area for the production of the wine is a short distance north of Naples on the Mediterranean coast. Vitis Aurunca is surrounded by the Mont Massico volcanic mountains and approx. 1 km to the coast. This means that the wines from the area are particularly characterized by the many minerals in the soil and the salty air from the sea.
One of the reasons why the Janner Olesen family thinks it could be interesting to import wines from this area is due to the special history and taste that the place and its wines have. Because it is precisely from this area that the Falerno wine concept comes from – or Falerno del Massico, as it is properly called.
Committed zealots
Falerno wine has been known in Italy since ancient times, when most of the wine for the Roman Empire was produced and shipped from the area around Naples. A wine can only be called a Falerno wine if it has been produced in the area around the Mont Massico mountains and has been produced with the grapes Barbera, Primitivo, Aglianico or Falanghina, and that the wine has had a storage period of at least 12 months.
According to the legend from Roman mythology, the term Falerno arose when an old farmer, named Falernus, who lived up in the Mont Massico mountains, was visited by the God Bacchus – the God of wine and pleasure. Bacchus wanted to test man's selfishness and had disguised himself as a poor beggar who sought shelter from a terrible storm with the old farmer. Falernus invited the beggar in, and although the old farmer had barely food and drink for himself, he shared what he had of goat's milk, honey and bread with the beggar. Bacchus was then overwhelmed by the hospitality he had received and decided to reward the old farmer. So when Falernus awoke the following morning, and the storm was over, he found the beggar gone, and saw at the same time that all the hillsides around him had been turned into wonderful ripe vineyards.
Since then, wine has been grown on Falernus' fields, and over time ended up forming the framework for the concept - a Falerno wine.
The Leisure Council supports
Externally, wines from the Naples area are not that well known, and we want to help spread and tell the story of Falerno wine and give people here at home the opportunity to taste these historic wines, which come from this fantastic area by the Mediterranean, says Jeppe Janner Olesen.
During the Christmas months of November/December, Christmas trees and greenery are also sold at Rostrup Hedegaard, and this year it will also be possible to come inside to taste the various wines, and the Janner Olesen family welcomes everyone to come by and have a good trade.
