Heroic viticulture: Casa D’Ambra on Ischia

Tenuta Frassitelli is portrayed as a 4-hectare hanging garden approximately 600 m above the sea, enclosed by green-tuff parracine and surrounded by broom and wild oregano. Before monorails arrived, the “angeli matti” carried grape crates over the steep terraces. Andrea D’Ambra secretly vinified the first Frassitelli vintage in 1985. The account also revisits Francesco D’Ambra’s late-19th-century trade with Naples, the transformation led by Mario, Michele and Salvatore in the 1950s, Salvatore’s first bottled Biancolella, Luchino Visconti’s contribution to the label and the recognition of Ischia DOC on 9 May 1966.