Cantine Matrone

Campania

Cantine Matrone is a small wine estate located on the southern slopes of Mount Vesuvius in Campania, Italy. The estate comprises five hectares of vineyards, complemented by three hectares of woodland and one hectare of fruit trees, including citrus, olive and fig. Owned and managed by Andrea Matrone and his cousin Francesco, the winery continues a family tradition dating back to the 1700s.

Carrying on this legacy in a unique environment, the estate is situated within the Vesuvius National Park, where the vineyards benefit from volcanic soils rich in lapilli and minerals, contributing to the distinctive character of the wines.

Cantine Matrone practices organic farming, employing green manure, organic compost, and horse manure to enrich the soil. The winery eschews chemical treatments, relying instead on natural methods to combat pests and diseases. In the cellar, spontaneous fermentations are conducted with minimal sulfur usage, typically below 10 mg/liter. Wines are neither clarified nor filtered, preserving their natural expression.

The winery focuses on indigenous grape varieties, some of which are nearly extinct. Key white grapes include Caprettone, Falanghina, and Greco, while red varieties encompass Piedirosso, Aglianico, Cascaveglia, and Sciascinoso. Notable wines include:

‘E Magliole: Primarily Caprettone with some Falanghina, this white wine undergoes partial skin maceration and is aged in stainless steel.
Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio Rosso: Comprising 90% Piedirosso and 10% Aglianico, this wine is aged for 14 months in 500-liter tonneaux followed by 10 months in stainless steel.

HISTORY

The Matrone family has cultivated vines on what is now Boscotrecase since the eighteenth century. A celebrated engraving by Filippo Morghen, after a drawing by Ignazio Vernet, depicts the lava flow of the 1751 eruption and names a district known as “de’ Matroni” — testament to the family’s deep territorial roots. The road ascending from Boscotrecase to the crater of Vesuvius was built by the engineer Gennaro Matrone, great-uncle to Andrea and Francesco, at the end of the nineteenth century. The family’s winemaking tradition ultimately lapsed with their great-grandfather Raffaele Matrone. In 2014, Andrea Matrone and his cousin Francesco Matrone — respectively an enologo and a notary — reclaimed the ancestral vineyards, renovated the eighteenth-century family cantina, and produced their first vintage. The project was conceived not as a commercial venture but as an act of territorial restoration: a commitment to indigenous varieties, volcanic soils, and a style of winemaking the Vesuvian slopes had largely abandoned.

TERROIR

The estate is situated within the Vesuvius National Park, where vineyards benefit from volcanic soils rich in lapilli and minerals. The holdings are divided across several distinct vineyard sites. The Monaco vineyard in Trecase lies at approximately forty meters above sea level, facing south, its soil volcanic, sandy, and partially silty with volcanic ash — planted in 1995. The Panoramica vineyard climbs to two hundred meters along the Via Panoramica in Trecase, the altitude Andrea considers optimal for Caprettone ripening; its soil is volcanic and stony, dense with lapilli, planted between 2017 and 2020 with ungrafted vines. The Muntagna vineyard at Boscotrecase encompasses several subzones — Campanariello, Quartusciello, Maschetiello, and Muntagna — between 250 and 300 meters within the National Park, surrounded by pine and oak forest and lava rock from the 1906 eruption; its soils contain volcanic ash and tuono, a local mineral specific to this sector. All vines are ungrafted, as phylloxera cannot survive in the volcanic soil. The oldest plots at Campanariello date to the 1950s.

VITICULTURE

Cantine Matrone practices organic farming, employing green manure, organic compost, and horse manure to enrich the soil, and eschews chemical treatments in favor of natural methods to combat pests and diseases. The viticulture is organic in practice though not by formal certification. Andrea has deliberately introduced older training systems — the alberello (bush vine) form at the higher Muntagna sites, a choice he acknowledges triples costs and quadruples labor compared to spalliera, but one he views as the only viticulture commensurate with a territory of this rarity and character. Vine density at Panoramica reaches 7,200 plants per hectare, with each plant yielding approximately 600 grams of fruit — a rate at which two vines produce a single bottle. Harvest is conducted in multiple passes to ensure optimal maturity across the range of elevations and exposures.

VINIFICATION

All fermentations are conducted with native yeasts — the majority spontaneous, with a pied de cuve prepared for more difficult musts. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel and plastic bins, a pioneering approach for Campania that Andrea has championed. Each cuvée is co-fermented rather than assembled after the fact, the better to integrate the character of the whole. Skin contact for the whites is calibrated to texture without sacrificing terroir expression — Andrea has dialed this back since 2018 after finding that extended maceration could obscure the site’s character. A small addition of sulfur prior to bottling — typically below 10 mg/liter total — was reintroduced after early vintages revealed instability at low pH. Wines are neither fined nor filtered. Bottles are stored horizontally for several months before release.

WINES

‘E Majole

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LOCALITY: Italy – Campania- Vesuvio
APPELLATION: IGP Campania Bianco
GRAPE VARIETY: Caprettone 90%, Falanghina 10%
WINEMAKER: Andrea Matrone
VINEYARD: Sourced from the Monaco vineyard (Trecase, Bosco del Monaco, ~40 meters above sea level, volcanic sandy-silty soil, planted 1995) and the Panoramica vineyard (Trecase, Via Panoramica, ~200 meters above sea level, volcanic stony soil with high lapilli content, ungrafted, planted 2017–2020). The Panoramica site is considered Andrea’s benchmark parcel for Caprettone.
VITICULTURE: Organic (not certified); ungrafted vines; manual harvest in multiple passes, early to mid-September.
WINEMAKING: Fermentation with ambient yeasts in stainless steel and plastic tanks; most of the blend undergoes approximately three days of skin maceration.
AGING: Aged for 12 months in stainless steel tanks, with two to three rackings during this period.
BOTTLING: Neither fined nor filtered. Only 20 mg/L of total SO2. The bottles are stored horizontally for several months before release.

TECH

Territorio De’ Matroni

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LOCALITY: Italy – Campania – Vesuvio
APPELLATION: Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio DOC
GRAPE VARIETY: 90% Piedirosso, 10% Aglianico
WINEMAKER: Andrea Matrone
VINEYARD: Sourced from the Monaco vineyard (Trecase, ~40 meters above sea level, volcanic sandy-silty soil, planted 1995) and the Muntagna vineyard (Boscotrecase, Ciaramelle district, subzones Campanariello, Quartusciello, Maschetiello, and Muntagna, 250–300 meters above sea level, within the Vesuvius National Park, surrounded by pine and oak forest and 1906 lava rock). The Campanariello plots date to the 1950s and are maintained by propagginatura — an ancient layering technique in which canes are bent into the soil to take root and replace failing plants. Muntagna was planted in 2018.
VITICULTURE: Organic (not certified)
WINEMAKING: Fermentation with ambient yeasts in stainless steel and plastic tanks; approximately seven days of skin maceration.
AGING: Aged for 12 months in stainless steel tanks, with two to three rackings during this period.
BOTTLING: Neither fined nor filtered. Only 25 mg/L of total SO2. The bottles are stored horizontally for several months before release.

TECH

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