The Alois family has roots in the Italian fine silk business going to the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. Breaking tradition with the family tradition of supplying silks to the crowned heads of Europe as well as the Louvre Museum and the White House, family patriarch Michele decided in the early 1990s to embark on a new adventure, restoring forgotten varietals and making wine from them.
At the foothills of the Caiatini Mountains in the province of Caserta, in a plateau comprising nine beautiful hectares, Michele Alois alongside his two sons Massimo and Gianfranco, made his dream come true: the vineyard, the cellar and a rural home with 18th-century Bourbon dynasty origins. Campania is known worldwide for its expressive whites like Falanghina, Fiano and Greco and of course it’s stately noble reds from Aglianico. Alois makes notable examples of all of these, but what really sets them apart is their focus on reviving ancient varieties nearly lost to phylloxera, specifically Casavecchia, Palagrello Bianco, and Palagrello Nero. The red grape vineyards are mainly located on rocky outcrops made up of tufo (tuff), which derives from a violent volcanic eruption that occurred tens of thousands of years ago. Campanian grey tuff, also known as Campanian ignimbrite, is rich in various minerals, and lends the wines a character that cannot be found anywhere else. The mineral rich Palagrello Bianco on the other hand prefers the limestone soils found in the higher elevation vineyards nestled in the foothills of the Caiatini mountains.
Today the modern cellar has been built to be passively cooled as much as possible. The total vineyard surface of 36 hectares is sustainably farmed with a yearly production of about 350,000 bottles. The wines are fermented in stainless steel and are aged in a combination of stainless tanks, used French oak, and large-format botti grandi or Slavonian oak, though they are in the process of phasing out the French oak. The Alois name has become synonymous with the quality movement to resurrect Pallagrello Bianco, Pallagrello Nero and Casavecchia, as well as more established Fiano, Greco, Falanghina and Aglianico, presenting the full range of Campania’s potential for world-class white and red wines.
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