When planning our wedding over the last several months, I wanted to welcome our friends to Positano, Italy on the Amalfi Coast with something special after their long journey. What better way I thought, than to surprise them than with my favorite wine from the coast and the best winery in the area, Cantine di Marisa Cuomo?! I discovered their Costa d’Amalfi Furore Bianco 2009 during our visit to Postiano last September at the fabulous restaurant Da Vincenzo. Now to figure out how to get my hands on twenty bottles upon our arrival in May.
After some digging I found their website, all in Italian, but located the email icon on their homepage and sent off a request. Was so excited to receive a response the next day from Dorotea Ferraioli. We exchanged information and I could buy the wine no problem. She’d drop if off at the hotel when we arrived. When we landed in Rome last month, Dorotea called while we were waiting for our bags. She asked if I’d like to come by the winery to pick up the wine and thus be able to see their winery. Perfecto!
We arrived at the winery many hours later after a very long drive. Furore, where the winery is located is approximately 25 miles / 40 minutes down the winding road from Positano and close to Amalfi, is often called the non-town. There’s not really a town center, just lots of houses and businesses built into the cliffs.
Dorotea greeted us…she’s the daughter of the owners. In 1980, her father Andrea Ferraioli acquired Gran Furor Divini Costiera wine, established in 1942, and gave it to her mother, Marisa Cuomo, as a wedding gift honoring their shared passion for wine. Thus was born what is now the award wining winery of the Amalfi Coast…Cantine di Marisa Cuomo.
The family owns 3.5 hectares of the 18 that grow the grapes for their nine wines and two grappa. 41 families own the other hectares of terraced vineyards. The area is a site to be seen…grape vines growing on the pergola system planted into small plots of land that stair step the rocky cliffs with the sea 500 meters below. Harvesting is done by hand with dangerous climbs to be made while carrying the grapes. With no irrigation, the wines must grow on their own. The pergola system also allows the growing of other fruit and vegetables underneath. Due to the rocky soil and sunny conditions, the wines produced are salty and fruity in nose and taste.
After Dorotea took us on a tour of the small but impeccable winery (they do tours by reservation), including the aging cellar dug out of Dolomatic limestone rock that took three years to build by hand, we stood outside overlooking 120 year old vines when up walked Marisa, the winemaker and namesake of the winery. What a pleasure to meet her! While we couldn’t speak Italian or her English, we communicated through Dorotea talking about the winery and how much we love the wine.
Back in their office, they proudly shared their many recent awards and great photos of the winery and area. Before we left with our boxes of Costa d’Amalfi Furore Bianco 2009, Marisa and Dorotea gave us a wedding present, a bottle of their most special D.O.C. Costa d’Amalfi Fiorduva.
As we drove away, we left with so much more than wine. Salute to Marisa Cuomo and the great wines of Gran Furor Marisa Cuomo!
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