From the Slopes of Mount Vesuvius to Jacksonville Beach: Discover the Wines of Sorrentino

There are wine regions that are beautiful, and then there are wine regions that make you wonder how anyone ever thought to plant grapes there in the first place.

Mount Vesuvius falls firmly into the second category.

This is an active volcano. The soils surrounding it were shaped by centuries of eruptions, lava, ash, and volcanic rock. Yet families have cultivated vineyards on these slopes for generations, producing wines that carry a remarkable sense of the place they came from.

That is exactly what we will be exploring at our upcoming wine tasting at Cinotti’s Bakery & Italian Market.

This time, we’re heading south to Campania and welcoming representatives from Florida Vino Imports for a closer look at Sorrentino wines from the Vesuvian region.

You just need to be curious.

And this lineup gives us plenty to be curious about.

Wine Grown in the Shadow of Vesuvius

Campania sits along the southwestern coast of Italy and includes places many of us recognize immediately: Naples, the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, and Mount Vesuvius.

The region gave us pizza. It is famous for mozzarella di bufala, incredible tomatoes, lemons, seafood, pasta, and some of the most beautiful coastline in Italy.

But the wine deserves a place in that conversation too.

Sorrentino’s vineyards sit in the volcanic landscape surrounding Mount Vesuvius, where the soil gives the wines a character that is difficult to duplicate elsewhere.

For this tasting, we’ll get to explore several different expressions of that landscape, beginning with bubbles.

Start with a Little Sparkle

The 2022 Vesuvio Piedirosso Spumante gives us a fun place to begin.

Piedirosso is one of Campania’s native grapes and has been grown around Vesuvius for centuries. While many people associate sparkling Italian wine with Prosecco, this bottle offers an opportunity to experience something completely different.

That’s one of our favorite things about these tastings.

You walk in thinking you know what Italian wine tastes like, and then someone pours a grape you’ve never heard of from a vineyard growing beside a volcano.

Suddenly Italy feels a whole lot bigger.

The Story Behind Lacryma Christi

Next comes a name you’re probably going to remember.

Lacryma Christi.

Translated as “Tears of Christ,” Lacryma Christi is one of the wines most closely associated with Mount Vesuvius. There are several legends surrounding the origin of the name, but the wines themselves have been produced from grapes grown on the slopes of Vesuvius for generations.

We’ll explore both sides of the style with Lacryma Christi Bianco from the Vigna Lapillo line and the 2020 Lacryma Christi Rosso.

Trying the white and red alongside each other gives us the chance to experience how the same volcanic landscape can express itself very differently in the glass.

And this is exactly why tasting wine with someone who knows the region is so much fun. Instead of simply reading a label, you get the story behind it.

Piedirosso Gets Another Turn

We’ll also have the opportunity to taste 2016 Frupa Piedirosso.

If Piedirosso is new to you, don’t worry. That’s part of the reason we’re pouring it.

Italian wine becomes much more interesting once you move beyond the handful of grapes everyone recognizes. Italy has hundreds of native grape varieties, many of which have remained closely tied to the regions where they’ve grown for centuries.

Piedirosso belongs to Campania.

It’s part of the region’s identity, and tasting it gives us another way to understand what makes Vesuvian wines so different from wines produced elsewhere in Italy.

Then Comes Aglianico

Red wine drinkers, this is where things get particularly interesting.

Our lineup includes the 2017/2018 Don Paolo Aglianico.

Aglianico is one of southern Italy’s great red grapes. It produces wines with structure, depth, dark fruit, and the ability to develop beautifully with age.

If your usual Italian red is Chianti, Montepulciano, or perhaps a Brunello, Aglianico gives you an entirely different direction to explore.

This is the bottle that might convince a few people at the table that they need to spend more time drinking their way through southern Italy.

We fully support that plan.

And Yes, We’re Having Dessert Wine

A proper Italian evening shouldn’t end immediately after dinner, so neither should our tasting.

The 2018 Passito gives us a sweet finish.

Passito wines are traditionally made using grapes that have been dried to concentrate their sugars and flavors before fermentation. The result is a richer dessert wine designed to be enjoyed slowly.

This is the kind of wine that makes you want to bring out a little dessert, pour one more glass, and stay at the table longer than you intended.

Around here, we consider that a successful evening.

This Is Why We Host Wine Tastings

When we expanded Cinotti’s from our fifth-generation bakery into an Italian Market and wine destination, nights like this were exactly what we hoped to create.

We wanted more than bottles sitting on shelves.

We wanted people to know where those bottles came from.

We wanted to introduce Jacksonville wine drinkers to regions they may not have explored before and give them the opportunity to ask questions directly from people who know the wines.

Most importantly, we wanted it to be fun.

You don’t need a wine vocabulary.

You don’t need to know the difference between Piedirosso and Aglianico before you arrive.

That’s what the tasting is for.

Come taste. Ask questions. Decide what you like. Decide what you don’t like. Then try the next glass.

That’s how you learn about wine.

Take a Trip to Vesuvius Without Leaving Jacksonville Beach

This tasting gives us a chance to experience an incredible little corner of Italy through six very different wines.

We’ll move from sparkling Piedirosso into Lacryma Christi Bianco and Rosso, explore an aged Piedirosso, move into the deeper character of Aglianico, and finish with Passito.

That’s quite a journey for one evening.

And you don’t even need a passport.

Join Us at the Table

Ready to discover what happens when Italian grapes meet the volcanic soils of Mount Vesuvius?

Visit our Wine Tasting Events page for details and reservations for our upcoming Sorrentino Vesuvian wine experience. You can also explore our Italian Wine selection, browse the Italian Market, or stop by the Bakery before the event for fresh bread, pastries, and something sweet.

Whether this is your first Italian wine tasting or you’ve been joining us for years, pull up a seat.

We’ll pour the wine.