Marco Tinessa's story isa return to his homeland, driven by a deep love of wine. From working in a bank in Milan, to being nomadic, grapes in hand, among the wineries that in turn hosted him. From the volcanic Sicily of Etna, to the Langhe of Barolo, to a pseudo-facility in the first suburbs of Milan and then back, to his South.
The Ognostro project was born in 2007 ago out of Marco Tinessa's desire to create an Aglianico from clean farming grapes, without tricks in the cellar and without the use of wood. Something that was not at all taken for granted in the Taurasi area, dominated by "Aglianico" almost all in barrique and "conventional" viticulture.
Hence the choice for materials such as fiberglass, amphorae and concrete and, of course, upstream, considering the vineyard as part of an ecosystem: mass selections and recovery of old farming systems such as the "Avellino raggera".
First hosted by Frank Cornelissen; then in 2017 in Perno di Monforte d'Alba by Mario Fontana, whom Marco considers his master; and finally from 2018 in the urban Milanese winery. Instead, 2020 represents the breakthrough year with the purchase of the winemaking cellar in Montesarchio (Bn), his hometown, an area of falanghina and aglianico del Taburno, but the "operational" area remains Irpinia.
Meticulous attention to detail at every stage, for wines that symbolize craftsmanship, cleanliness and precision.
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The grapes for the Ognostro Rosso come from two vineyards: one in Montemarano, a historic place for the production of Taurasi, with an average age of 30 years, at an altitude of about 450 meters with northern exposure; the other, much older, in Castelfranci also in the province of Avellino, at an altitude of 480 meters and facing southwest, planted in the Avellino clusters in 1927 with plants with an average age of 50 to 90 years.