«Our wine must express the volcanic and maritime nature of the Ischia land.» The Cenatiempo winery was founded in the mid-twentieth century with the idea of preserving the strong link with history: our ancient winery, dug into the Kalimera hill, is emblematic.
Our story begins with a small cellar on the port of Ischia where Francesco Cenatiempo, my father, bottled bulk wine. Immediately after the war, the need to produce one's own wine arose. From then on, the cellar gradually expanded.
With the death of my father, I took over the management of the winery, modernizing production while looking to the future, but always maintaining the legacy of the values of the past.
Our wine is made on the hills. And on the sea. Viticulture in our territory has always been mountain viticulture that goes from the coast, a few meters above the sea, up to over 600 meters above sea level. The ideal vineyards are those hosted on narrow terraces that enjoy excellent exposure. The parracine, the terraces that allow viticulture on very steep terrain (well over 30%), are the backbone of the Ischia landscape.
I manage these vineyards and the winemaking in the cellar with care and passion: I intervene as little as possible on the musts, relying on the control of fermentation temperatures and using sulphites in barely perceptible quantities. In the cellar I kept the old concrete tanks for aging, which I alternate with the steel ones.
To those who have never tasted a Cenatiempo wine, I would say that its characteristic is that it has always been a volcanic and maritime wine . The identity of Ischia is made up of the minerality of the volcanic soil, which varies every few kilometers, the flavor of an island wine, the hints of the Mediterranean scrub that surrounds the vines...
Pasquale Cenatiempo
