History
My ancestors were Bulgarian wool merchants who, to escape the advance of the Saracen invasion, took refuge in Italy in the town of Miglianico, in the province of Chieti around 1560. During XVIII century they became landowners. In this period the Ciavolichs provided horses to General Gioacchino Murat’s army, marshal of Napoleone Bonaparte’s Empire. In 1853 Francesco Ciavolich built in Miglianico, opposite his private residence, the first winery, nowadays one of the most ancient and suggestive in Abruzzo, where to work independently grapes that came from the surrounding lands. At the end of XIX century an important marriage marked the future path of the winery on Loreto Aprutino’s side: the one between Giuseppe Ciavolich and the noblewoman Ernestina Vicini from Loreto Aprutino. Donna Ernesta gave life in Chieti to the most active salon of the early century receiving among others her friends Costantino Bardella and Francesco Paolo Michetti. Her son Giustino was a cavalry officer during World War I and on returning and during his retirement he took care of the family’s properties passing down to his son Giuseppe Ciavolich the love for the land and a burning desire to hand down the estate. In autumn 1943 just after harvesting, the German troops while retreating placed their general headquarters on the higher floors of the private residence in Miglianico allowing the family to stay in the underground winery. On 8th December of that year the SS forced their evacuation. This was the last harvest to be produced in the ancient underground winery. In the 1960s from the inheritance division of Donna Ernestina, the family received the estate of Loreto Aprutino, in the province of Pescara, of circa 50 hectares. Here my father planted the vines of Montepulciano, Trebbiano and Cococciola which I continue cultivating today to pass on an ancient history throughout wine, a red thread that connects past, present and future.
© Donatella Mancini
THE WINE
If for more than fourty years our grapes have been used for regional and extra-regional bottlers’ bulk wine, from 2004 the family estate has changed aiming totally towards giving value to its viticultural, wine making and historical heritage by bottling it. The wines I produce today, always with the help of Romano D’Amario, with a contemporary style and an ancient one, identify strongly the territory and talk about its rich history mainly agricultural in which, on the typical gentle hills, the centuries-old olive groves are interchanged by vineyards and arable lands but also by wild nature. The goal is towards an authentic, clean and elegant style. The grapes nowadays come from 35 hectares of vineyard in Loreto Aprutino and Pianella half planted from massal selection between 1960s and 1970s and the other half from clonal selection. Each year starting from the second half of August, their sampling takes place in order to select the best lots for the different kind of fermentations which will follow in the winery.
© Donatella Mancini
The first bottle was Divus Montepulciano D’Abruzzo DOP born in 1987 from an idea and drawing of Anna Ciavolich. In 2003 Aries Pecorino IGP Colline Pescaresi arrived from one hectare of vineyard planted as pergola in the lands of Pianella and also in 2003 Antrum Montepulciano D’Abruzzo DOP dedicated to the story that took place in the underground caves of Miglianico’s ancient winery. Our wsh is to give value, throught wine, to our history and our territory, to its art and its culture.
Interviste esclusive dal mondo del vino ed approfondimenti da chi fa del vino una ragione di vita, di business e di cultura.
