Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Massimo Alois from Alois Wines, a family-run wine estate with deep, historic roots in the Campania region of southern Italy.
I was first introduced to Massimo by Nello Gatti, a food and drinks expert and devotee of Italian wines with whom I collaborate on various wine affairs, including a project called BrexItaly, which you can get to know more about on this YouTube link.
Having caught the Italian wine bug, I was eager to find out more about Alois Wines’ tireless cultivation of grape varietals native to northern Campania. Their hard work and passion for quality and authenticity results in a fine, sophisticated portfolio of wines which I had the opportunity to sample along with the writer, journalist and broadcaster Rachel Johnson.
Yes, you might also know this wonderful lady as the Sister of our current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
A habitual drinker of white Burgundy, Rachel enjoyed Alois’s Caiati, a classic, savoury wine made from the native pallagrello bianco grape, which is grown in limestone soil. Another wine to come out of their vineyards is the grand cru Morrone, which has already scooped up a number of awards this year. Grown on the hillsides of Monti Trebulani, north of Caserta, it owes its linear profile to the chalky soil in which it is grown.
Of course, though, there’s no better way to hear about Alois’s fabulous wines than from the great man himself. Take it away, Massimo.
Welcome to the Wine Drinkers podcast. Could you please introduce yourself?
I’m Massimo Alois. I live in southern Italy in the province of Caserta. I’m a winemaker, making wine from indigenous varietals typical of northern Campania. We live in San Leucio, which is a small village north of Naples where the Bourbon kings built their own silk mill and where my family has been involved in the silk trade for more than five centuries.
Can you describe the moment you decided to have a career in wine?
Fifteen years ago, I had time to think about my future when a family feud meant I was stuck at the winery on our estate for a couple of months under house arrest. I’d helped my father on the estate since the 90s when he started reviving all the indigenous varietals of the Bourbon kings [the Spanish kings who reigned in southern Italy for 200 years]. He was pretty fond of what he was doing and so I decided to just live in the countryside and dedicate myself to wine.
If you could have any other career, which would it be?
It would be to help the pastor in our church, who is always striving to do his best to help people and to help the poor, not just the material poverty but also the spiritual one. I joined the Protestant church here in the south when I turned 19 and I’ve always been committed to the church. Another option would be to do something around my passion, which is philosophy.
What is something no one knows about you?
I don’t know. You should ask my wife! No, I’m kidding. When I was a young kid, I built a kind of looped track. All the kids in the parish were supposed to take the biggest ant they could find and race it. So you had all these kids with sticks trying to make sure the ants went in the right direction. It was kind of funny.
What was the first alcoholic drink you remember drinking?
We have always drunk our own wine but I have to admit that when I was a kid it wasn’t that good. But we used to have English visitors who would bring over Scotch whiskey from the island of Islay, such as Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Bowmore. At the time, English drinkers were much more advanced than we Italians were. These guys were tasting, not just drinking.
Did your parents used to give you wine to taste as a child?
All the time. I do it with my kids as well. I think it’s the best way to teach them how to drink.
How many wines are under your own brand?
We make six different wines out of five different varietals. They are falanghina (the most renowned and widely planted grape in Campania), pallagrello bianco, pallagrello nero, casavecchia and aglianico.
Can you tell us about the wines we are drinking now?
You’re drinking two different wines which come from the same grape – pallegrello – but which are grown in two different soils. The first wine is called Murella. It comes from a pretty distinctive volcanic soil that’s 50 miles from Mount Vesuvius and is grown 250m above sea level. Wines that come from this kind of ashy soil are always supple, tasty and large. They have a roundness to them. The second wine comes from further up the hill, where the soil is chalkier; from it we make a brand-new wine which is called Morrone. Here the wine has a different profile. It’s linear, vertical, lingering and it’s more acidic. When you eat something fatty, it cleanses your mouth.
If you could make wine in any other country, which would you choose?
I would choose Oregon in the USA. I have a good friend there who retired from finance and decided to set up his own apple orchard there. He lives in Portland and they make a wonderful pinot noir there. I’m obsessed with pinot noir because it’s a wine that’s always linear and fine, and you can drink it young. I could easily live the rest of my life there.
The person you dreamed of having your wine tasted by was Rachel Johnson. She came on my podcast, had your wine and really enjoyed it. What did you think of the podcast?
You did a very good job of making her talk about her childhood. I understand the Johnsons have been very well educated and I’ve always wondered how they were brought up. I was so proud to see her drinking our wine and appreciating it. It’s not easy to make wine because it hinges on the nature of the wine and the nature changes. So when you see someone who appreciates what you do it’s always a great pleasure.
If you could have your wine drunk by anyone else in the world, who would it be?
Barack Obama... maybe Donald Trump. But between the two I would choose Barack Obama. Besides that, I would say someone who is involved in the philosophy world. Someone like Maurizio Ferraris.
What does a day at work look like?
Before the pandemic I would get up at around 8am, have breakfast and then go to the winery and spend the whole day there. Then I’d come home usually around 8pm or 9pm and enjoy those last few moments with my kids before they go to bed. This last month though, I have enjoyed different standards. I get up pretty late, spend time with my family and decide whether I want to go to the winery or not. This kind of slow life is something that I appreciate. I have the time to talk to people. Sometimes I feel a little anxious because we cut off relationships and interaction too fast because we are always so busy and this is typical of our capitalistic industrial world. But now everything is a different pace. Let me tell you, I’m really enjoying it.
Can you tell me about the most awkward wine moment you have ever had?
I was with my family and we went to visit another winemaker. We were tasting all the different barrels and forgot to spit. Then we sat around the table drinking all the bottles and going down to the cellar to taste the wines which were stored in the barrels for ageing. We were there all day and eventually I jumped in the car to try to bring my family safely back home. The owner of the estate happened to be driving behind me and he was flashing me all the time. I didn’t realise it was him and so I stopped. He jumped out and said, “Hey Massimo, I didn’t recognise you!” and I told him to stop chasing me and go home. We all laughed about it the day after but it was the only time when I really could not moderate the amount of alcohol I’d had. Usually, we winemakers drink and lot and we know all the different secrets in order to not get drunk. You don’t really hear of anyone getting drunk in our small world.
Go on, I’m intrigued. What kind of secrets?
First, be careful to drink wine early in the morning when it’s too cold. Second, you’ve got to eat something. The best way to taste wine is without putting anything else on your palate but then you’ve got to put something in your stomach, even if you spit. And third, in my case, I always need something sweet. A big piece of pie, fruit torte, biscuits… whatever. After that I can drink at least a couple more glasses of wine.
Can you tell me about your most fun wine story?
I don’t have one specific wine story but I love blind tasting, it’s the thing I enjoy the most. I do it all the time.
Can you tell me about some wines you’ve been drinking recently?
We opened a bunch of different wines over Christmas including a wonderful palagrello bianco by my friend Giovanni. Ferdinand IV used to drink palagrello bianco with his court and so this was regarded to be the wine of the Bourbon kings. And then just today I received a magnum of sparkling wine from my friend Gregory Perrucci who is in Manduria in Puglia. It’s a feast day today and so I’m going to open that with my kids and pretend it was brought to them by La Befana [a friendly old witch who fills children’s stockings with presents on the night of January 5th].
If you could choose three places in London for your wine to be enjoyed, where would they be?
I would choose areas rather than specific bars or restaurants. I would like our wines to be spread all across London in areas like Kensington, Chelsea and Trafalgar Square.
How about specific events in which to showcase your wines?
We work with an Italian wine importer called Passione Vino. They actually have a wine shop in London [in Shoreditch] where each year they gather together all of the most important Italian winemakers in their portfolio, offering wines from about sixty to seventy different wineries. The event is called The Uncut Tasting and the guys who organise it are called Federico Bruschetta and Luca Dusi. The only handicap I would say they have is that they cheer Hellas Verona which is a football team coming from up north. But other than that, these guys do an amazing job in promoting Italian wine culture in the UK.
What else do you like to do other than wine drinking and wine making?
I used to play basketball and five-a-side football but then I dislocated my collar bone and decided not to. Now what I really like most is to read and spend time with my family. Sometimes I have to hide in the bathroom to read because my wife and my daughter Isabella are always looking for me. My daughter is kind of vivacious and she always wants to play.
Who is your biggest competitor as a winemaker in Campania?
The world is so huge and the market is so big that actually there’s no real competition between me and other winemakers. Sure, there’s a little competition in our local market if you want to sell wine in Caserta or in Naples or on the Amalfi coast. But when you go to New York City or London the guys we consider to be our close competitors are actually ambassadors for our region. Unfortunately, palagrello bianco is not as well-known as, say, chardonnay. So whenever I see one of their bottles on the shelves somewhere in the world, I’m so happy. These guys are trailblazers.
What top tip would you give for someone who’d like to create their own wine brand?
I said before it’s not easy to make wine but let me put it another way: it’s much easier to make wine than it is to promote and sell it. Behind a wine there’s always a story, a place, a history. Whenever a customer buys one of your bottles there’s always another story to tell and another wine to taste. So my tip would be to not focus too much in making a good wine unless you know who to sell to and which customer to go for.
When you put together Alois Wine, did you think about the marketing side beforehand?
No. Twenty five years ago it was totally different. There were fewer wines entering the market. In 20 years, the wine industry has changed a lot. As a family, we were helped by our connections in the silk industry. Our silks hang on the walls of the most important palaces around the world – such as Buckingham Palace or the V&A museum in London or the White House. My refurbished five rooms at the White House with President Truman between 1948 and 1952. Because of that, our companies became well known around the world. So I think those connections helped us to sell our wines.
What is the next big thing we can expect from Alois Wines?
What we are doing right now is trying to promote wines that we’ve been experimenting with for over 10 years. We have three brand new grand cru (the Morrone is one of them) made out of three unknown, forgotten varietals: palagrello bianco, palagrello nero and casavecchia. We care about them a lot and so in the next year will really be focusing on those three.
To find out more about Alois Wines, visit their website at www.vinialois.it. While you’re at it, you can also catch up on my episode with Rachel Johnson on YouTube or in audio.
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