Greco di Tufo

Greco di Tufo is an Irpinian white with one of the strangest stories in Italian wine: beneath the vineyards that produce it there are sulphur mines.

The grape

Greco reached Campania from Greece — from Thessaly, on the most widely accepted account — around the sixth or seventh century BC, and Latin writers were already praising it.

It arrived at Tufo, the village in the province of Avellino that gives the DOCG its name, far later and for a grim reason: around 1648 Scipione di Marzo, fleeing the plague, took refuge there and brought the vine cuttings with him. Everything else grew out of that transplant.

The genuinely singular part comes afterwards. In 1860 sulphur deposits were discovered at Tufo, and for nearly a century the mines were the village economy. But sulphur did not only provide work: it is also the historic remedy against vine disease, and the sulphurous soils of the Sabato valley are exactly what gives this wine the mineral salinity that makes it recognisable.

A wine that owes its character to a mine. It seemed a story worth a room.

The room

Twenty square metres, a double bed, contemporary furnishings and good natural light. Spare and calm, with nothing superfluous.

Fittings: air conditioning, Wi-Fi, flat-screen TV, fridge, safe, wardrobe. Private en-suite bathroom with shower, bidet and hairdryer. Towels and linen provided.

Who it suits

Anyone looking for a quiet, ordered base in central Sorrento and nothing more: two minutes from the station, four from Piazza Tasso, seven from the harbour.

Size and fittings are the same as the other three rooms. Only the Aglianico has the private balcony: if you expect to spend time outdoors at the room, consider that one.

Breakfast, self check-in and all the information about the property are gathered on the rooms page.