[♪ operatic music playing]
[Stanley Tucci] "See Naples and die."
So said Goethe in the 1700s.
Many people took him literally.
Forty thousand of them are buried right here
in the catacombs underneath the city.
But I'm going back above ground,
where Naples is very much alive.
I believe that the best way to understand
what makes a country and its people unique
is through their food.
Oh, my Lord.
-One hundred years. -One hundred years.
[Stanley] And this is true nowhere more than Italy.
This is one of the coolest dishes
I've ever seen cooked.
-"Chikka-chikka-chikka-chikka." -[laughing]
-It's a sort of music. -[both laughing]
[Stanley] Where even the shape of your pasta
and the sauce you serve it with speaks directly to identity...
Damn it. I never tasted anything like that.
...and differentiates the character and history
of each region sharply from the next.
Oh, my God! That's so good.
Wow. Wow!
I'm Stanley Tucci,
and I'm exploring the complex connections
between the land,
the people, and the food they eat
in order to discover the essence of each region
in the country I love, Italy.
♪♪
[horns honking]
I'm in Naples.
[honking continues]
The loudest city... in the world.
♪♪
For 3,000 years, Naples seems to have existed
in a state of constant threat.
Some say that's why the city feels so alive.
It's the capital of Campania, which is home to six million people,
half of whom live in the shadow of Vesuvius.
Despite its idyllic coastlines and lush terrain,
it's a region with a history of poverty and hardship.
So how did those two factors
shape Campania's world-famous cuisine?
I've actually found a quiet street in Naples
which is almost impossible.
And I've avoided being hit by cars at least twice today.
[horns honking]
Since the days when Goethe sang its praises,
Naples has suffered 300 years of outrageous misfortune.
Eruptions, invasions and organized crime
have all left their mark.
But recently, the city seems to be turning a new page.
We are in Sanità which is an amazing historical place.
-A very special place. -A special place, yes.
And why is that?
It has an impressive energy,
and we've always respected the community
because it's important to maintain their energy in the district.
[Stanley] Chef Ciro Oliva
runs a pizzeria in the Sanità neighborhood,
one of the city's poorest.
In the early days in Sanità, let's say around the time I was 11,
this was a neighborhood with a high rate of crime.
Because of the mafia, one or two people would be murdered every month.
[Stanley] Yeah.
And the people from other districts of Naples
didn't come to my district.
We managed to create a network
of young guys from the district.
And through art and culture
we managed, step by step,
to change what the district of Rione Sanità used to be.
[Stanley] Today, parts of the city, which were once no-go areas,
have sprung back to life.
But great food has always been here,
throughout the city's toughest days.
Today, Ciro's taking me not for pizza,
but to a restaurant where we'll eat another iconic local dish,
which is deeply tied to the city's history.
Mimì alla Ferrovia
is a Neapolitan institution.
It's been going strong for 83 years
under three generations of the same family.
-Stanley. -Hi.
-Good morning. -Morning.
How are you?
How are you? Nice to see you.
Nice to see you too.
It's run today by Chef Salvatore Giugliano.
[Salvatore Giugliano] Come here, I want to show you
also the pepperoni.
-Look. -Oh, beautiful.
How we do the stuffed grilled pepper,
we cook on the grill.
[Stanley] You stuff, you stuff them?
We stuff everything.
-[laughs] -Okay, so--
[Salvatore] And now I'm doing the parmigiana.
Then we fry the eggplant.
We have the tomato
that is coming from, you know, Naples, Campania.
We have maybe one of the best tomatoes
-in Italy because... -In the world.
...we are, we are, using here a tomato from Vesuvius.
And then we do now like a kind of lasagna,
but only with vegetables and mozzarella,
parmigiano and basil.
-This is a very old recipe... -Yes.
...that we are in a, in a war
with Emilia-Romagna and with Sicily.
-[Stanley] Oh, really? -[Salvatore] Because, uh...
there's a kind of battle
between the regions of Italy about the parmigiana.
[Stanley] Though its origins are disputed,
the first recorded recipe for parmigiana
can be traced back to the 1700s,
when Naples was conquered by the Bourbons.
[Salvatore] Like, steps, stairs.
[Stanley] In fact, French influences can be felt
throughout Neapolitan cuisine.
Even ragù gets its name from the French word for stew.
This is what my family make, not breaded, like you.
-I like it without the... -[Salvatore] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Breadcrumbs. -I don't like it.
It's too heavy.
Oh, I can't wait.
Alright, I'm gonna go to see Ciro.
-Okay, Stanley. -Thanks.
See you at the table. Buon appetito.
[Stanley] [laughs] You got it. Thank you.
[speaking Italian]
-Stanley. -Roberto, very nice to meet you.
[Stanley] Joining us for lunch is Ciro's friend,
local news photographer Roberto Salomone.
[all] Salute.
[Stanley] He's a witness to how the city has changed in the last decade.
[Roberto Salomone] I mean, Naples in the last 10 years
-has changed from this to this. -[Stanley] Yeah.
Consider that 10 years ago, um, as a journalist
I could go in Rione Sanità escorted by the police.
There were like, uh, criminal acts in broad light.
Naples was used just as a place where people used to land,
to go to Capri, to the Amalfi Coast.
Yeah.
Instead now it's one of the most authentic--
-It's a destination place. -Absolutely.
Destination, yes.
Guys.
-Legend, Salvatore. -Hello.
The eggplant parmigiana.
Okay. Okay.
-Shall we cut it? -Sure.
Let's serve Stanley first, come on.
Serve Stanley.
That's typical from Naples.
100% Naples.
[Stanley] Mm.
[Stanley speaks indistinctly]
-Look how beautiful that is. -Oh, my God!
It is one of my favorite things in the world.
Oh, now it's okay.
[Salvatore] Can you feel the smell?
[Stanley] Yeah.
And the parmigiana needs bread.
-Always. -[Stanley] Yes. Always.
-[Salvatore] Genius. -[Ciro chuckles]
[Stanley] Mm. Delicious.
I used to bring this when I was young,
to school for my lunch, inside bread.
Yeah.
[Stanley] Delicious.
Oh, my God.
[Roberto] We love Napoli.
And if we can translate this passion into this,
this parmigiana melanzane,
but, no, I mean, it's, uh, one of the reasons
why people come to Napoli.
This city is kind of living a second Renaissance.
[Stanley] A dish as layered as Naples itself,
parmigiana could have only come from this melting pot of a city.
[Salvatore] Napoli has always been contaminated.
From many, many years, from the Bourbon,
-from the French domination. -Right. Spanish.
I think it is the, the best part of Napoli.
[Stanley] When Italians say "contamination,"
what they're saying is "influence."
We take from the con... contamination from the people,
from outside, but then we can do it our way.
We wanted to export with parmigiana or pizza,
to export Napoli everywhere in the world.
Right. It's incredible.
-Hi, guys. -Cheers, guys.
Long live Naples!
[Ciro] Enjoy Napoli.
[Stanley] In Naples, everyday existence
is a very fine balance between life and death.
As one of my favorite actors,
the beloved Neapolitan comic Totò once said,
"Naples runs on miracles."
But it's not just the capital of Campania that's had its trials and tribulations.
♪♪
I mean, I wonder what it's like to live,
at the base of Vesuvius,
knowing its power and what it's done before.
They say that's one of the reasons
why people don't fix up the city,
or pick up the trash,
you're living in the-- next a volcano, so...
what does it make a difference?
♪♪
I'm heading towards Gragnano, just south of Vesuvius.
Despite its proximity to the volcano,
historically this part of Campania has faced a more immediate threat, hunger.
But today this town of almost 30,000
is said to make the best dried pasta in the world,
but that claim didn't come without a fight.
Here we are on Via Roma.
This is "pasta street."
[Stanley] Local chef Peppe Guida knows a thing or two on the subject.
His incredible pasta recipes have earned him a Michelin star.
This street has become famous
for its exposure to the sea breeze
that helps the pasta dry slowly.
Then the stones also make a big difference.
Our pavement is made of volcanic rock from Vesuvius.
It absorbs the heat and then releases it.
Up till the '60s the streets were full of pasta, left and right,
left to dry for 24-36 hours.
♪♪
[Stanley] The conditions in Gragnano produced a product so incredible,
that in the 1800s the ruling Bourbon king
had this street enlarged in order to dry more pasta.
But when the industrialized north of Italy
began manufacturing pasta more efficiently,
the people of Gragnano struggled to compete.
But Pepe believes there are still a handful of pasta makers
who have taken this tradition into the 21st century.
[birds chirping]
Pastificio dei Campi is one of the best pasta makers
in the world.
We know pasta was being made in Gragnano as far back as 1500.
[Stanley] Manager Margherita Foglia
explains why the quality of their product is so good.
Look how little water is in the dough.
-It looks like sand. -Yes.
Look, this is the semola.
This is the water.
The important thing is the pressure that pushes the pasta into the die
so that it comes out in those shapes.
Here you are.
-What are these called? -These are called Trottole.
-Oh, like a top. -Yeah.
[both laugh]
How much pasta every day?
Three tons.
It's a small quantity, very small.
Because our drying process is very specific
but the things that take longer always turn out better.
[Stanley] Yeah, yeah.
While most manufacturers heat the pasta
in order to dry it in under three hours,
here they have managed to replicate the slow, natural drying process
of the streets of Gragnano,
by using specially ventilated drying chambers.
We dry it in these chambers.
-Right, these chambers. -Are you ready?
Breathe in.
Whoa. Whoa!
Okay.
It's a sauna. A pasta sauna.
A pasta sauna, yes.
Consider that this aroma and this heat...
just comes from the pasta.
There is no added heat.
-[Stanley] Sì. -Okay?
-Can I see it? -Take a look.
[Stanley] Oh, yeah.
The pasta rests in here for 36 hours.
When it's completely full, we close them in and can't reopen
until they've completely dried.
Well, we have to close it then.
No, otherwise we'll dry up too.
[laughs]
♪♪
[Stanley] Just like 500 years ago,
there are no shortcuts when it comes to creating
the best pasta in the world.
A stone's throw from the pasta factory,
is one of Peppe's restaurants, Villa Rosa.
It serves up dishes inspired by his 94-year-old mother,
Nonna Rosa.
♪♪
What are we doing?
Let's turn the stove on. Start full throttle.
We add some oil.
I'm going to make you some...
"spaghettino alle vongole fujute" which means runaway clams.
[Stanley] They ran away?
You can only taste their aroma. The clams are an illusion.
Let's start.
Is this "poor" cuisine?
-Extremely poor. -Extremely poor.
So then, garlic...
a couple of stalks of parsley,
a whole chili pepper...
and we will leave it to brown.
Here we have the "piennolo," some typical hanging cherry tomatoes.
So, the technique to avoid getting all red...
so it does not look like you were shot with a tomato gun.
You put the tomatoes in water and squeeze them.
Oh, my God, it's so easy.
You see? So simple.
Now we add them.
So,
now we add the...
here it is.
This is the secret ingredient.
Stones.
I've never heard of this.
May I?
Smell it. See? This is the sea.
Yeah.
-It's the sea. -The sea.
That's it. We place them in here.
We choose the ones which are richer...
in algae.
[Stanley] God, they're beautiful.
♪♪
Now it's time to add...
our spaghettino.
It's the thinnest kind in production.
[Stanley] Sì.
Peppe's trick is to cook the spaghetti
directly in the pan,
a method which infuses it with more flavor.
But try this with a lesser pasta,
and it will turn into mush.
When we were young and had no money,
we'd come back from the beach starving,
a spaghetti with stones and a nice glass of beer,
add in a guitar and you've got a fantastic time.
[laughs]
[Stanley] This is one of the coolest dishes
I've ever seen cooked.
Isn't it gorgeous?
Let's turn it off.
OK, so,
let's finish it off...
with our pesto.
And it's ready.
♪♪
Wow, wow, wow.
[laughs]
Here it is.
-Wow, wow, wow. Yes. -[Peppe Guida] Mm-hmm.
Oh, my God.
-Thanks, Chef. -My pleasure. Thank you.
[Stanley] Ready?
The great thing about this dish is eating it like this.
I am too...
-Wait. -I'm too short.
I'll move it closer to you. There you are.
Doesn't smell bad, right?
The sea.
Maybe even too much sea.
[both laugh]
No, no, no.
That's amazing.
It's like your, your mouth is going for a swim.
Like you're diving into the sea.
[Stanley] [laughs] Yeah.
Yeah.
Whoa.
[laughs]
That rocks.
Sea rocks.
Spaghetti with sea rocks
captures something of Campania's past,
when hard work and ingenuity
were at times the only tools to combat hunger.
-Thank you. -Grazie a te.
[Stanley] But this idyllic coastline
hides many other tales of hardship.
So, I need to buy one of these.
I'll sort you out.
♪♪
So we're coming into Marina di Corricella,
which is this beautiful little, um...
town on Procida
and all the houses are painted
these various shades of pink and blue and yellow.
And supposedly that was how the fishermen would tell
it was their house
and they can also tell, like,
which house wasn't theirs, so they didn't...
Because I guess they kept like mistresses,
and then they wouldn't go to the...
I don't know, the whole thing doesn't really make any sense, but...
The smallest and least visited of Campania's three main islands,
Procida, is roughly two miles across
and home to 10,000 people.
Compared to its more famous sisters, Capri and Ischia,
Procida has somehow managed to remain under the radar.
Historically, this seafaring community
fended for itself by trading fish and produce
with the mainland.
I'm meeting up with Chef Bruno Gargiulo
to learn about one of the island's most unique ingredients.
This is a variety called Procida lemons.
Their white part, the albedo,
is much thicker and sweetish.
-It's different from the other ones, -It's different--
the white bit is too bitter.
But in these lemons, it's very sweet.
Sì.
Are these in other parts of Italy or not?
-No. -Only here?
Yes, only here.
♪♪
[Stanley] Known locally as bread lemons due to their rough, dough-like skin,
these citruses were crossbred with citrons,
an ancient juiceless ancestor of the lemon.
And despite being a delicacy on this island,
they were rebuffed on the mainland.
Once upon a time, these lemons had a low market value
because they had little aesthetic defects.
My first job, when I was 13, was collecting lemons and
then going to sell them in the fruit markets in Naples or Pozzuoli.
And our lemons didn't get bought at all.
Did you study to be a chef?
My high school was a hospitality school on Ischia island.
I worked and studied at the same time.
I got the ship every morning from Procida at 7:30 to go to Ischia
to attend school. Then in the afternoon I'd come back for work.
No.
-Yes. -Yes?
I've never been to Procida before, only Ischia,
Capri, never here. It's so beautiful.
Procida is very beautiful.
It's a small community where everyone helps each other
and it's a wonderful place to live.
♪♪
[Stanley] Less than a mile from the lemon grove
is Bruno's restaurant, Da Girone,
where he and co-chef Francesco Scotto,
have made it their mission
to get people to eat the lemons nobody wanted.
Come on, I'll introduce you to Francesco.
-This is Francesco, our chef. -Hi, Francesco.
-I'm Stanley. Nice to meet you. -Good morning.
[Stanley] The first dish Francesco and Bruno
want me to try is a lemon salad.
A traditional recipe from the island.
You try this,
insalata di limone.
-Oh! -You try.
Thank you.
So this is lemon?
This is lemon. As I explained before,
the white part is much thicker,
and it's called the albedo.
That's really good.
-It's sweet. -Sweet.
The white part of our lemon is very sweet.
[Stanley] Sweet, tangy, and low in acidity,
Procida lemons can also be used to make a vibrant lemon pesto.
Wow.
It's so popular that Francesco and Bruno decided to start a side business
selling it all over Italy.
For this pesto, we use the juice of Procida lemons,
fresh mint and basil. Extra-virgin olive oil.
Garlic, pine nuts and grated cheese.
We use a cheese made only with Italian milk.
That's incredible. Okay, let's see the pasta.
Sí.
Chef will make it.
-[Stanley] Okay. -[Bruno speaks Italian]
Okay, now it's time for the spaghetti.
Where are the mussels from?
The mussels are here. We already blanched them.
Yes, from Vivara.
[Stanley] Francesco emulsifies the sauce with mussel stock.
Then mixes in the lemon pesto.
[Stanley] Ah!
Away from the fire it melts slowly,
then bit by bit we add the mussels.
OK, we're ready, just a bit more pasta water.
Is this really just from Procida?
Just from Procida. Everything...
lemons from Procida.
-Everything from Procida. -Everything from Procida.
Buon appetito.
♪♪
Thank you, chef. That's delicious.
Thank you. Thank you.
If you can get these lemons, you've gotta make it.
That's like... That's incredible.
That's amazing.
The people of Procida seem to embody that age old expression,
when life gives you lemons, make lemon pesto.
Another of the region's most famous ingredients
hides a darker story.
♪♪
I've come to a tomato farm in Ercolano, at the base of the volcano,
a stone's throw from the infamous city of Pompeii.
Though Vesuvius' destructive power
is etched indelibly in local's minds,
the land surrounding the crater
is said produce some of the best tomatoes in Italy.
So, we're in Ercolano...
[Stanley] Francesco Franzese is the owner of La Fiammante,
a canned tomato producer.
And here, thanks to Vesuvius's volcanic soil and to the sea,
we manage to grow something magical.
[Stanley] Sì.
Francesco's taking me to meet
one of his farmers, Salvatore Acampora,
who grows a little-known variety of heirloom tomato.
Here he is, at work.
Hello, hello...
Hello. Nice to meet you.
-My pleasure. -Hello.
Have you been doing this your whole life?
-Yes. I'm the fourth generation -Really?
cultivating the Piennolo del Vesuvio tomato.
-Right here? -Here.
We can only cultivate it here, at the foot of Vesuvius,
because, look, we have a soil that's very sandy
and full of minerals.
This tomato, as you can see,
it stays low.
It's a lot of work, it requires many hours of work,
and it grows low so we're always crouching.
Ah, yeah.
We work on quality, not on quantity.
-Should we taste the tomato? -Yes, yes.
-May I? -Sure, sure.
See, that's how we eat it.
-We clean it... -We clean it, right.
because we're in the countryside.
Wow.
There's so many... flavors,
but the, the concentration of flavors...
Intense.
So intense.
Oh, my God.
These delicious tomatoes are a testament to the resilience of Campania's farmers.
But beyond the volcano,
there are far greater dangers facing these growers.
Though Italy is one of the world's largest tomato producers,
it's long been haunted by claims
of exploitation and abuse towards its laborers.
I'm going to lunch
to meet Francesco's business partner, Yvan Sagnet.
[indistinct chatter]
♪♪
Tell me your story.
I've got Cameroonian heritage.
I came here because of my studies.
And then I tried working around Italy
in order to pay my university costs.
So, yes, I moved here,
I was told that if I wanted to work,
I should speak to the foreman.
Foreman?
A few days later this big man came in.
I saw everyone going over to him
with their documents.
He said, "You're hired. You start tomorrow at 5:00 a.m.
We meet here at 4:00 a.m., then we leave."
Our job was to fill these cases of tomatoes.
One of these cases was about 660 pounds,
300 kilograms of tomatoes.
The foreman only pays you when the case is full.
€3.5 for 300 kg.
And the foreman then says,
"You've got to pay me €5 for the transport."
Then there's the sandwich, like this €3.50.
Water for €1.50.
So, for a 14 euros earned, I got only 4.
In the end after a few days,
I said, "That's enough."
I organized a strike with my friends.
I've been threatened by the foreman.
[Stanley] Yvan's two-month strike
became a national news story,
and in 2016, helped in passing a new Italian law
criminalizing "caporalato."
However, without proper policing and accountability,
migrant exploitation continues to be an endemic problem.
So today, Yvan and Francesco have joined forces
to produce the first canned tomatoes in Italy,
certifiably picked by laborers paid fair wages.
The difference between a fair-wage product and one that is not, is 10 cents a tin.
Because otherwise we'll keep fueling this model
of capitalism, where the product is worth more than human beings.
Because this is in our society today, this matters more than me…
-Yes. -...the worker.
Yes.
As positive as Yvan and Francesco's solution is,
ultimately, it's up to all of us
to decide what the true price is of the food we eat.
But sometimes, from tough situations,
great things can happen,
as my next stop shows.
[buffaloes bellowing]
The southern part of Campania
is known above all for one thing, buffaloes.
The region houses 95%
of Italy's Mediterranean water buffalo population,
producing virtually all of the country's
beloved mozzarella di bufala.
I've come to the town of Paestum,
in the rural Cilento area
to visit one of the many buffalo farms.
Here we sell the cheese.
[Stanley] Dairy farmer Vincenzo Barlotti
is an expert on all things buffalo.
Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm.
This is the counter with all the products from buffalo milk.
I'll let you taste the mozzarella which is our most important product.
Sí.
Just a little salt, so you can taste the milk, it's intense.
Oh, man, that's good.
Oh, sorry, I made a mess on their floor.
♪♪
They are swamp animals, they love water.
What's the difference between cow's milk and buffalo milk?
Buffalo milk is two and a half times fattier.
The yield is different. It yields more because there is more fat.
Sì. Sì.
-How many are there? -We have 450 animals.
Buffalos arrived here in the 10th century, in Norman times, from Sicily.
Before, buffaloes were used as working animals
to pull ploughs, to work the land.
For agriculture.
Then they discovered the milk was very good and nutritious
and Benedictine monks of Capua started making mozzarella.
They called them "mozzate".
[Stanley] Ah.
♪♪
Until it was drained in the 1930s,
the Cilento was an inhospitable malarial marshland,
where only these resilient creatures could survive.
And due to the area's poverty,
pungent buffalo cheeses were seen as food fit only for the poor.
In the 1960s, interest in buffalo mozzarella surged,
thanks in part to a government initiative to buy Italian,
which led to a new appreciation of its unique flavors.
Thanks to mozzarella production,
the Cilento has experienced an incredible gastronomic boom
in recent decades.
Just a couple of miles downriver is Le Trabe,
a restaurant that's turning even humble buffalo ingredients
into Michelin star cuisine.
Marco.
-Hey, Stanley. -Hi.
[Stanley] Run by Chef Marco Rispo,
Le Trabe's menu is inspired by its surroundings.
Beautiful.
Come and have a look.
So, Stanley, this area is called Capo di Fiume.
Already in medieval times,
there were mills here and water was used differently.
Ah.
And it's in the last 22 years
that the restaurant was born and we built this place up.
[Stanley] Marco's showing me a dish called bufala, bufala, bufala,
a recipe he created to showcase
the versatility and flavor of buffalo milk.
We use all buffalo milk-based products.
Normal ricotta,
and the smoked one.
Yeah.
And this one - you know when you're bringing mozzarellas back home?
That you have water that is a bit salty?
Well, this one we use to cook the pasta.
Ah.
[Stanley] Marco's trick is to cook the pasta in this,
acqua di governo,
the acidic water used to cool the mozzarella.
It's hot...
Can you taste the salinity?
Oh, yeah.
Very salty.
Yeah, yeah, it's nice though.
And we'll put it here.
Are you from here?
-I'm Neapolitan. -Neapolitan.
And for how long have you been here?
-Six years. -Six years.
Do you like it?
Yes.
-Well, it's beautiful, right? -Beautiful.
For the sauce we just melt the butter.
[Stanley] Mm-hmm.
And the water we talked about.
[Stanley] Mm-hmm.
So, let's get the pasta out.
Oh, it smells good.
Marco adds some creamy buffalo ricotta,
that's been whipped with buffalo milk.
See, now the heat...
and it melts.
[Stanley] Meanwhile, he heats the smoked ricotta
to give it a sticky texture.
You have a bit of sauce, wait.
-So... -Thank you.
And that's it.
Now we're putting it on the plate.
We're going halves on this. Not all for you, OK?
[both laugh]
Now I'm starving.
[laughter]
Can you see the texture?
It's creamier.
[Marco Rispo] E voilà!
[Stanley] That's incredible.
But that is like...
Can you tell the pasta was cooked al dente?
Yes.
The acidity, the creaminess?
Yes.
It feels like you're eating a mozzarella.
Yeah.
Super interesting.
Thank you, Stanley.
[Stanley] Oh, my God.
Mm. Mm.
Though luxuriously reworked by Marco,
the primal taste of buffalo mozzarella...
I'm sorry.
...is something that is a part of every Campanian's identity.
That's embarrassing.
I've never tasted anything like that.
Here, you can try it.
Oh, come on, give it to her.
[crew member] Don't film me trying it.
[Stanley] It's weird, it's like your brain
can't put it together,
and it's very interesting.
It's amazing.
It's a clever combination.
It's genius.
It's like carbonara but better.
[Stanley] Yeah, but I don't even know what it is.
It's incredible. It's so good.
It takes great vision to elevate
such a humble ingredient,
a notion that has motivated the family I'm on my way to meet.
♪♪
I'm heading to Sant'Agata de' Goti
in Campania's remote Benevento province.
In just a few decades,
this area has become Campania's most important wine region,
producing 50% of its grapes.
Although the grapevine that started all this,
was so undervalued that it almost disappeared.
-[Paola] Ciao. -Stanley.
Run by sisters Paola and Annachiara...
[Annachiara] Welcome.
[Stanley] ...Cantine Mustilli were the first winery in Italy
to bottle Falanghina.
So we are in the vineyard of the property of the family,
and we have different grape varieties,
uh, but we are very famous for Falanghina grape.
So when our father started the production of this wine,
uh, he made a research in the area,
uh, and he discovered one called Falanghina
that he thought was very interesting,
so he started the production of this wine
and he made just 3,000 bottles.
Now the production of Falanghina in,
in the entire Campania region is nine million bottles.
[Stanley] Jeez. And this is it?
The Falanghina.
-[Paola] Yeah. -[Annachiara] This is it.
This our...
...apple of our eye.
-And, uh, this is the... -[Stanley] And this is--
-[Annachiara] ...the bunch... -[Stanley] Yeah.
...which is very big and very, very green
and, uh, quite acidic.
[Stanley] Uh-uh.
[Annachiara] So, it will increase the size till August,
so accumulate the sugar and the acidity it goes...
-Drops down. -Drop down.
[Stanley] Oh, wow.
During the maturation, the ripening.
-[Stanley] Right. -[Annachiara] Then we harvest.
[Stanley] When the Mustilli family rediscovered
this ancient grape variety,
local farmers had all but stopped growing it,
because its high natural acidity
produced mouth-puckeringly sour grapes.
By ripening the vines for longer,
the Mustillis learned to taper that sharp acidity.
And now we're gonna go to the wine cellar.
-[Paola and Annachiara] Yes. -[Stanley] Right?
-Where it's nice and cool. -[Annachiara] Yes.
[Stanley] But they only discovered the wine's true potential
during the last stage of production,
which happens in town.
Oh, wow.
And now, down.
-[Stanley] Now down. -[laughter]
Okay, go first.
Can I?
Yes.
Wow. Wow!
Oh, it's nice and cold.
-[Annachiara] Yes. -[Stanley] Yeah. [laughs]
[Paola] It's always the same temperature.
[Stanley] But this has been here for centuries.
[Paola] Yeah.
Was it all done by hand?
[Annachiara] Yeah, yeah, by hand.
There was no television.
Yeah. [laughs]
And this is the first bottle of Falanghina.
[Stanley] And how did people react to it?
Hmm... he sold to friends.
-[Stanley] He sold to friends. -Yes.
Friends went to the restaurant,
asked for Mustillino, nobody knew Mustilli.
They called us and the,
the restaurant manager called us and bought the wine.
-Passaparola. -Really?
[Stanley] Oh, oh, word of mouth. Yes, right. Yeah.
-[Paola] This was the beginning. -[Stanley] Wow. Yeah.
[Annachiara] So this is our library
and, uh, there are all the wines
from each year, from the '76.
These were the, these are the early ones?
Yes. So for example, this is a '77,
and, look, no deposit.
We, sometime we open it.
[Stanley] There's no sediment or anything.
-[Annachiara] Uh, no. No. -[Stanley] No.
[Annachiara] Because the wine it's conserved very, very well.
[Stanley] Wow, it's amazing.
But it's very unusual for white wine, isn't it?
This is because the acidity preserves the oxygenation,
the aging.
Wow, that's, yeah, that's interesting.
♪♪
Most white wines tend to spoil after a couple of years.
Falanghina's higher acidity
means it has the potential to be aged for decades.
And to put that to the test, we're going to do a vertical tasting,
trying the same wine in two different vintages.
So, this is...
This is the Falanghina.
[Stanley] 2023.
2023, and our classical one.
Thank you.
[all] Cheers.
[Stanley] Thank you.
-[Paola exhales] -Oh.
It's very fresh.
The freshness...
It's really fresh, acidic and minerally too.
Yes, right.
-Very gentle. -Yeah.
It's delic... it's absolutely delicious.
[Annachiara] Now, a special gift for you.
This is the 2002.
2002.
Alright, I'm very excited to try this.
Wow.
[Annachiara] Of course, the color is, uh,
more deep, it's normal.
A bit of oxidation, through the cork, of course.
-Cheers. -You know when you open...
-[Annachiara] Cheers. -When you open an old bottle...
-And limpid. -It's always, uh...
-[Stanley] Totally. -It's always a bit, um, anxious.
-Anxious. -[Stanley] Yeah.
[Annachiara] When you open an old bottle,
because you don't know what happens inside. Yeah?
-[Stanley] Mm-hmm. -[Paola] For sure.
Wow.
[Annachiara] But this is very interesting.
[Stanley] It's very unusual.
This is delicious, but it's completely different.
-[Annachiara] More structure. -Totally different.
More structures. Smoother.
[Annachiara] Hydrocarburic. More balsamic.
Yeah, not as acidic.
You can't taste so much acidity,
because it's balanced with the... the body.
Delicious. Wow.
-Thank you for everything. -Thank you.
That's really wonderful.
Falanghina's meteoric success has brought pride and prosperity
to this remote part of Campania,
in great part thanks to this family's perseverance.
♪♪
This region's vibrant cuisine tells the story
of how Campania's people
have turned needs into opportunities.
The fact that Campania's food is eaten today
all over the world,
is a sign that perhaps
great challenges can produce great results.
♪♪