Contrada Salandra - 2017 Campi Flegrei Piedirosso

Beta Offer #9 of 18

Bottom Line Up Front - Contrada Salandra’s 2017 Piedirosso is an elegant and complex biodynamic red wine produced on the active volcanic fields west of Naples. It’s vibrant and nervy, yet somehow maintains a sense of weightlessness. My notes while tasting: “dark cherry wafting from the glass, medium-bodied, herbal more than ashy, white pepper, focused, complex, long finish. Best Piedirosso out there?”

(To order, just click the link above and follow the prompts, or scroll to the end of this message for step-by-step instructions.)

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Fellow wine geeks,

I was aware of Contrada Salandra for years before ever tasting the wines. The Italian wine guides are unanimous in their acclaim for Guiseppe Fortunato’s small, biodynamic winery near Pozzuoli, in Campania. 

When I lived in Rome (2011-2014), I couldn’t find Contrada Salandra wines anywhere in town. In the U.S., you can only get them at a few stores in NYC and San Francisco. Unfortunately, the interests of wine consumers and wine distributors are not always aligned.

I finally tasted the Contrada Salandra wines for the first time at Vinitaly in 2018. The wines were memorable, to be sure, but more than anything, I remember what Alessandro (one of the Open Tuesday co-founders) said as we walked away from the tasting: “He’s the kind of guy we want to work with. He makes you want to be in the wine business.” To which I replied, “Yeah, and the wines were great.”

Giuseppe is genial, honest, and intelligent. As my Italian wife Sarah might say, “he’s got all the good Italian qualities and none of the bad ones.” For her, that means he’s a humble person. Indeed, that’s the quality I remembered most about Giuseppe from our meeting in 2018.

Fast forward to January 2022, when the Open Tuesday team made the trip to Naples and tasted the Contrada Salandra wines again - but this time at Guiseppe’s home and winery. I commented that the 2017 Piedirosso was something truly special. Imagine my shock when humble Giuseppe replied, “Yes, I know,” without a moment’s hesitation. Somehow he pulled it off, though. I think the humble shrug helped. 

Ian D’Agata, an old friend of the Open Tuesday group, recently heaped Instagram praise on Contrada Salandra: https://www.instagram.com/p/CcDNFy9JSDQ/

Contrada Salandra has some really cool Facebook posts: https://www.facebook.com/contradasalandra

Here’s Contrada Salandra on the map: Contrada Salandra

The Piedirosso (“red feet” in English) grape takes its name from the shape of the bottom of its vines, which resemble the red foot of a dove.

I’m not one to judge a wine based on its label, but I will say this wine has my favorite label of all the beta tranche wines. I wonder if our members will agree? You only have to order one bottle to have an opinion. (Or you could Google the label, but that’s probably not the same experience.) Actually, I’m looking at the Le Ragnaie Troncone label right now, and it’s also pretty snazzy.

Try this Piedirosso with Campania favorites Pasta ai Fagioli or Spaghetti alla Puttanesca. Sarah and I had it on Friday night with Strozzapreti al ragù bianco di coniglio, olive taggiasche, e gel di rosmarino. (Pasta in a white rabbit sauce, Taggiasca olives, and rosemary gel.) Takeout can be quite good in Milan. 

Contrada Salandra only produces about 7,000 bottles of Piedirosso a year. Quantities are very limited. Open Tuesday has the lowest price in the U.S.

Contrada Salandra - 2017 Campi Flegrei Piedirosso

13% alcohol by volume

(To order, just click the blue link above and follow the prompts.)

Happy Tuesday,

Chris

If you have any questions or feedback, please email us: [email protected].  

How it works: 

After clicking one of the two links above, you’ll be able to request 1-12 bottles. Actually, that’s all you have to do!

About a week later, when we close the offer, you’ll get an email confirming how many bottles we allocated to your account. We will charge you when the wines are allocated.

We’ll do our best to allocate all the bottles you request. But when there are more requests than bottles available, we’ll allocate one bottle to all requesting members before allocating a second bottle to anyone. We want as many members as possible to try these wines.

This Contrada Salandra “Piedirosso” is offer number nine of 18 during the spring private beta test. We are sending offers on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday for six straight weeks (starting on 3/29).

We encourage you to ship in increments of 12. With 18 offers in this tranche, there should be plenty of chances to get to 12, 24, or 36. If you don’t have an increment of 12 at the end of the beta test, we will get in touch.

Wines from the beta tranche will ship in late May-early June for $5 per bottle (if you have an increment of 12.) This is about the same as the price to ship coast-to-coast within the U.S. - but our wines come directly from Italy.

Once your payment method is on file, you can make future requests with just a few clicks from the offer email. If you don’t have a card on file, you can add one during your first order. Your personal financial information is protected by Stripe.

Chris MacLean

Rob Genova

Open Tuesday Wines S.r.l.s.

Via Augusto Anfossi 19, 20135 Milano - Italy