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Joaquin Vino della Stella Fiano d'Avellino Riserva 2019  - First Bottle

Reviews

93 Vinous -
The 2019 Fiano di Avellino Riserva captivates with its savory aromatics, blending spiced citrus peels and dusty dried flowers with ginger and baked apple. It’s deeply textural, nearly oily in feel, with stimulating minerality and brisk acidity that enhances its honeyed inner florals and tart orchard fruits. The 2019 lingers incredibly long, perfumed and nearly salty in concentration. Tropical citrus and sour melon notes seem to last up to a minute. It’s almost impossible to stop at one glass. The Fiano di Avellino Riserva spends eight months resting on its lees in steel and fiberglass without temperature control prior to an extended stay in bottle. The 2019 is the current release. This is a beauty.

Technical Details

  • CountryItaly
  • RegionCampania
  • AppellationFiano di Avellino
  • VineyardLapio Commune
  • Farming MethodOrganic Practices
  • StainlessVinified in steel to retain freshness
  • Alcohol14%

Joaquin Vino della Stella Fiano d'Avellino Riserva 2019

Fiano  |  Italy
VN93

SPECIAL: Ground shipping included on 3+ bottles!
Organic Practices
40% off retail!

Price drops to $29.95 per bottle when you purchase 3 or more bottles!

Raffaele Pagano branched out from his generational winemaking legacy – his family producing two million bottles annually from their three wineries – to launch his own project where he could call all the shots: Joaquin. Pulling from extremely old parcels of Fiano grapevines, he’s crafted this 93-point 2019 Fiano di Avellino Riserva that comes alive with surprisingly thrilling textures, flavors, and layers of invigorating complexity – and now it’s over 50% off when you get 3+!

Yes! Raffaele Pagano is a man with a vision – and not even his family’s prominent wine dynasty could steer him away from his dream of running his very own winery. In the early 2000s, he purchased several parcels of long-ago-planted Fiano and Aglianico vines in the townships of Lapio and Paternopoli, releasing his first vintage in 2006. In reverence to the heralded Spanish-French bourbon family who tended vines and led the way for the rising food and wine scene in Campania, he named his winery Joaquin. Later, he struck gold when he was able to acquire a .8-hectare vineyard parcel on Capri, where only 20 hectares of vines reside in all. His philosophy maintains a playful, experimental spirit – both sticking to local varieties that thrive in the terroir, as well as pushing the boundaries of what’s been done by bringing in new approaches and blends to see if he can’t develop something altogether new, enticing, and his very own.

The soils in Lapio, where these 20 to 30-year-old Fiano vines grow, consist of volcanic clay-limestone, with a cool microclimate due to its high elevation placement along the far eastern reaches of the Fiano di Avellino appellation. Spending 8 months on fine lees in steel and fiberglass – sans temperature control – gives this wine an exquisite complexity and precision, aging an additional several months in bottle before release to develop the lavish floral notes and designated spicy toastiness with finesse.

We can’t describe the experience – and, yes, it is an experience – of this wine more accurately than the Vinous 93-point review: “The 2019 Fiano di Avellino Riserva captivates with its savory aromatics, blending spiced citrus peels and dusty dried flowers with ginger and baked apple. It's deeply textural, nearly oily in feel, with stimulating minerality and brisk acidity that enhances honeyed inner florals and tart orchard fruits. The 2019 lingers incredibly long, perfumed and nearly salty in concentration. Tropical citrus and sour melon notes seem to last up to a minute. It's almost impossible to stop at one glass. The 2019 is the current release. This is a beauty.” If that doesn’t make you thirsty for a glass of this, I’m not sure what will! An all-around fascinating, wholly unique white wine with nuances and intricacies for days…this is a magnanimous and magnetic wine that the deepest wine geeks and regular white wine lovers alike will get a kick out of! For under $30, and priced over 50% off when you snag 3+, this is one you’ll want to grab en masse, and enjoy over the coming months.

PAIRING IDEAS: This is an incredible food wine – and truly, you could go so many directions with it. I’m teeing up a spicy fried chicken platter of the Nashville variety to add some heat, crunch, and salt to this delightfully textured, multifaceted wine.

About the Producer

Raffaele Pagano’s family might think he’s crazy, but he’s fully embraced his own path. As a fourth-generation heir to a Salerno-based winemaking legacy producing two million bottles a year, Raffaele turned away from the family empire to focus on crafting just 18,000 bottles annually from his small, 3.5-hectare plots in Irpinia and Capri. These wines are unmistakably his, a testament to his vision and unwavering passion for authenticity. In the early 2000s, Pagano began acquiring old-vine Fiano and Aglianico, eventually bottling his first vintage in 2006 under the name Joaquin, paying homage to the Bourbon dynasty that left its mark on Campania’s winemaking heritage. Joaquin stands apart from the region’s mainstream wines, striking a deeper, more visceral chord. Pagano’s approach, akin to that of Giampiero Bea or Paolo Vodopivec, explores the soul of his land with a raw authenticity. His acquisition of a rare 0.8-hectare parcel on Capri, where only 20 hectares of vines exist, further solidifies his commitment to extraordinary terroirs. Raffaele’s wines are more than just bottles of Fiano or Aglianico—they’re transformative experiences that challenge conventional expectations. Though he experiments, it’s never for novelty’s sake; it’s a pursuit to uncover the true essence of the land. Each sip of Joaquin feels like a window into a deeper understanding of Campania’s terroir, brimming with a sense of place that is utterly uncompromising.