Ocone Diana Falanghina 2021
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Enthusiast
Wine
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Bright, straw yellow color. Aromatic with pungent floral aromas. Dry, medium bodied, and refreshing with zippy stone fruit flavors balanced by minerality and brisk acidity
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Movie popcorn at first on the nose gives way to lemonade and candied orange peels. The palate is unctuous with more buttery texture and sweet and waxy with honey, with fresh lemon providing contrast.
Other Vintages
2020-
Suckling
James
Ocone ("Oh-kone-eh") is a small, family winery situated in the Campania region, outside of Naples, on the rocky foothills of Mount Taburno. Guiseppe Ocone founded the winery in 1910 and began bottling his own wines at a time when most Campania wineries simply sold in bulk to the north. In the 1960s, his son Luigi distinguished Ocone from other producers by focusing on the region’s near forgotten indigenous grapes such as Aglianico, Greco and Falanghina. Dedication to organic cultivation of these ancient varieties established Ocone as a world class estate. In 2017, Domenico Ocone sold the winery to Giorgio and Roberta Vergona, a local couple, who with their three children have restarted generational history at Ocone. Their goal is to continue the Ocone family’s legacy by producing wines in a fresh, clean style balanced by tradition. The Ocone wines are approachable, food friendly, and varietally true. They possess great depth of flavor without being excessive and are consistently balanced and structured with complexity and length.
Thriving throughout Campania, Falanghina grows widely throughout the region and plays a key role in many regional blends. Along the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, the local grapes, Verdeca, Coda di Volpe and Greco take well to its addition. On the Amalfi Coast, it is added to Biancolella as well as Greco. Around Avellino, it can be made into single varietal versions. Somm Secret—Thought to be an ancient transplant from Greece, the grape takes its name from the Greek word, phalanga, meaning stake or pole, in reference to the Greek method of training vines to single stakes.
A winemaking renaissance is underfoot in Campania as more and more small, artisan and family-run wineries redefine their style with vineyard improvements and cellar upgrades. The region boasts a cool Mediterranean climate with extreme coastal, as well as high elevation mountain terroirs. It is cooler than one might expect in Campania; the region usually sees some of the last harvest dates in Italy.
Just south of Mount Vesuvio, the volcanic and sandy soils create aromatic and fresh reds based on Piedirosso and whites, made from Coda di Volpe and Falanghina. Both reds and whites go by the name, Lacryma Christi, meaning the "tears of Christ." South of Mount Vesuvio, along the Amalfi Coast, the white varieties of Falanghina and Biancolella make fresh, flirty, mineral-driven whites, and the red Piedirosso and Sciasinoso vines, which cling to steeply terraced coastlines, make snappy and ripe red wines.
Farther inland, as hills become mountains, the limestone soil of Irpinia supports the whites Fiano di Avellino, Falanghina and Greco di Tufo as well as the most-respected red of the south, Aglianico. Here the best and most age-worthy examples come from Taurasi.
Farther north and inland near the city of Benevento, the Taburno region also produces Aglianico of note—called Aglianico del Taburno—on alluvial soils. While not boasting the same heft as Taurasi, these are also reliable components of any cellar.