Joaquin: the wines of the visionary Raffaele Pagano

Joaquin's wines have no middle ground: either you fall madly in love, or you really don't, there is no love. A bit like with owner Raffaele Pagano, who has personality to spare and who, when he talks about his idea of wine, which started as a project in Irpinia in 1999, shows that visionary, utopian aspect, which is not for everyone, or at least it wasn't twenty years ago. 

 

As he himself says, he does not make wine to satisfy many palates, given the small production that is not always annual. Each year is different, each vintage deciding which of the 7 labels the grapes are destined for or whether or not to make a wine, or the wine. 

 

A folly for only the total 3.28 hectares. Suffice it to say that the latest vintage on the market for the Taurasi Della Società is the 2014 Riserva, while for the Fiano Igt JQN 203 Piante a Lapio is the 2013 and for the Joaquin from the Isle of Capri, (yes, it produces 600 bottles on the island when all goes well) now the 2020 is being released. 

 

The winery is in Montefalcione, and his wines are born mostly in Lapìo, where he recently bought a country villa that resembles a small French château, with the vineyard within the perimeter walls. 

 

Indeed, his white wines, without exaggeration, evoke some Montrachets at times, especially in vintages with a few years behind them, while the reds have the organoleptic complexity, dense, velvety structure and power of Pommerols. 

 

For that matter, the conformation of the soil where Joaquin's Taurasi come from, that is, from Paternopoli from prephylloxera vineyards that are over a hundred years old, has the presence of iron oxides (crasse de fer, as the French would say). But let's stay in Campania: with the total 13,000 bottles it produces, it has to meet the world's demand. A few years ago, Bolaffi Auctions, which set up auction sales of collectible objects and wines, beat three lots of Taurasi "B. M." Riserva 2009 touching incredible figures and selling like hot cakes. Only 120 examples were produced of that vintage. A fine wine with strong aptitude for aging. 

 

I tasted a preview of the Vino della Stella, the Fiano di Avellino Riserva 2020 that shows a not inconsiderable personality, as well as the new vintage of the Taurasi Riserva Della Società, the 2015, and two new creatures: the Fiano di Avellino Riserva Vigna Campo Aperto 2021, which comes right from the vineyard enclosed within the confines of the Villa Joaquin, and N.V. Piante a Lapio, the result of a blend of 2014 and 2020 vintages, which I urge you not to miss.