Le Pergole - Crateca

Crateca is an old inactive crater, now covered by chestnut and oak trees, located below Epomeo at an elevation of about 500m at the crossroads of the towns of Casamicciola Terme, Forio and Lacco Ameno. In this area the Castagna family, an ancient and hard-working family from Casamicciola, have recovered an important vineyard of about 2 hectares and the entire wooded area surrounding it. The progenitor Giovanni with his sons Arnaldo, Piergiovanni and Giampaolo have replanted the vineyard with great experience and respect for the territory, recovering the old terraces one by one, with the planting of selected vines enriching the cultivation with fruit trees, olive trees and the recovery of the "siena," a typical environment for the cultivation of vegetables. One reaches the farm from the Via Borbonica near the center of Fango. One climbs uphill and arrives at a large space in front of the farmhouse. It is a very old and important building that the Castagna family has, at great financial expense, restored to its former glory. Wine culture has deep roots on Ischia because, in practice, it represents the very history of the island. Viticulture on Ischia has origins dating back thousands of years. On the cup of Nestor, found in Montevico (Lacco Ameno), is engraved a phrase that praises the good local wine and testifies that the Ancient Euboeans, who had colonized the 'island, had introduced the cultivation of the vine and thus the production of the "nectar of the Gods." The cultivation technique, in particular way, recalls the Greek tradition and differs from the Etruscan one used in central Italy and the inland areas of Campania. Viticulture has been the basis of the island economy for long historical periods, conditioning the life and customs of the inhabitants themselves. Crops on the island extend from the coast to the steep mountain slopes where terraces, built with reinforcing dry-stone walls of green tufa stone, allow the cultivation of vines. Since the 1500s bulk white wine was exported by sea to the main Italian and foreign markets as far as Dalmatia, it was placed in "carrati" transported by vinacciere (sailboats). From 1955 to the present, the change in the island's economy has been radical. The rapid development of tourism, which has become the island's main economic resource, has weakened and partly erased the cultural past of a tradition that needed to be protected and saved. The Crateca winery set out, together with the entire island wine movement, to safeguard the island's winemaking tradition in the recovery and respect of old cellars, vineyards with the goal of being one of the references of a tradition that is the pride and luster of the island of Ischia. Every vine grown, every corner of the winery is part of a path of rediscovery of the old island traditions. The farm is an open-air living museum, and some corners have been respectfully cultivated in the true tradition of vines climbed on espaliers of chestnut poles and reeds held together by twisted willow cuttings and cane leaves.