Marco Tinessa’s story is not your average Italian winemaking story: he has no family vineyards, nor centuries’ old roots. An established bank manager in Milan, this project grew out of Tinessa’s obsession with natural wine and his passion for the Taurasi district in his home region of Campania.
His travels around Italy and Europe allowed him to meet many producers, from whom he learned the techniques of winemaking and the art of viticulture. He fell in love with the wines of Burgundy and the Langhe areas and was inspired by the teachings of some great producers. These included Elena Pantaleoni, Frank Cornelissen, Mario Fontana and Bartolo Mascarello and others, whom he considered his gurus.
On the strength of all this enological knowledge, he decided to try his hand at making his own wine. As a result, Marco Tinessa identified 1.5 hectares at an altitude of 400 meters in the heart of Montemarano, one of the most suitable areas for the Taurasi denomination. He decided to purchase these hectares and started working in the vineyard with minimal copper and sulfur treatments, low yields and lots of love.
His friend and teacher Frank Cornelissen, a legend from the Etna region, who for the first 10 years helped him, taught him how to use amphorae and vinify his grapes and Mario Fontana known to make some of the most elegant Barolos helped him with the secrets of how to master the power, acidity and impetuous tannins of a great grape variety like Nebbiolo (Aglianico is also called the Nebbiolo of the South).
These wines are born in Campania and mature in Milan, just like Marco, revealing all their class and hard work.
Ognostro is a local term for wine in Neapolitan dialect and literally means “ink”. Check your glasses and you will understand why.
