Joaquin
Joaquin
About the winery
Joaquin, founded in 1999 by Raffaele Pagano, embodies a legacy of winemaking passed down from generation to generation. Their estate, located in Montefalcione, embodies their dedication to terroir-driven wines.
For Raffaele, each harvest is a new project and therefore a new, unique wine, in which the characteristics of the terroir must absolutely come into their own. Raffaele's philosophy revolves around individual vineyard management to express the unique terroir of Lapio and Paternopoli, where Fiano and Aglianico thrive. Their small plots produce high-quality grapes that are carefully processed to create distinctive wines.
Remarkably, Lapio's elevated position on the highest points of Irpinia provides optimal conditions for growing Fiano, while the calcareous and clayey soils near Paternopoli are ideal for Aglianico. They also manage a historic vineyard on Capri, where native varieties such as Biancolella, Falanghina, Greco and Ciunchesa are grown.
The fact that the wines of the Joaquin house can bring out the special characteristics of the vintage so clearly is mainly due to the fact that the grapes from each plot are fermented separately in small steel tanks. The wines are then aged in locally made tonneaux barrels made of chestnut or acacia wood. Therefore, barriques are deliberately not used for this classic style of wine because, according to Raffaele, the typical aromas of the grape variety should in no way be drowned out by aggressive wood tones.
The first harvest took place in 2006 and the resulting wine was named "IVIAGGI," a name that represented the beginning of a journey and told the story of an Aglianico from the vineyard of Paternopoli, vinified as a white wine. In 2007 the Fiano grape was bottled for the first time and from then on the iconic orange label JQN 203 was born, which became the symbolic color of the vineyard and would not become "Piante a Lapio" until 2011.
The first Taurasi was produced in 2009 and to date only four vintages have been released under the name "Taurasi Riserva della Società": the 2009, the 2010, the 2015 and the 2016, which is an indication of the extreme quality sought in the wine.
In contrast, the vineyard's main label, the Taurasi Riserva Venerabile Confraternita della B.M., was only produced for the 2009 vintage and will be available again with the 2015 vintage in 2025, after a long aging period of 10 years.
Although the vineyard is relatively young, year after year the estate has incorporated vintages and plots and built its reputation, enabling it to release limited editions and unique pieces of great value. Each vintage and label embodies new projects whose end point we do not know, only the starting point: the quality of the raw material, the original territory and the vintage that characterizes them. Vinifying individual plots has allowed us to pay attention to every little detail. Only tonneaux of national oak, local chestnut and acacia wood of second or third passage are used for the fermentation and aging of the distinctive wines.
Joaquin has a total of 5 hectares and produces about 13,000 bottles annually. Joaquin aims to become an icon, in Italy and the world, of fine artisanal wine with a long evolution. To achieve this goal, Joaquin works in complete respect for the land, using precision viticulture using high technology in the vineyard and not in the cellar. They choose to elevate the grape varieties that have always been used in this wine region, Fiano and Aglianico, and to continue an oenological tradition with historical roots firmly rooted in the area. The main idea behind the vineyard project, which makes the Joaquin brand recognizable, is to improve the expressiveness of wines that are the faithful result of a slow process of evolution in which the hand of man guides and leads, but never chooses the direction or the end point.