Ariano Irpino · Irpinia · since 2003

Grapes and
nothing else.

Natural wine from the old vineyards of Irpinia, made by Daniela De Gruttola and Antonio di Gruttola. No additions in the cellar, not even sulphites.

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#VIGNAIOLILIBERI · free winemakers, so please don't ask us to fit into a ranking.

Antonio stirring whole grapes inside Wine Globe N.1, a large glass sphere, in the white sandstone cave. — Antonio and Wine Globe N.1, harvest 2026.

XXIV

Our twenty-fourth harvest with Cantina Giardino.

2003–2026. Twenty-four autumns of crates, hands and friends who come back every year. This year Fiano and Greco ferment as whole berries in glass Wine Globes, inside the sandstone caves.

Our story

Two people, one ingredient

We started in 2003, in Ariano Irpino, making wine from the grapes of old vineyards and of the small growers in the villages around us. Nothing added. Back then it looked like stubbornness. Today people call it natural wine.

Cantina Giardino was founded by six partners: Daniela De Gruttola, Antonio di Gruttola, Davide De Gruttola, Nadia di Gruttola, Pasquale Giardino and Antonio Corsano. Antonio makes the wine and leads the tastings. Daniela tells it, hosts it, and keeps everything together.

For many years people from all over the world have come to harvest with us, eat at our table and share a piece of life. That exchange is what we build our work on. We are not interested in just selling bottles.

We keep a library of more than 70,000 bottles of every wine we have made since 2003, to show how each one changes with time.

Antonio and Daniela smiling in the cellar, Daniela raising a glass of white wine in front of terracotta amphorae. — Antonio and Daniela among the amphorae.

The vineyards · Montemarano

Vines from 1936, still trained as they were

Our old vineyards in Montemarano were planted in 1936 and are trained in the traditional raggiera avellinese: a tall central pole with the vines stretching out around it like the spokes of a wheel. It takes arms, time and patience, and that is why it is disappearing.

We bought a whole hill there, five hectares. Part of it is the old raggiera, part we planted ourselves. Among the old plants grows Coda di Volpe rossa, a red variety almost nobody remembers. The Nude comes from ungrafted, pre-phylloxera vines more than a hundred years old.

Irpinia is green, hilly, with a very long winter. We are among the last in Italy to harvest. Aglianico above all, then Fiano, Greco, Coda di Volpe and Sciascinoso.

The twisted trunk of an old raggiera vine beside its wooden pole, leaves and black grapes above. — A raggiera vine planted in 1936, next to its pole.

1936vineyards planted

24harvests so far

2006last year we used sulphites

70,000bottles in our library

Aglianico berries covered in dew against a deep blue sky. — Aglianico picked at 6 °C, our 24th harvest.

A golden bunch of Coda di Volpe bianca hanging from a vine in the sun. — Coda di Volpe bianca, harvest 2026.

A small lizard resting on a bunch of white grapes under a vine leaf. — Our lizard, also the face of our WhatsApp +39 0825 873084.

Antonio cutting a bunch of black grapes among red autumn leaves. — Antonio picking Aglianico at the end of October 2026, among the last grapes harvested in Italy.

The caves · Via Aurelio Covotti 26

A tasting underground

Since 2020 our wines also age in sandstone caves in the old centre of Ariano Irpino, at a constant temperature and always in the dark: amphorae of gres and terracotta, chestnut barrels, and glass Wine Globes. Our Wine Globe videos from the 2026 harvest have been watched about 2.8 million times.

The caves are white for a reason. In the 1740s Charles III of Bourbon ordered the Catasto Onciario, and every trappeto declared in it (our dialect word for an olive mill) had to be whitewashed with quicklime before each olive harvest. The visit passes through an underground olive mill from the 1200s and a quarry from the year 1000. Then we taste from the vessels still ageing and decide together which bottle to open.

At the table: our own bread and taralli, made with our wine, our oil and wild fennel, two extra-virgin oils, cheeses and cured meats from small local producers, and seasonal vegetables cooked by Daniela. It lasts almost two hours. Antonio leads the tasting.

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A long white vaulted corridor carved in sandstone, lit by a lamp, with a large amphora at the end. — White with quicklime, as the Bourbon law required.

Inside Wine Globe N.1.

Two gres amphorae in arched niches cut into the white sandstone. — Gres amphorae in their niches.

Giorgio De Maria in a Cantina Giardino t-shirt, kneeling on a wooden kneeler in front of a large amphora. — Giorgio De Maria, our Australian importer, in a moment of prayer to win a few rare bottles.

A bottle of Nude 2004 on a wooden kneeler in front of a large gres amphora in the white cave. — Nude 2004, in front of the amphora of Sophia 2025.

Indeterminazione · Notebooks of free winemaking

Our magazine on wine and quantum physics

A quarterly written by Daniela and Antonio, with the scientific review of Pino Fierro (CNR – ISMN, Sapienza University of Rome). Issue 1, The Superposition of Destinies, is free.

5The Sense of LimitsQuantum mechanics: boundaries between science and metaphor in winemaking.
13The Flight of the DrosophilaThe olfactory receptors of fruit flies and the tunnel effect: quantum smell.
17The Soul of WoodChestnut, acacia, mulberry and cherry: the woods our wine rests in.

English · Italiano · Français · Español

Download issue 1 free

Issue 2, January–March 2027, is on its way: the harvest, ZeroZero, and the human side of our story.

The printed issue 1 of Indeterminazione leaning on the sandstone wall, between an old painted plate and a white marble sculpture. — Issue 1 in print, in the cave.

ZeroZero · wine, just wine

A movement of winemakers who use only grapes

ZeroZero brings together winemakers with their own vineyards and their own cellar, who use one ingredient: grapes. No sulphites, no additives, no processing aids. It was born from an idea by Daniela De Gruttola, Antonio di Gruttola and Massimo Lanini of Meno Vini e Altre Necessità in Florence.

The roots go back to 2009, when Daniela and Antonio organised «Parlano i Vignaioli» at Villa Signorini in Ercolano: for once, it was the winemakers who did the talking. It came back in 2011 at the Casina Vanvitelliana in Bacoli, and then twice in Bari, at the Hotel Rondò, in 2013 and 2015, with the help of Massimo Lanini. ZeroZero is the next chapter: more direct, and focused on one thing only, a single ingredient.

Entry is always free, for the winemakers and for visitors. We hold it on a Monday, the day restaurants and wine bars close, so the people who pour our wine every night can come.

In every city we work with local hosts: Vineria Est and La Staffa in Bari, Bar Caravatti and En in Mantova, Ritmo in Rome; in Florence, Enoteca Spontanea lent a hand too. Behind every edition is Massimo Lanini, who runs Meno Vini e Altre Necessità in Florence.

Next edition

Rome · Monday 30 November 2026

Circolo degli Illuminati, Via Giuseppe Libetta 1 (Ostiense, metro Garbatella). 10:30–18:30. More than fifty winemakers from Italy and Europe. Free entry with registration.

Past editions

Mantova · Sala delle Capriatewith Bar Caravatti and En13–14 April 2026
Florence · VIVIDO23 March 2026
Bari · Villa dei Saporiwith Vineria Est and La Staffa1 December 2025
Florence · Il Conventino · the first one24 March 2025

Before ZeroZero: Parlano i Vignaioli

Bari · Hotel Rondò2015
Bari · Hotel Rondò2013
Bacoli · Casina Vanvitelliana2011
Ercolano · Villa Signorini2009

Family · Sofia and Francesco

Our children are in our bottles too

Sofia and Francesco grew up among the vines and the vats. Each of them has left a mark on what we make.

A child's drawing of a man with curly black hair and a woman with long red hair holding hands under a heart with the letters A and D. — **Sofia, age five.** She drew the two of us, A and D, holding a heart. It became the label of our Vino Rosato Frizzante, much loved in Japan.

A drawing of a smiling boy in a huge yellow sombrero with flowers on the brim and a patchwork shirt. — **Controra, Francesco's wine.** Controra is the southern siesta, the early afternoon when nothing gets done; his grandmother used to ask him where he was off to at controra. It comes in a swing-top bottle to reuse in the kitchen, for oil or water: Francesco wants every bottle to have a second life. Label drawn by Sofia in 2021.

A bottle of Primo Aprile with a blue drawing of a figure in a hat, standing in the bare sandstone of the cave. — **Primo Aprile**, our rarest wine, made only twice in 24 harvests from Rovello grapes. We dedicated it to Francesco, born on 1 April, April Fools' Day. The figure in a hat is him.

Francesco made his first wine at ten: Il mio primo fiasco, a Coda di Volpe with six days on the skins, bottled in small Tuscan fiaschi.

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Six bottles of Aglianico with colourful labels in a white sandstone niche.

Visit and contact

Come and see us

Tastings take place in our caves. Write to us to agree a day: we gladly welcome even a single person, if they love wine. For large orders or special shipping, ask us for a quote.

Caves and tastings

Via Aurelio Covotti 26, 83031 Ariano Irpino (AV)

Cellar and office

Via Petrara 21 B, 83031 Ariano Irpino (AV)

Phone and WhatsApp

+39 0825 873084

info@cantinagiardino.com

Davide De Gruttola with a crown of vine leaves and small green bunches on his head, reaching up into the vines. — **Davide De Gruttola**, Daniela's big brother, crowned with vine leaves like Bacchus at our last harvest. He is a partner in Cantina Giardino and in our vineyards, and we love him dearly.

Grapes and
nothing else.

Two people, one ingredient

Vines from 1936, still trained as they were

A tasting underground

Our magazine on wine and quantum physics

A movement of winemakers who use only grapes

Our children are in our bottles too

Take a bottle home

Our wines

Cantillon beers

Daniela De Gruttola

Come and see us

Grapes andnothing else.

Two people, one ingredient

Vines from 1936, still trained as they were

A tasting underground

Our magazine on wine and quantum physics

A movement of winemakers who use only grapes

Our children are in our bottles too

Take a bottle home

Our wines

Cantillon beers

Daniela De Gruttola

Where we tell the everyday

Come and see us

Grapes and
nothing else.