The first time I stepped foot inside the ghostly ruins of Pompeii was on my honeymoon. Joel and I decided to forgo one of our lazy mornings lounging by the sea, instead venturing out to explore an ancient city that had been buried under millions of tons of volcanic ash.

Our driver, who would also be our tour guide, picked us up early, so as to beat the crowds, and off we went on the hour-long, cliffside drive along the spectacular Amalfi Coast. Upon arrival at the famous site, street vendors greeted us with postcards, t-shirts, and even pieces of lava. Inside the walls of Pompeii, I noticed how the bright September sunlight, reflecting off the carefully restored buildings, was in stark contrast to the morbid mood of the empty cobblestone streets and courtyards.

Knowing what had happened in that very place sent shivers up my spine. Walking past the remains of homes, gardens, and stores — shells of what they once were — I could vividly imagine the Romans going about their daily routines, bustling from the butcher to the baker, or simply lounging in a courtyard, sipping on a glass of wine. I’ll always remember the eerie feeling of having stepped back in time to a place where life was abruptly snuffed out, buried for centuries.

Joel, on the other hand, says he’ll never forget the abundance of phallic symbols among the ruins — but let’s just chalk that up to being a man on his honeymoon! Admittedly, the stone walls and roads of Pompeii are, in fact, peppered with images of penises, but that’s for another story.

Phallic symbols aside, Pompeii is, hands down, one of Italy’s most riveting archaeological sites (said of a country with the most UNESCO world heritage sites). Situated near Naples, in southern Italy’s Campania region, the ruins of this once-flourishing town provide visitors with a profound lesson in humility.

Pompeii’s rich lifestyle came to a crashing halt in 79 AD when the city was completely buried in volcanic ash and stone, following the deadly eruption of Mount Vesuvius. As you walk the abandoned streets, the smallness of humankind relative to the powerful forces of nature cannot be ignored — a reminder of the fragility of life, particularly relevant in a world now struggling with a deadly virus.

**casts made from the imprints of human bodies in the ashes of Pompeii.**

Prior to the eruption, Pompeii was a wealthy Roman community, jam-packed with elaborate villas, elegant homes, and streets full of shops, cafes, and open-air spaces. For entertainment, there were bath houses, brothels (many of those aforementioned phallic symbols pointed towards the nearest one), and taverns. There was even an arena that could seat as many people as Madison Square Garden.

The site was abandoned for centuries until a group of explorers arrived in 1748, and, while digging for artifacts, found the well-preserved town buried underneath a thick layer of dust and debris. Since then, excavations have been occurring at a slow and steady pace, yet about a third of the 163-acre city still lies buried. The unearthing of human and animal remains, as well as objects from everyday life — silver and bronze coins, cooking utensils, preserved fruit, wine amphoras — continues to make news today.

These everyday objects help to explain the details of life in Pompeii. The discovery of large clay amphoras alongside vineyards and wine cellars indicate that wine was an important part of life in Pompeii. There is evidence of vine cultivation within the private gardens of people’s homes, with each family making its own supply of wine. These viticultural findings have led to new life in a city that has been frozen in time. Winemaking has been returned to Pompeii and ancient vineyards have been restored, recreating the viticulture of the ancient Romans.

**Views of Mount Vesuvius from the Vineyards of Pompeii.**

Frescoes inside Villa dei Misteri. Photo: Mastroberardino. All other photos by Lisa Denning — Frescoes inside Villa dei Misteri. *Photo: Mastroberardino. All other photos by Lisa Denning*

**The entrance to the vineyards is across from the amphitheater.**

In 1996, Pompeii’s archaeological board selected Mastroberardino, an eleventh generation family-owned winery in Campania, for an important viticultural project: restoring the vineyards on their original sites. The winery was selected, in part, for their long history of protecting the region’s native grapes. Mastroberardino’s portfolio of wines includes several would-be extinct varieties, like greco, fiano, and aglianico, that have been given new life and turned into world-class wines.

The winery’s Pompeii project, an extraordinary messenger of ancient Roman culture and tradition, is named after one of the city’s most elegant ancient residences, Villa dei Misteri, famous for its remarkably well-preserved columns, mosaics and frescoes. Each year, the winery produces about 1,800 bottles of this ruby-red, full-bodied volcanic wine, using the same grape varieties (piedirosso, sciascinoso and aglianico) and methods that were popular 2,000 years ago.

**Ancient terracotta pots used to store wine.**

Yet, perhaps thankfully, the wine doesn’t taste like what the Romans drank. The ancient wines were bitter and had to be flavored with honey to make them palatable. Back then, the juice was fermented in open-topped clay pots lined with beeswax and resin, then buried in the ground. The grapes from Mastroberardino’s Pompeii project, on the other hand, are transported to the winery’s modern cellars and fermented at controlled temperatures in stainless steel tanks. The wine is then refined in oak barrels for 12 months with a further five years in bottle before being released.

While this highly-coveted wine is, no doubt, delicious, I’m thinking that, with today’s popular less-is-more approach to winemaking and the increasing interest in natural wines, wouldn’t it be a great experiment to age the wines as in the Roman times? Just a thought!

Last spring I returned to Pompeii — 28 years after my first visit. Memories of my first visit came flooding back. This time, I had been invited to Campania by the Italian Trade Commission who organized a meeting with Antonio Capone, agronomist for Mastroberardino. Capone led myself and two other journalists on a fascinating walk through Pompeii’s historic vineyards. As we stood in the bright sunlight, surrounded by vines, Capone said, “There’s an eerie feeling that something bad happened here,” echoing my own reaction from nearly three decades ago.

The following interview with Capone was conducted on site, as well as by email following the visit.

Lisa Denning: Can you tell me a little bit about your background?

**Antonio Capone, agronomist at Mastroberardino winery.**

Antonio Capone: I’m an agronomist and I graduated in 1999 from the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Naples “Federico II” where I specialized in viticulture. I started working for Mastroberardino in October of 1999.

LD: What happened to Pompei in 79 AD when Mount Vesuvius exploded?

AC: When Vesuvius erupted 2,000 years ago, time stopped and everything was buried so the soil is the same as 2,000 years ago. The explosion was the equivalent of 500 atomic bombs going off. A lot of people had known that it might explode and they left the area. The people in Naples were safe because the wind was going in the other direction, blowing towards Pompeii.

First the gas arrived, killing many, and then the volcanic material, called pumice — rough textured rocks and glass — arrived. There was about 6 feet of pumice and it covered every part of the Campania region. After the pumice, the ash arrived, settling at about 10 to 15 feet high. This ash is very, very sandy. None of the lava made it to Pompeii though.

There’s an eerie feeling that something bad happened there. During the excavation of Pompeii bodies were found, whole families, parents and children, and they put foam that hardened inside the molds of the bodies to reproduce the forms of the victims.

LD: Why did Mastroberardino decide to restore the vineyards of Pompeii?

AC: This project is unique in the world and it started in the 1990s when Antonio Mastroberardino, 9th generation owner of the winery, wanted to reintroduce the viticulture within the Pompei ruins. The archaeological superintendent of Pompeii authorised Mastroberardino to experiment with vine growing in an area located between Via Nocera and Via di Castricio, Regio I, anciently used for these purposes. We agreed to cultivate it following a negotiated and defined plan, fully respecting the area’s original conditions.

The first step was to investigate the methods and techniques of the native varieties of viticulture used two thousand years ago. We performed an archaeological study of Pompei and we studied the work of Lucius Columella, a writer of farming and agriculture in the Roman times. We also wanted to locate exactly where the vineyards in Pompeii were. Archaeological excavations, botanical studies, and finds of vine root casts and of their support stakes confirmed that vines were grown within ancient Pompeii’s city walls, especially in the quarters located on the outskirts of the city, near the Amphitheatre. During the Roman times, they used the grapes to make wine, but also to eat them.

The project was divided into steps and it took five years to reintroduce the vineyards that would be used to make wine. In 1996 we created an experimental vineyard on only 300 meters, before planting the whole project. In March 1996, root casts were identified during excavations that showed plant positions at the time of the 79 A.D.eruption. Then, the experimental vineyard area (200 square metres in surface) was tilled for growing.

The vines of eight different cultivars, chosen based on bibliographic and iconographic studies carried out on frescos portraying bunches of grapes, were planted in rows, the white varieties were falanghina, greco, fiano, doda di volpe, caprettona and the reds were aglianico, piedirosso, and sciascinoso. As recalled by Pliny, these were the vines producing the grapes used by the Romans to make famous white and red wines throughout the Campanian area. Pliny noted that some of them, such as greco and aglianico, were imported from Greece in pre-Roman times. He also noted that only red varieties were planted in Pompeii.

In September 1999, three years after planting, the vines reached maturity and the first grape harvest took place. That harvest was entirely used for experimental winemaking. Thanks to the positive results achieved, it was decided to expand cultivation, though limiting it to the two red-berry local varieties, Piedirosso and Sciascinoso. The result confirmed Pliny the Elder’s writings that the red vines gave better results in Pompeii.

Then in 1999, there were 5 sites of vineyards reintroduced. In 2007, another 7 places were reintroduced, now we have a total of 12 small vineyards. The total area is only one hectare (about 2.5 acres) with 3 grape varieties: piedirosso, sciascinoso and aglianico. As was done during Roman times, we use the same grape varieties, the same training system, the same orientation of the plants and the same distancing between the plants. This is the original vineyard in the same position. Today it’s the same vineyard as 2,000 years ago.

We did it for our history, our pride. For me, I’ve been with Mastroberardino for 20 years and it’s still amazing every time I see the vineyards.

LD: Can you tell me about the wine that is made from the vineyards of the Pompeii site?

AC: The name of the project is on the label, Villa dei Misteri, and since 2011 it has been a blend of three different varieties, approximately 40% aglianico, 40% piedirosso, and 20% sciascinoso. The wine is a blend of 12 vineyards. In Pompeii, the harvest is in the middle of October and the grapes are transported to the Mastroberardino winery where we produce the bottles each year. Every year we make about 1,080 bottles and we export most of it and it sells for about 100 euros per bottle at cost. In the Mastroberardino wine shop it is also sold for 100 euros.

The villa, "Villa dei Misteri'' is located in the Pompeii ruins and two thousand years ago it was the important suburban villa and the most important wine cellar. It’s outside the wall, but very near, only 100 meters away. The villa is well-known for its well-preserved, important frescoes. Here, there is the original torchium and the dolia (dolium) used for fermentation of the wine.

LD: Being that many white wine varieties thrive in Campania, why don’t they do well in Pompei?

AC: From the ancient writings, we learned that the people of Pompeii had only planted red wine grapes since the conditions were excellent for producing red wines of great quality.

After 2,000 years, we came to the same conclusion: red wine grows best here. We had many problems growing white grapes. It is very hot for whites and, based on the high density of plantings, they are susceptible to a lot of disease. We will keep the vines for the project, but won’t produce wine from them. The white wines we had produced didn’t have good acidity, the pH was too low, and they had too much sugar.

LD: Have you thought about experimenting with the aging of the wine at the Pompeii site, like they did in Roman times, in clay amphoras?

AC: No. The project was and is on viticulture. The wine produced two thousand years ago was very, very different than the wine we drink today and we are not trying to reproduce that.

LD: Do you have to worry about vine-destroying phylloxera in the Pompeii vineyards?

**The sandy-textured volcanic soils of the Pompeii vineyards.**

AC: Since it’s possible for non-grafted plants to get phylloxera in the future, most of our vines were grafted on American rootstock. We have a small amount of ungrafted vines, but only for a study, an experimental field to see if phylloxera will occur. But I doubt it will come here because the soil is very sandy and the phylloxera louse gets confused with their reproduction in sandy soil. When you have sandy soil, or if you are near the sea in general, it’s possible to use non-grafted plants. But I prefer it this way — I’d rather be safe than sorry.

LD: Are the Pompeii vineyards farmed organically?

AC: Yes. Our Pompeii vineyards are all farmed organically, as in Roman times, without pesticides or fertilizers.