Calabria
Est. 1993 
4 wines 
Tastings
Tours
Booking required
Wine area
Terre di Cosenza and the Pollino Foothills
Northern Calabria's umbrella DOC, a high-altitude Magliocco country running up the Pollino slopes.
Denominations Produced
Grapes Used
Pecorello
Tenuta del Travale
Tenuta del Travale is a small estate at Rovito, in the hills behind Cosenza in northern Calabria. Raffaella Ciardullo and her family farm it by hand, on steep terraces at 520 metres inside the Sila biosphere reserve. The vines are Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio, two grapes better known from Sicily. About 10,000 bottles a year come out: the reds Eleuteria and Esmén Tetra, the rosé Epicarma, and a rare Eleuteria made in 600 numbered bottles. Visits and tastings are by booking, and two of them are sold on Winedering.
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Wines from Tenuta del Travale
About Tenuta del Travale
The estate began in 1993, when its owners took over an abandoned farm at Travale, a locality of Rovito about nine kilometres from Cosenza. The old vineyard gave almost nothing. In 2007 they pulled it out and replanted two hectares on two facing slopes, terraced along the line of the hill. Four fifths of the new rows went to Nerello Mascalese and the rest to Nerello Cappuccio. Seven years of trials followed, and 2014 was the first vintage. The estate carries Raffaella Ciardullo's name, and she farms it with her family: Nicola, Carlotta and Matilde Piluso. The winemaker Emiliano Falsini and the agronomist Stefano Dini follow every step of production.
The vines sit at 520 metres among the woods of the Sila, the mountains that rise behind Cosenza, inside their UNESCO biosphere reserve. The two slopes are called Maneggio and Anfiteatro. They get sun all day, and at night a cold wind comes down off the mountains. Some winters it snows on the rows. The ground is loam, and the slopes are so steep that every job is done by hand, between steps and terraces. CERVIM, the centre for mountain and steep-slope vineyards, recognises it as a heroic vineyard. A centuries-old olive grove wraps around the vines, with lavender and aromatic herbs along the old dry-stone walls. Horses, butterflies, bees and fireflies share the place.
All four wines ferment with their own yeasts. The reds go into small open vats, a quarter or more of the grapes as whole bunches, with the skins pushed back under gently every day. All four are Calabria IGT. Eleuteria is the main wine, Nerello Mascalese on its own, about 2,500 bottles a year. It spends 18 months in Allier oak barriques and chestnut tonneaux, then six months in steel and at least ten in bottle, and is never racked or filtered. Esmén Tetra blends the two Nerellos, four parts to one. It is picked plot by plot over a fortnight, and each plot ages apart for a year in the same wood before the final blend: about 4,000 bottles. Epicarma is a pale rosé of Nerello Cappuccio alone, around 1,500 bottles, six months in steel and unfiltered. The rarest is Eleuteria Special Edition, the same Nerello Mascalese aged 22 months in a cocciopesto amphora and sold in 600 numbered bottles. The labels pay tribute to the abbot Joachim of Fiore and to the Greek colonies of ancient Calabria, and Eleuteria's carries a Latin line that changes with every vintage.
The guides have followed the estate since its first wines. Gambero Rosso has listed Eleuteria among the Vini Rari of its annual guide, its pick of rare wines, more than once. In the 2027 edition it gave the Special Edition 2022 96 points. Bibenda gave Eleuteria Cinque Grappoli in 2022 and 2023, and Esmén Tetra has won Tre Bicchieri. The critic Ian D'Agata has scored each of three wines at 94 or more. In 2023 Epicarma took first place among rosés from native southern grapes at Radici del Sud.
Visits and tastings are by booking, through the estate or on Winedering. The two-hour visit, in English, Italian or Russian, takes two to twenty people round the winery and ends with a tasting of two wines, or a tasting with a buffet. A three-course lunch can be added. A ninety-minute visit to the vineyards and cellar is built around the Special Edition, with children free. Members of the estate's wine club can buy every vintage on sale, limited boxed sets and the olive oil from its online shop. The oil comes from the grove around the vines and was listed in Gambero Rosso's Oli d'Italia 2022.
Plate I · CALABRIA
Tenuta del Travale on the Calabria wine atlas
Pecorello
Winery
Tenuta del Travale
Rovito, Cosenza · Terre di Cosenza and the Pollino Foothills
Denominations Produced
Wine areaDOC
Grapes Used
Visit & Experiences
2 bookable experiences at Tenuta del Travale
2 tastings, checked by our editors. From €35.
Tasting & Tour
Natura non facit saltus. Eleuteria, a surprising natural wine
2h
From €35 per person
English · Italiano · Русский
Discover the Nerello mascalese variety with a special, familiar and informative wine tour at Tenuta del Travale
Book this tour
via Winedering
Tasting
Tasting of Eleuteria Special Edition - Among the 50 Rare Italian Wines in the Gambero Rosso 2025 Guide
1h 30
From €60 per person
English · Italiano
An exclusive experience to taste the flagship wine of Tenuta del Travale: the Eleuteria Special Edition, a rare wine aged in cocciopesto amp
Book this tasting
via Winedering
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What Tenuta del Travale makes
Tenuta del Travale's current bottle selection is easiest to understand through Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio.
Key grapes
Common questions
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At Via Travale 13 in Rovito, in the province of Cosenza, about nine kilometres from the city. The vineyard sits at 520 metres on the slopes of the Sila, inside its UNESCO biosphere reserve. Winedering lists the visits under nearby Lappano.
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