The Real Heart of Campania

My favorite season of the vineyard as a vinetender is winter. Why you say? Most people prefer spring and summer when all is green and fruitful. Winter is the time when a vine shows its true character – strengths, weaknesses and future potential. Without foliage to hide its imperfections, its raw structure is revealed. Gnarly trunks, strong arms or cordons, and branches weak or vigorous. The vinetender can tell by the vigor or its branches what the potential summer harvest will be.

So is it true of people. The desire of every traveler is to have the perfect experience, perfect service, perfect food, perfect wine, perfect accommodation, and perfect weather. When all of these elements come together we rave about the experience for years. Bravo to the hospitality industry partners who provide such.

But as we all know, perfection is not guaranteed. It is often in how adversity is handled that a business or person is judged.

Our hosts in Campagnia during the International Wine Tourism Conference tour had such a test. After a week of amazing destinations and perfection of so many things, snow blizzards, closed roads and airports, stranded guests, and abandoned planned visits could have put a gray haze on the experience.

It was in this that our Italian hosts and hostesses shown brightest. They gave us warm accommodations, stoked fireplaces, eucalyptus saunas, and repeatedly renewed our weather crippled WIFI to guarantee outside access. Tour guide volunteers Daniela Mastroberardino and Gaetano Petrillo quickly re-designed itineraries and routes to assure an educational and positive experience.

If you make it to Naples, Italy, please be sure to look for Terredora and Mastroberardino wines and take a tour on The Wine Bus. If you see Daniela ( a 5th generation Mastroberardino) or Gaetano, please tell them we said hello and sang their hospitality praises. They provided what we call the best in Texas Hospitality.