SCATÉDDA
Scatédda Cellar
THE HISTORY OF THE
FRASCIONE FAMILY
The Frascione family has peasant origins that go back many years. As early as the beginning of the eighteenth century in Bisaccia, a small village in the province of Avellino, situated in the eastern Apennines of Campania, there are records of various branches of the family.
They were simple, humble people, of peasant extraction, whose job was to make the land fertile, which at the time was not. The story goes that the forefather of the family was a certain Libero and that he had five sons and two daughters.
A curiosity concerning the names Libero and Severino, which are, in Bisaccia, almost exclusively used by the Frascione family and which are passed on from generation to generation.
Via Forno Giardino, an alleyway in the historic centre that leads directly into Piazza Duomo, has always been known as the street of the Scatedda, which is the nickname of most of the Frascione family and means spark.
Nicknames were never born by chance, but were defined by the wise, charismatic people of the village, who tried to capture in a term the peculiar characteristics of the person. The nickname was then passed down through the blood to children and descendants and came to connote an entire family, much more than the surname itself.
Here, our nickname, Scatedda, indicates speed, dynamism, but also the ability to ignite enthusiasm and start a fire.
In Bisaccia, Scatedda has always been synonymous of smart, cheerful, genuine people.
The family’s tradition with wine dates back to the beginning of the nineteenth century, when each branch of the Frascione family began to cultivate a small piece of vineyard for own consumption.
Soon the small, strictly family-run Scatedda vineyards multiplied and became famous in the area for producing an excellent wine, as genuine and with character as they were.
It is a common idea in our parts that wine tends to take on the characteristics of the people who make it, so wine and people reach a perfect symbiosis.
The territory of Bisaccia has always been suitable for winemaking, which in the beginning was mainly practiced by wealthy local families, who produced wine in large vineyards and then sold it to the public. Later this custom was replaced by a more ‘democratic’ viticulture, made up of many small family-run vineyards.
The districts on which our vineyards have long insisted are Isca, Santa Marena and Calaggio, among the most suitable for the quality of the soil, exposure and altitude.
From here, the Frascione family, in its various components, began to practice, as was once done, the temporary resale of wine. At the time of the sale, it was customary to place an oak twig on the doorstep as a message. Thus, at a certain time in the evening, the Scatedda street, like a small market, would fill up with people carrying in their pockets a small piece of spicy caciocavallo cheese, some beans or roasted chickpeas or even ordering the owner of the shop a good plate of cod, spending a few hours tasting wine with friends and playing cards.
From these humble and peasant origins and from this concept of “democratic” and straightforward wine-growing, within the reach of everyone, but always with great attention to the quality of the product, the tradition of the Cantina Scatedda was born, strongly linked to the territory and its customs.
Today we are in the seventh generation of the family engaged in viticulture, but the approach is the same, certainly practiced with the modernization of techniques and equipment, but always with feet firmly planted in the rural tradition from which we descend.
