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lightly sparkling white wine which means free field
is made from Trebbiano grapes cultivated by Il Gabbiano
(The Seagull), a charity that employs people with troubled
backgrounds, such as drug addicts and former detainees.
"The fact that we could turn a land bought with
illegal earnings into something totally clean is the
most important message we could send," says Dario
Campagna, chairman of Il Gabbiano.
50-year old Campagna had no previous
expertise in wine-making. At the beginning he had to
rely on the knowledge of local farmers calling the bouquet
a "farmer's wine". He hopes it will symbolise
the value of fighting organised crime.
Law passed in 1996 by the Italian parliament, property
belonging to convicted Mafiosi can be used for social
purposes. In 2003, Il Gabbiano was given 10 hectares
of land that had been abandoned for years. It once belonged
to Francesco Schiavone, head of the
most powerful Mafia family of Naples.
The land was confiscated after Schiavone was convicted
and sentenced to life imprisonment. The gangster had
already devoted part of this land to growing grapes
that were illegally sold on the market.
This year Il Gabbiano produced 10,000
bottles of wine, but it hasn't been an easy job. Campagna,
a teetotaler, first asked local farmers for practical
help and advice. They failed to show up at the promised
times.
"Finally someone told us that one of Schiavone's
relatives lived in the area and the people were afraid
he would find out they were cooperating with us.
"This was our first real success," recalls
Campagna. But his success appears to have displeased
the former owners. One night last September, just before
the first harvest was due, unidentified saboteurs destroyed
half the crop by cutting the metal wire supporting the
vines, causing them to collapse.
But Campagna and his workers did not give up and last
March replanted the vines from scratch.
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