June 22, 2007
Free Field
A new Italian white wine has become a symbol of the fight against organized crime, incurring the wrath of gangsters from Naples because it was produced from grapes grown on land confiscated from a Mafia godfather.
Campo Libero, which means “Free Field,” was presented this month as the first wine made in Lazio region with grapes grown on land taken from an important member of the Camorra — as the Naples version of the Mafia is known.
The lightly sparkling white wine 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,” said Dario Campagna, chairman of Il Gabbiano.
Campagna, a 50-year-old with silver hair, had no previous expertise in wine-making. At the beginning he had to rely on the knowledge of local farmers and he is modest about Campo Libero’s bouquet, calling it a “farmer’s wine.”