Di Majo Norante
For years this was effectively the only estate putting Molise on a wine list at all — and it did it by farming native grapes on the Adriatic coast when everyone else had given up. Here's the Di Majo Norante house style, the Ramitello to start with, and the Molise red worth crossing the map for.
Name a Molise wine. If you can, there's a fair chance it's this one — and if you can't, that's exactly the point of the place.
Molise is Italy's forgotten region: the second-smallest, wedged between Abruzzo and Puglia, so overlooked that a running national joke insists it doesn't really exist. For a long stretch its wine barely existed on the market either. Di Majo Norante is the estate that changed that — a family farm near Campomarino, a few kilometres up from the Adriatic, that kept making serious wine from native grapes while the region around it emptied out. For years it was effectively the only Molise name a sommelier in Rome or New York could reach for. It's still the reference.
The estate that carried a region
The di Majo family didn't get here by chasing trends. They got here by staying — farming Montepulciano, Aglianico, Falanghina and Fiano on the warm coastal hills, working organically long before the word carried any marketing weight, and refusing to rip out the local vines in favour of whatever the export market wanted that decade. When almost nobody was fighting to define Molise wine, they quietly defined it.
The most telling thing they did was back Tintilia — the region's own native red, a grape that had nearly vanished from the hills entirely. Reviving a near-extinct variety in a region no one visits is not a commercial masterstroke. It's a statement of belief in a place. That's the whole temperament of this estate: rooted, patient, more interested in being genuinely of Molise than in being fashionable anywhere else.
Di Majo Norante didn't just survive in a forgotten region. It gave the region a wine worth remembering.
The wines
Warm, savoury, southern and honest — this is coastal southern Italy in the glass, built on native grapes and sunshine tempered by the Adriatic.
Start with Ramitello. It's the flagship Biferno red — Montepulciano with a hand of Aglianico — and the clearest, most affordable read on the house. Dark cherry and plum, herbs, a savoury earthiness and just enough grip to stand up to a grilled lamb chop. It's the honest introduction and, on most nights, the one to actually drink.
Above it sits Don Luigi, the estate at full stretch: old-vine Montepulciano, richer, deeper and built to age, the wine that proves this coast can make something serious and long-lived. And then there's Tintilia — the bottle that is purely, un-substitutably Molise. Peppery, structured, medium-bodied and a little wild, it's the wine to buy if you want to taste something you genuinely can't get anywhere else on earth.
The whites hold their own. Falanghina leads them — citrus, white flowers, a saline lift off the sea — with Fiano and Greco alongside, and a honeyed Moscato to close a meal. None of it is trying to be Burgundy. All of it tastes like the coast it grew on.
The setting
The vineyards sit on gentle hills near the Adriatic, close enough to the sea to feel its breeze and its light. That maritime moderation is the quiet advantage here — it keeps the reds savoury rather than jammy and gives the whites their coastal freshness, holding the southern sun in check. The soils are calcareous and clay-rich, the farming organic, and the whole feel of the place is agricultural and unhurried, a working farm rather than a showpiece. Molise doesn't do polish. It does authenticity, and this is where you taste it.
Visiting
Assume appointment-only and confirm the current format directly with the estate before you plan around it. This is a working coastal farm, not a tourist-built cellar door, and Molise as a whole sees a fraction of the wine traffic its neighbours do. That's not a drawback — it's the reason to go. You'll get the quiet, the coast, and a region that still feels undiscovered, without the queues of Tuscany or the polish of Piedmont.
If you can't make the trip, the wines travel well and cost far less than their quality suggests. A bottle of Ramitello is the easiest way to meet a region most people never taste at all.
What to buy
Let the vintage decide, then match the bottle to the occasion. For most tables, Ramitello is the smart pick — the house style, the food-friendliness, the value. If you want the estate's serious side and a wine to cellar, reach for Don Luigi. And if you take home only one thing you couldn't have found anywhere else, make it the Tintilia — proof that even Italy's most overlooked region has a grape, and a wine, worth the detour.
Common questions
Being the estate that kept Molise on the map. In Italy's smallest, least-known wine region, Di Majo Norante spent decades farming native grapes — Montepulciano, Aglianico, Falanghina, Fiano and the rare local Tintilia — on the Adriatic coast near Campomarino, working organically long before it was fashionable. For years it was one of very few Molise wines you'd ever see outside the region, and it's still the reference point.
Native and southern-Italian ones. The reds lean on Montepulciano and Aglianico — the backbone of the flagship Ramitello and the old-vine Don Luigi — plus the region's own almost-forgotten Tintilia. The whites are Falanghina, Fiano, Greco and Moscato. There's no international-variety makeover here; the whole point is to show what Molise's own grapes can do.
Start with Ramitello, the estate's flagship Biferno red and the clearest, most affordable statement of the house — Montepulciano and Aglianico, warm and savoury and food-ready. For the estate at full stretch, go to Don Luigi, the old-vine Montepulciano Riserva built to age. And if you want the wine that is purely, un-substitutably Molise, chase the Tintilia.
Treat it as appointment-only and confirm ahead — this is a working coastal estate near Campomarino, not a built-out tourist cellar door. Check the current visit format directly with the estate before planning a day around it. Molise sees very few wine tourists, which is precisely its charm; go for the quiet, not the crowds.
Glossary
- Tintilia
- Molise's own native red grape, once nearly extinct and now the region's signature. It gives structured, peppery, medium-bodied reds and is the clearest expression of Molise's identity. Di Majo Norante is among the producers most associated with its revival.
- Biferno
- The DOC that covers much of Molise's coastal wine, named for the Biferno river. Its reds are built mainly on Montepulciano with Aglianico — the appellation behind Di Majo Norante's Ramitello.
- Falanghina
- A crisp, floral southern-Italian white grape more famous in Campania but long grown here too — the backbone of the estate's whites, all citrus, white flowers and a saline coastal lift.