I thought I’d met most of the eccentrics in Italian wine—the experimental outliers who’ve made an impact by following some singular intuition, rare grape or other personal muse. Then I met Luigi Cataldi Madonna in the hot, dry hills of Abruzzo. Charming and self-effacing, he proudly cackled in his smoker’s rasp: “I am the champion of all the crazies!”

Cataldi Madonna, 65, is a philosophy professor at the University of L’Aquila, in the stately mountain city still recovering from the deadly, devastating 2009 earthquake there. Twenty-one years ago, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and he considers it a plus for his craft.