Welcome to the South! Two great and rare red wines from the Amalfi Coast and Manduria

Jun 22 2023, 14:41 | by Gambero Rosso

In this episode of Rare Wines we stop in Manduria and Tramonti, discovering two red wines that tell the story of Southern Italy's wine-growing territory.

Welcome to the South! Today Rare Wines takes us to Campania and Puglia, discovering two powerful and structured wines that are nonetheless very drinkable and pleasant. The first stop is in Tramonti, on the Amalfi Coast. Here the four partners of Tenuta San Francesco enhance the area's traditional grape varieties, including tintore, the variety from which the red we present here derives. Pre-phylloxera plants, more than 150 years old for a great wine that is the product of this land.

The second wine comes from Manduria and could only be a Primitivo. Masseria Cuturi produces it in what can be called the estate's cru. Monte dei Diavoli is located in the centre of the estate, on a small hillside planted with vines, and the wine (that goes by the same name) is characterised by notes that take us directly back to the Manduria area made of sun, wind and sea.

Rare Wines: two great reds from the Amalfi Coast and Manduria

wine

Primitivo di Manduria Monte Diavoli 2019

Masseria Cuturi

Apulia

red

Score:

/100

PERSON | More than a person, we are talking about a family, Venetian by origin, already owners of a winery in the province of Verona - Massimago - and now committed to managing this beautiful estate in Puglia that includes a wisely restored masseria, and many hectares of land including forest, olive trees and, of course, vineyards. The Rossi-Chauvenet family acquired an estate dense with history. The masseria was founded in 1881 and for centuries belonged to the Schiavoni family. It seems that the origin of Primitivo in Manduria  land started from Cuturi. Don Tommaso Schiavoni Tafuri married the young countess Bianca Sabini of Altamura, who brought Primitivo rootstocks to these parts. The variety adapted well to these soils and this...

wine

È Iss Tintore Prephilloxera 2018

Tenuta San Francesco

Campania

red

Score:

/100

PERSON | It is a small ampelographic treasure chest that has been put together over the years by the winery's four founding partners Vincenzo D'Avino, Luigi Giordano, Gaetano and Generoso Bove. In their 16 hectares of vineyard cultivated in the impervious Tramonti district, on different plots, they guard the native varieties of the Amalfi Coast: pepella, ginestra, biancazita, biancatenera, falanghina for the whites, fragrant, fresh and with a marine edge; tintore, aglianico and piedirosso-from old, pre-phylloxera vineyards-for the reds, with great structure and austerity. VINEYARD | As the name implies, tintore is a very chromatically loaded grape. A number of centuries-old vines are grown here at Tenuta San Francesco, with ages ranging from 150 to 300 years. The planting system...