The Development of Cantina Primo Re

I came in contact through networking with a winery in Puglia, Cantina Primo Re, that is just starting out from the ground up with their first release this coming spring. Typically I won't share stories of a winery I haven't visited or met with representatives of the winery and/or at the least tasted their wines. I thought it would be interesting though in sharing this story and learning about the trials and tribulations of one couple's story. Enjoy!

Tell me about the history of winemaking in Nicola’s family and his background & experience in enology.

Nicola’s family has been producing grapes at least five generations. His father had always worked at the family vineyards working with the primitivo and negroamaro grapes, selling them to a local cooperative. Nobody in his family had ever produced wine, apart from small quantities reserved for the family.

Nicola

Nicola grew up “between the vines” but soon decided that being a winegrower wasn’t enough for him. This is the reason he moved to Tuscany and later to Piedmont to study viticulture & enology science, which in Italy is a 5 year degree (Bachelor + Master). His Bachelor degree at Florence concluded with work at the prestigious winery, Barone Ricasoli. His Master degree in Piedmont increased his knowledge of fine wines such as Barolo and Barbaresco. At the university he also worked on a project to improve the quality of the barbera grape and his thesis on infrared spectrophotometry was a significant success.

Nicola graduated from the university at the beginning of winter so he moved to Argentina where it was harvest time and worked for a big company between Rioja’s mountains. By that time he met his future wife Natalia (who is Argentinian) and after harvest they moved back to Italy where he secured a job in a historical wine cooperative in Salento as a junior winemaker. However, after one year of working with the co-op, the economic situation in Italy worsened, so Nicola left his job and we went back to Argentina, where he worked as an assistant winemaker and supervisor for the same company in La Rioja.

Following that position, he secured a job at a prestigious English sparkling wine company, Nyetimber, during the harvest. Later on they moved to Romania where he was offered a position as head winemaker at a boutique winery. There, Nicola produced a rosé which was recognized, two years in a row, as the Best Rosé Wine of Romania.

They lived two years in Romania and then decided to move back to Italy to work with their vineyards and open their own winery.

Nicola and Natalia

Why did you choose Italy to settle down and open a winery and even further why Salento in Puglia?

Their big dream had always been to run their own winery, but the economic situation at the beginning wasn’t good enough to pursue their dream. That, together with their passion for traveling and for different cultures, was the reason for their continuous relocations. As soon as their economic situation got better, they didn’t hesitate to come back “home”, where they had their family vineyards and could produce their own wine.

Salento is an excellent area to produce wine thanks to the typical Mediterranean weather,. Their are strong winds, poor rains and the mitigating influence of the sea. Intense temperature changes between day and night help salentinian grapes ripen slowly; enhancing aromas to form a rich bouquet. The terroir of this area is characteristically red, rich in ferrous components, with clay and limestone layers that produce generous, full-bodied, velvety and flavorsome wines.

What are your future plans for the winery (I did see that you plan to expand to susumaniello and verdeca in the future)?

This year they're busy getting everything ready for the launching, that hopefully will be in spring. They've been working very hard to expand their sales network, sending samples to wine experts, participating in wine contests, finishing their website and e-shop, organizing a proper launching event and much more. They want to be completely ready by the time of the launching!

In the vineyards they're waiting for the authorizations to plant new varieties including susmaniello and verdeca. In Italy you can’t just plant new vineyards when you want. The Government has to authorize you to do that and requests are accepted only once a year. They're also buying new agricultural machinery this year that is necessary to properly work at organic vineyards.

Another project for upcoming years include launching a rosé wine different from typical Apulian rosé, and later a white wine, ideally a pure Verdeca.

How large is the winery in terms of acreage for vineyards and what is the breakdown of how much of each grape you will be producing?

They own a small, boutique winery. Currently they have 5.5 hectares of vineyards (around 13.6 acres) of negroamaro, primitivo and malvasia nera. Their grape production at this moment is the following:

• 30 tons of negroamaro
• 8 tons of primitivo
• 3 tons of malvasia

Not all the grapes are involved in wine production; some of them will be used in the future for other blends/wines (for example, the malvasia nera will be used blended with negroamaro to produce Salice Salentino, a very famous red blend).

I know your first release is this spring. How many bottles do you anticipate producing?

Hopefully their first release is, in fact, this spring (they're still dealing with some bureaucratic issues, typical of Italy). They'll launch initially 6,000 bottles, both 100% primitivo (Emissario) and 100% negroamaro (Presagio) wines of the 2015 vintage, with possibly another 6,000 bottles before the end of the year. All their wines are certified organic and suitable for vegans and vegetarians as registered at The Vegan Society.

Will you export and if so where?

Yes, they're very interested in exporting their wines. They've established contacts in Holland, Germany, Japan and Czech Republic. They're looking forward to expanding their network especially in North America and Central/North Europe.

What are your food suggestions to pair with these wines?

They recommend pairing Emissario (our primitivo red wine) with all first and second courses containing red sauces and an oily taste, meat and venison. For vegans and vegetarians they suggest grilled tofu or pasta with vegetables and wild mushrooms.
For Presagio (our negroamaro red wine) they recommend all Mediterranean dishes, beef or rabbit grilled meat or cacciatora, and medium-hard cheeses of medium seasoning. They suggest vegans and vegetarians to pair our negroamaro with beans pancotto or amaranth and legumes burgers.


How can you become part of what Cantina Primo Re will be releasing?
They suggest joining their Wine Club by leaving his/her e-mail at their website www.cantinaprimore.it. All members will receive exclusive contents together with a 20% off-discount to buy wines, free vineyard tours, gift cards for your birthday and their original e-books in pdf for free plus more. They will also have more tips for pairing their wines not only with food but also via books, songs and films. There will be different sections written exclusively by specialists where wine lovers/musicians will suggest songs to listen to while tasting their wines, cinema lovers will recommend the best movies to watch, food bloggers will create original recipes to pair with their wines, etc.

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*All pictures copyright of Cantina Primo Re.

The Land and Soul of Ceretto

It’s an exciting month for our Italian Food, Wine & Travel group as we explore nebbiolo throughout all regions of Italy.  The name nebbiolo is derived from the Piemontese word for nebbia, meaning fog.  It derives from the fog that comes down from the mountains and roles over the Po Valley helping with the ripening of these grapes.  

Where to find Nebbiolo?
Many are familiar with this fantastic grape via the wines of Barolo and Barberesco, but you can find it outside southern Piedmont including Lombardia where it's known as chiavennasca in the valtellina area and the Valle d’Aosta region in northwestern Italy.  It’s also found in northern Piedmont in the areas of Gattinara and Ghemme where it’s known as spanna.  Of course it takes own its own character depending upon where it is produced and this is what our group will share with you today.

Barbaresco with Ceretto
Today I chose to stay within southern Piedmont in Barbaresco since I haven’t written about this region in some time and I recently had a 2012 Ceretto Barbaresco I wanted to share.  I’ve written about nebbiolo and it’s different forms previously when I wrote about the differences between nebbiolo from northern and southern Piedmont and I’ve shared tidbits throughout time over nebbiolo from other regions that you'll find on my site.

The Ceretto brand was established back in the 1930's when Riccardo Ceretto began producing wine in Alba.  His sons, Marcello and Bruno, took over the business in the 60's and really began to take it up a notch.  They were purchasing grapes for about 15 years from local owners of parcels of land that they wanted to get their hands on.  Land opportunities becoming available for purchase is like finding gold in Italy, especially this area.  Their father, Riccardo, didn't believe in purchasing land as he didn't feel anyone gets rich off the soil and he was so used to purchasing grapes himself.  The sons waited and waited until the opportunity was available to purchase some cru land in the Roero and Langhe.  This was a turning point for the Ceretto family being able to own and have complete control over tending to the vineyards.  Today, the winery's vision is carried on by the 3rd generation of the Ceretto family that took over in 1999.

3rd generation of the Ceretto family

This area that Ceretto is located in, known as the Langhe in southern Italy, is warmer with lots of sunlight and clay soil that aids in producing wines that are big and bold with ripe fruit and higher alcohol.  In 2015 the areas of the Langhe, Roero and Monferrato were recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Also in 2015 the Ceretto estate became organically certified and their barolo and barbaresco wines became produced biodynamically.  The goal is to eventually make all 160 hectacres of estate owned vineyard both organic and biodynamically produced.

The Tenuta Monsordo Bernardina. What a view!

The 2012 Ceretto Barbaresco wine I tasted I actually preferred over their barolo.  This wine was originally their top wine also know as Barbaresco Asij until the sons purchased the single-vineyard cru sites. Today their single vineyard wines are Barbaresco Asili and Barbaresco Bernadot.  I don't have the experience trying these yet, but would love to.  Who wouldn't?!  The Ceretto Barbaresco is produced from their estate in Monsordo Bernardina in Alba.  Part of the grapes are sourced from the Asili and Treiso areas of the Ceretto estates.  Ruby red in color this wine was full of dried cherries on the nose followed by ripe fruit on the palate with integrated tannins along with some vanilla and spice and a lengthy finish. It's aged 24 months in barriques and 6 months in the bottle.  SRP $49.99

Monsordo Bernardina wine cellar

If you’re curious about nebbiolo produced in Barolo and Barbaresco I have written about the differences between Barolo and Barbaresco previously as well.

Don't just stop there. If you're a nebbiolo lover you're in for a treat.  Here are my fellow wine bloggers sharing their love for nebbiolo.  If you catch this in time you can join us live on Twitter Saturday February 4th 11am EST at #ItalianFWT to chat live with us.

• Jill from L’occasion shares The Test in Life is Unity: G. D. Vajra Langhe Nebbiolo
• Susannah from Avvinare shares Discover Off the Beaten Path Nebbiolos from the Caluso, Carema and Canavese
• Lauren from The Swirling Dervish shares 2015 Cantalupo “Il Mimo” Rosato Nebbiolo
• Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla shares Zuppa di Cipolla al Vino Rosso + Bava’s “Gionson” Nebbiolo
• Mike from Undiscovered Italy shares Let’s Go Grumello
• Gwen from Wine Predator shares Silver and Gold: Nebbiolo from Santa Barbara and Italy
• Jeff from FoodWineClick! shares Nebbiolo Grows On My Desert Island

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*All pictures copyright of Ceretto.

What it Means to be a True #Winelover

There's nothing like conversing with friends over a glass of wine and meeting other lovers of wine, but how about meeting the founder of the #winelover community that gathers all those passionate about wine from around the world? This interview is with Luiz Alberto, a local winelover to the Boston area, whom is a wine educator and communicator that has created an amazing community of winelovers. 

I believe you're Italian by blood. What part of Italy does your family originate from?

My father’s side of the family comes from the Veneto and my mother’s side from Lombardy.

What originally got you into wine?
 
Well, this question has 2 answers: 1) I got into liking to drink wine as a child. The entire family would get together on Sundays for lunch and wine was a big part of it. The adults would drink wine and we (the kids) would drink what we thought was wine, but that actually was a mixture of water (a lot of it!), sugar, and a tiny little bit of wine. 

2) I got into liking to learn about wine when I moved to the US back in 1996. After going to a couple of wine stores and finding out how many options were available, I decided that I needed to learn about it. And then my life changed! :)

Being founder of the #winelover community, what influenced you to start this group? How large is it now?
 
Before I answer your question, let me tell you what “#winelover" is. #winelover is a strong, connected, and dynamic community that expresses itself through the use of social media. The community exists to promote cooperation and enjoyment among people who love wine. Periodic hangouts throughout the world are organized for the community to have the opportunity to get together in ‘real life’. It’s been a little over 4 years since I started it and this statement makes it very clear to me  why we needed such a community. We needed to get together to share wine! Anyway, at first I thought it was going to be only me and my 7 friends… but it become a huge thing and today we have over 21,000 members on our group and it’s growing everyday.

I know you're currently enrolled in the prestigious Masters of Wine program.  Where do you currently stand with the program?
 
I’ve been in the Masters of Wine program since 2009. I sat the exam for the first time last year in June and I didn’t pass. The examinations are taking place again now but I’m not trying this year. Basically my status is “on hold” at this point, but I have to make a decision in September if I will go back to the program or not. Too many things on my plate at the moment and studying for the MW program may put my life out of balance. Let’s see…

Tell me about the Italian Wine Ambassador program and how that has benefited your career in wine? 

"330 DOCs, 73 DOCGs and over 541 native grape varieties” (Source: D’Agata I. Native Wine Grapes of Italy, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2014). Yes, you read it right… and this (D’Agata’s book) was the syllabus for our course to become Italian Wine Ambassadors. I studied really hard and I was "top 5" of a class of 50 very prepared students. Quite an honor, but hard to measure how it has impacted my wine career. I know it has benefited me (I know I learned a lot!), but people don’t really tell me why I’m invited to be a speaker or to attend an important seminar.

When it comes to the world of wines where do Italian wines rank for you?

This question is very hard to answer as I have many passions in the world of wine. However, if you count the number of visits to a country for wine reasons as the criteria to determine the ranking, then certainly Italy comes as number 1. I have been to Italy dozens of times and I visited all their wine regions with the exception of one: Sardinia. But this, hopefully, will be fixed soon!

It may be hard to do, but what are some of your favorite Italian grapes? 
 
A question that begs for an impossible answer! It would be easy to go with the usual suspects and say that I love Sangiovese and Nebbiolo (which I do!) but I would be unfair to so many others that I don’t think I should even try… Do you remember how I started this interview? Yes… 541 native grape varieties!!

What regions/areas do you feel produce some of the best values for Italian wines? 
 
Value? Here’s one of its definitions: "The extent to which a good or service is perceived by its customer to meet his or her needs or wants, measured by customer's willingness to pay for it. It commonly depends more on the customer's perception of the worth of the product than on its intrinsic value.” What does it mean? It means that a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino at $50.00 can be a great value to a consumer that praises that wine, while a bottle of Donnie (a DOC wine from Calabria made from Gaglioppo with some blending of Greco nero and Mantonico nero) that costs $5.00 seems not to be such a good deal because you never heard of it, right? In other words, all Italian wine regions have amazing values. You just need to trust your own palate and be adventurous.

What role and influence do you feel social media and wine bloggers have on the wine industry?
 
I believe that wine and social media are a great pairing. As much as the traditional wine media (e.g. Wine Spectator) is still influential to consumers, more and more people base their buying decisions on social media and wine bloggers today. The result of this “change of the guard” is that the role of some of the most influential bloggers is forcing brands to become very creative to build interaction with their consumers and, at the end of the day, generate sales. But it’s definitely not only about famous names with big audiences. Social media has enabled people to make their wine choices based on what their friends liked (or didn’t like) and that they shared via Tweeter, Facebook, or Instagram. And this influence will only grow in years to come. The future is bright.

*Pictures were provided by Luiz Alberto.  This article was originally published for my column, Uncorked Italy, in the former Bostoniano magazine.

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