Storia
Background
Vines are thought to have first been cultivated on the hills of Puglia, Basilicata and Campania, but by the 19th century most vineyards in southern Italy had been abandoned. The two World Wars in the first half of the 20th century held back Italian agriculture and pushed many farmers to seek a better life abroad.
Bulk sales
The estates that make up Accademia dei Racemi are very small. A few decades ago they could sell their wines only in bulk to Spain, France and northern Italy, where the wines were used illegally to improve weaker vintages.
Racemi
Racemi set out to introduce local wines beyond the region and later to the international market. The Accademia has a large winery built by Constantino Perrucci and now managed by his son Gregorio. In 1998 Gregorio Perrucci became the first to release a wine in the Primitivo di Manduria DOC category; before then all Primitivo wines were bottled as table wines.
Recent decades
Over the past two decades a new generation of winemakers has been bringing long-neglected vineyards back to life in southern Italy, among them Gregorio Perrucci, who leads Accademia dei Racemi. Racemi's growers have restored vineyards of Negroamaro and Primitivo and saved wines from the native Susumaniello and Ottavianello grapes from disappearing. By updating grape-growing and winemaking methods, the estates have raised Puglia's winemaking profile in Italy and abroad.
Terroir
Puglia has a wide variety of soils, which shapes the taste and character of its wines.
- Red soils rich in iron and potassium give fruity wines with low acidity.
- Black earth gives good acidity and spice.
- Some vineyards have stony soils with calcareous tuff.
- Others are sandy, with a composition similar to the soils of Chilean vineyards, and are resistant to phylloxera.
The climate is hot and dry.
Vinificazione
Salvatore Mero, the vineyard specialist, prefers planting vines grafted onto American rootstock, which can cope with the region's hot, dry climate. The estates have updated their grape-growing methods.
Accademia has a large winery built by Constantino Perrucci and now managed by his son Gregorio. Each estate in the group makes a limited amount of wine, in keeping with the winemaking traditions of southern Italy, and the estates have updated their winemaking methods.
Filosofia
The estates describe themselves as committed to the winemaking traditions of southern Italy, while updating their grape-growing and winemaking methods. Racemi set out to bring local wines to markets beyond the region and later to international markets.
Vini
Cicala Rose Salento IGT
Dunico Primitivo di Manduria DOC
Fellone Primitivo Puglia IGP
Giravolta Primitivo di Manduria DOC
Sinfarosa Zinfandel Primitivo di Manduria DOC
I Monili Tarantino Primitivo IGP
Vermentino Salento IGT
Anarkos Puglia IGT
Alberello Salento IGT
Vigna Del Feudo Puglia IGT
I Monili Tarantino IGP
Sum Puglia IGT
Primitivo di Manduria DOP
