Pescara vini

MUSIC TO LISTEN TO: “10 km from the city” – Ivano Fossati, Oscar Prudente

READING TIME: 3 minutes

Way back in 2005, during my first harvest as an apprentice, I had the good fortune to work with a very nice and distinguished Apulian winemaker, originally from Rutigliano, who carried out consultancy in Abruzzo at a newly opened wine cellar in Silvi, in the province of Teramo. He was a man of few words who at the same time communicated an apparent and pleasant soothing temperament, so much so that it was impossible to imagine him furious. Tall in stature, with deep blue eyes, slightly balding hair, distinguished and rather aristocratic bearing, so “super partes” that he was able to glide even on the wet and slippery cellar corridors filled with tangled pipes of all diameters and lengths. One torrid August afternoon, while I was starting the preparatory work for the harvest, I found myself faced with a series of oenological problems to solve, so much so that I was forced to go to the main operational headquarters of the aristocratic Apulian winemaker, near Canosa di Puglia. Every time I went south from Abruzzo, crossing the Tavoliere delle Puglie, I couldn’t help but lose my gaze in the boundless and colorful fields that characterize it in all seasons. A fertile territory that has nothing to envy to the Po Valley, if it weren’t for the temperatures that are tremendously hot in summer! It was the same that time too, a sultry heat accompanied me throughout the journey until the endless fields of the Capitanata gave way to immense expanses of vineyards and olive groves. A land that immediately showed its strong wine-growing and olive-growing vocation. Everything I expected except that it was also a place of production of sparkling wine bases. In that territory with hot summers I discovered that excellent wines were produced suitable for a classic or Martinotti method. White Bombino, Falanghina and Trebbiano grapes. Very often the grapes were harvested towards the end of July to be vinified with low sugar content and high acidity. Subsequently these wines were sent to other companies, far from the places of production, to satisfy buyers who appreciated their characteristics when blended with other varieties. It took years for the producers of the Tavoliere to acquire an awareness of the potential of their wines. This was also the case for Francesco, a stubborn producer of classic method sparkling wine who established his small cellar in the heart of the intricate historic center of San Severo. I have been tasting his sparkling wines for more than ten years, between fairs and exhibitions, which are now evolving and growing as the experience he has gained in the sector. One of four pioneering producers who with stubbornness and determination carry on their wine project, in a fertile agricultural area such as the Capitanata. Francesco’s is a small cellar that winds its way through the basements of the Apulian city, where a few thousand stacked bottles rest, like the many stones that make up the dry stone walls characteristic of the Gargano area. These producers are like white flies who are slowly making the art of producing a very artisanal wine take root, the classic method sparkling wine, in an agricultural area with a strong agro-industrial connotation, where raw materials often migrate to very distant places to be transformed.

As they say: “One swallow doesn’t make spring…who knows maybe two…”!