Racemes were, in the past, an important "fruit" for the Primitivo di Manduria winemakers.

Racconti

Racemes were, in the past, an important “fruit” for the Primitivo di Manduria winemakers.

However, their scientific origin was completely unknown to them, so that they relied on a legend to give themselves an explanation.

Actually, it is fertility: basal buds are fruitful.

This second fruiting, which forms on the “femminelle” (the secondary branches of the plant), ripens about a month after the main grape bunches, thus requiring a “second harvest”.

And of course a second vinification!

These racemes are smaller, rounder and in some cases even more abundant than the main bunches harvested in early September, so that farmers used to call the Primitivo “signurinu”, meaning a small, finished and orderly noble.

This is because the plant regulates itself producing a balanced quantity of main bunches first and racemes after.

There was great respect for the racemes and great consideration for their vinification, which was in any case easier: their early October ripening yielded fruits with lower sugar content and a more marked acidity.

The result was a more elegant wine, excellent to cut the very full-bodied one produced with the main bunches, giving delicacy to the final product.

Indeed, the versatility of these late bunches was fully exploited, above all, by the several families who vinified on their own in the millstones or in their houses basements, storing everything in the famous “capasoni”. The racemes, in fact, constituted a real “second chance”. If something went wrong during the main bunches harvest (bad weather, unfertilized flowers or simply winemaking mistakes), hopes and expectations were placed on the second harvest.

For this reason some farmers vinified the racemes like the main bunches themselves, bringing them to a light or medium withering to obtain a higher alcohol content and body; others instead vinified them “alla fiorentina”, leaving the must on the skins for a very little time, obtaining a wine with a feeble color, “claret” style, generally the wine stocked for the summer months; there were also those who over ripened the racemes and then vinified them with the same technique, obtaining a sweet rosé, a gem for special occasions and family celebrations.

In any case, bunches and racemes of Primitivo, according to producers of all the towns around Manduria (Sava, Maruggio, Avetrana, Torricella) were considered two inseparable dimensions of the same plant. Their production was widespread and a meticulous care and attention was given to both. Since the establishment of the DOC, in 1974, the two harvests were rightfully considered  suitable for the production of Primitivo di Manduria DOC.

Until when new consultants, “experts”, called by the Protection Consortium to express their opinion on the procedural guideline updating, convinced the presidents of the wine cooperatives (meaning unbeknown to the farmers) to repudiate these pretty bunches and, on the basis of a presumed qualitative inferiority, to oust them from the production of Primitivo di Manduria doc.

That was just 20 years ago.

Since then, the loneliness of the Primitivo racemes has begun.

Bureaucratically neglected and discriminated, but stubbornly still produced and vinified by many winemakers who know their true potential and use them as secret body double.

racemi
Etichetta ambientale
The loneliness of the Primitivo racemes
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Bottiglia
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Tappo
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Gabbietta
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Capsula
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accademia dei racemi
Nel 1997 Gregory Perrucci avvia il progetto Accademia dei Racemi, con lo scopo di individuare, sperimentare e portare sul mercato le varietà autoctone della Puglia.

Attraverso la collaborazione con viticultori di territori diversi della regione ed enologi con esperienze nelle vinificazioni di qualità, vengono “offerti” alla conoscenza di giornalisti e importatori le nuove produzioni da uve fino ad allora del tutto trascurate o sconosciute:

Ottavianello, Susumaniello (recuperato da Gregory con l’azienda Torre Guaceto), Fiano Minutolo (azienda Sammartino), oltre a nuove versioni di Negroamaro e Malvasia Nera (azienda Castel di Salve), Moscato Reale di Trani (azienda De Filippo), uva di Troia e Montepulciano (azienda Paolo Petrilli) e ovviamente la zonazione di Primitivo (terra rossa, bianca, nera e sabbia).

L’Accademia dei Racemi annovera tra le consulenze, oltre a Roberto Cipresso e Fabrizio Perrucci, Enzo Moiso, Luca Boaretti. Tuttora alcune aziende create dall’Accademia dei Racemi sono presenti con onore sul mercato.

Oltre a far parlare di sé per i propri vini, l’Accademia dei Racemi diventa un riferimento unico nel panorama regionale per la ricerca, lo studio, la sperimentazione dei vitigni autoctoni.

Per gli esami condotti sulle relazioni tra Primitivo e Zinfandel, la storia e le sperimentazioni, nonché la richiesta di aggiornamento dell’elenco dei sinonimi regolamentato dalla Unione Europea, Gregory Perrucci viene ammesso come unico “membro non americano” nella prestigiosa associazione californiana denominata Zap (Zinfandel Advocates and Producers).

Alcuni anni dopo, precisamente nel giugno 2002 dopo la decretazione scientifica dell’identità tra Zinfandel e Primitivo, nonché tra essi e il croato Crnjelak Kastelansky, è relatore al primo Convegno Internazionale sullo Zinfandel. Tiene una relazione sulle origini del primitivo e i suoi rapporti con lo Zagarese (scomparso) in una sessione congiunta con Doug Beckett (enologo californiano) e il mitico Miljenko Grgich, icona dell’enologia americana per avere prodotto due dei vini che nel concorso mondiale di Parigi del 1976 alla cieca sbaragliarono i vini francesi.