Bottle
Cap
It all began with Gregorio Perrucci, the eldest son of a family of agricultural labourers, an expert grafter in the service of the noble landowners of Manduria, who returned unharmed from the Second World War. There is a desire to rebuild Italy, but also to change it.
The Agrarian Reform forced the nobles to cede much of their land to the peasants, who began to reclaim it, plant vineyards and produce their own wine in collective structures called “palmenti”.
Gregorio is everyone’s point of reference for grafting the new primitive systems. Together with his brothers, he also started a brokerage business to sell the bulk wine produced by those families.
Gregorio, having grafted most of the new vineyards of the time, knows the qualities of primitivo linked to every type of soil: red earth, sand, black and white earth.
Costantino Perrucci, Gregorio’s eldest son, continues his mediation activity according to the teachings of his mentor, uncle Florenzo.
We are in the early 1960s, Italy’s liberation from poverty has now begun and the consumption of “Manduria” or “Sava” in northern Italy is very widespread, especially through emigrant families who set up bulk sales activities there.
Costantino and his brothers decide to equip themselves with a real cellar. The ancient millstones were giving way to modern cooperative cellars, where however the grapes were delivered collectively, sacrificing the individuality of the vineyards.
In 1973 the MEC (European Common Market) was formed and customs barriers in Europe began to be eliminated. Great opportunities are opening up for southern producers: Sicily first and immediately followed by Puglia.
Costantino Perrucci built the third cellar, well designed for the processing of large quantities of grapes and for the logistics capable of supplying entire tankers that sail weekly from the ports of Gallipoli, Taranto and Brindisi.
An average volume sold until the mid-1990s of around 100 million liters per year made it one of the major Italian exporters of bulk wine.
Gregory Perrucci, Costantino’s eldest son, who joined the company in 1989 to continue the family business, began a “return” to viticulture. Together with his brothers he began to set up a “corner” for quality winemaking in his father’s large company and in 1992 a cellar for bottling.
Gregory is dedicated to primitivo, purchasing interesting vineyards and modern winemaking techniques, many of which he learned from numerous trips to California. Trips in which he investigates the relationship between primitivo and Californian zinfandel and above all the reasons for the latter’s success, despite the completely “anonymous” diffusion of primitivo.
To strengthen the agricultural dimension of its production it relies on Salvatore Mero, a son of art of the ancient viticultural wisdom of the Primitivo.
At the beginning of the 90s the team gathered important collaborations: the arrival of the oenologist Roberto Cipresso, who at the time had gained experience in important companies in Montalcino, caused a sensation.
The Felline agricultural company began operating on the market in 1996, presenting itself with completely new, modern, clean Primitivi di Manduria; blends that had never been risky until then, like the Alberello: Primitivo and Negramaro; or the Vigna del Feudo: Primitivo, Montepulciano and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Felline Soc. Agricola a.r.l.
S.Comunale Santo Stasi I, 42
74024 Manduria (Ta) Italia
P.I. – C.F. 02939250730
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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.
Through collaboration with viticulturists from different territories of the region and oenologists with experience in quality winemaking, new productions from grapes that had until then been completely neglected or unknown are “offered” to the knowledge of journalists and importers: Ottavianello, Susumaniello (recovered by Gregory with the Torre Guaceto company), Fiano Minutolo (Sammartino company), as well as new versions of Negroamaro and Malvasia Nera (Castel di Salve company), Moscato Reale di Trani (De Filippo company), Troia and Montepulciano grapes (Paolo Petrilli company) and obviously the zoning of Primitivo (red, white, black earth and sand).
The Accademia dei Racemi includes among its consultants, in addition to Roberto Cipresso and Fabrizio Perrucci, Enzo Moiso and Luca Boaretti. Some companies created by the Accademia dei Racemi are still present with honor on the market. In addition to being talked about for its wines, the Accademia dei Racemi becomes a unique reference in the regional panorama for research, the study and experimentation of native vines.
For the examinations conducted on the relationships between Primitivo and Zinfandel, the history and experiments, as well as the request to update the list of synonyms regulated by the European Union, Gregory Perrucci is admitted as the only “non-American member” in the prestigious Californian association called Zap (Zinfandel Advocates and Producers).
A few years later, precisely in June 2002 after the scientific decree of the identity between Zinfandel and Primitivo, as well as between them and the Croatian Crnjelak Kastelansky, he was a speaker at the first International Conference on Zinfandel.
He gives a talk on the origins of primitivo and its relationship with Zagarese (who has passed away) in a joint session with Doug Beckett (Californian winemaker) and the legendary Miljenko Grgich, an icon of American winemaking for having produced two of the wines that defeated the French wines in the 1976 world blind competition in Paris.
