Cantina di San Marzano: “Sessantanni” Primitivo di Manduria DOP 2020

The Cantine San Marzano, located near the municipality of San Marzano di San Giuseppe, was founded as an association of 19 locally based families who have been cultivating vineyards for generations in the land between the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. With their great passion, they have given Apulian wine a distinctive profile and recognition in the wine world, without denying the ancient wine tradition of Salento that dates back more than 3,000 years. The cooperative, with around 1,200 winemakers managing about 1,500 hectares of vineyards, is an important economic factor in the otherwise not particularly prosperous southern Italian region.

At Cantine San Marzano, under the leadership of Mauro di Maggio, affordable, modern, elegant wines of different quality levels are produced with extensive experience and great expertise from authentic grape varieties, about four-fifths of which are exported abroad.

The climatic conditions around San Marzano are quite challenging, as the southern part of Apulia struggles with drought, frost, and the Scirocco wind. Due to the warm and dry wind from Africa, the vines of the winemaking community coordinated by Salvatore Ricchiardi are hardly affected by insects and fungi. Since the red, iron oxide-containing, and mostly calcareous soils in the province of Taranto are nutrient-poor and have only a thin humus layer, vineyard yields are naturally limited. The vineyard hills are mainly planted with red and white indigenous varieties such as Fiano, Verdeca, Malvasia Nera, Negroamaro, and Primitivo. The large stocks of very old Primitivo vines are extremely valuable. They are particularly low-yielding at 3,000 kilograms per hectare and provide the grapes for the top wine 'Sessantanni,' crafted by the inspired cellar master Mario Ercolino. This noble drop won, among other awards, the 2009 International Wine & Spirit Competition in London in the category 'Best Single-Varietal Red Wine in the World.'

San Marzano impresses not only with excellent grape quality but, after extensive renovation and major investments, is today the most modern and technically best-equipped winery in Apulia. It is run by a highly motivated team consisting of qualified oenologists and agronomists who are ambitious to produce the best wines in Apulia in the long term. Every step of the production process—from the vineyard to bottling—is carefully controlled and documented to continuously improve the quality of the wide range.