Ep. 251 Mauro Di Maggio (Consorzio Primitivo di Manduria) on Primitivo, Manduria, and Trulli

This podcast has been brought to you by Native Grape Odyssey, discovering the true essence of high quality wine from Europe. Find out more on native grape odyssey dot e u. Enjoy. It's from Europe. Follow Italian wine podcast on Facebook and Instagram. Hello. This is the Italian wine podcast of me Monty woody. My guest today is Mauro Dimajo. Mauro is the president of the consortio del primitivo de mandurio, which is the Growers one Congress consortium for the primitive Odium Manduria, DOC? Yeah. Exactly. We have a TOC and a TOCG, which is the sweet wine. The Dolce natural. Dolce natural accept. So, you from a wine growing family? How did you become president of the consortium? Well, if you're if you're born in a in agricultural family, you in the moment of your life, you realize you have to go back. I'm from there. Where were you born? I was born in Taranto, which is the capital town of the area. And so my family has been producing grapes and wine since generation, and that's the story of many of us. The, primitiligo de manduria, is, let's say, the most important doc of the South and Italy. Now it's it's importance is growing. And, the producers of the area, I'm, managing a company, a winery of the area, which is summer about all our colleagues have done a very good job in the last twenty years. We've been producing and selling and distributing all over the world. So we realized that it was the time to give strength to our work with organizing better the consult to. As a producer, you could do some things. You manage the vineyards. You you do the wines, and you sell them. As a consortium, you do other things. You take care of the appellation of the brand awareness of the Appalachian. You you you fight the imitation, the counterfeiting activities, the fake wines. The fake wines. And so, we felt it was the time to to go to the stepfather. So to work together, not just the single producer on the own producing and selling, but altogether, defend, defending what we've done. So how many producers are there? Affirmative with the Mandoria and the the docG reserve? The docG reserve, it's a very niche production. Okay. It's just, let's say, even, even less than, twenty thousand bottles. It's very it's a small production. While for the the primitivo de manduria class, you call, let's say, in reserve, we have, a little less than, let's say, seventy companies, seventy, seventy winers producing bottles in that with that sign. In terms of Italian quality wines of DOC or DOCG wines, you're quite near the top in terms of production. Is that correct or not? I think there there is, there are, a lot of wines with based on primitivo, and our goal in, the communication activity at the socio is to explain to people that the top of the pyramid of Primitivo wines is Mandunio wines. This is the traditional area. It is where the the traditional terroir, it it is the cradle of Primitivo, actually. So what makes it special as a zone? Why does, why does this particular grape, the primitive thrive. I think in, in every, I've been I studied it for every DLC. You have the the human part, the tech the techniques. You have the grape, and you have the te terraff. And then for us, the the grape is very special because primitivo means a very early ripening wine, one of before prima means before in Italy. So it arrives at the the end of August already. And the the primitivo as, the primitivo Doria area as a very, as a, a very, calcareous underground, which, with a very, small layer of soil. So very small production. Thin thin thin tops all over calque, calcareous, various clay. So which gives very low yeast, very low yields, very small production in terms of quantities, very strong concentration. So it is a very strong wine with a lot of structure in terms of alcohol and color and, with with a lot of fruit. Yeah. Yeah. So I've just got the production, so so most of the townships or communes are in the province of Taranto and Taranto is a port. It's right on the heel of the Italian boot, and then you got a, few, eighteen villages. Yeah. Fifteen in the province of Taranto, three in the province blendy. Okay. So in terms of local cuisine, I mean, Puulia's becoming very well known for its excellent beaches, for its excellent food. It's been a little bit, ignored maybe, and it's an up and coming region in terms of, I think in terms of awareness in Italy. So what about, the local food and and and tourism? The the recent in the in the past year's Buddha has become very popular for tourists. And we have a lot of English people living there, and, they call it the truly show you. Truly show. Yeah. So the truly is you can explain. What is the true love? As I was telling you earlier on, we have dyscalculus frogs. So when in the past, our ancestors had to plant new vineyard, they are to dig and rip rip off the stones. To take the stones away. Yeah. Yeah. And what did they do? They they do. They did, stones, walls and stone houses with that. And so in the different areas of Salento, which is the Penins of Pulja. You have different shapes of these houses, and the most well known is truly. Nicole truly. Yeah. Yeah. Which you have in the Valle Dithria, in the Ethiopia valley, which is the northern part. It's an area of Pulja, which is not Sallympus, north end in that. So, And it is a very distinctive landscape when you see these stone walls and you're driving around, and there are sheep there as well, and vineyards too. And it is it is unique. I mean, you're so used to having to spend a lot of time in Tuscany, for example. You you just don't really see those kind of stone walls. I think when you, when you are a traveler, it's much more Mediterranean than Italian, and, it reminds you of Greece more than other so Italy. And even because of the incredible sunlight, you have everything. It's beautiful because of that enormous amount of light, we have all around the year. But going back to cuisine, which is a very important thing to me, I think the most important and pairing for primitivo could be with, you know, we have a very traditional recipe of cooking the primitivo in a local tagine, let's say. Elaya clay pot. Yeah. In the near the fire, with a lamb pieces of lamb, with a so, so tomato very slowly cooked with, herbs like, how do you say, oregano? Oregana? Yeah. And with some wine. So with that, it's perfect. Let me tell you, but you can have it even with, still try with your English I try it with still turn blue cheese. Yes. I I would suggest primitivo even when we were twelve friends of bordeaux, for example, with, you know, the, the, the kind of recipe they do with meat and, red berries, the sweet sauce, the cut out the duck. Yep. Done with the sweet berry sauce. Sweet. Yes. Okay. Tell me about the tour of sweetness. Tell me about the, the DOCG, the primitivo de manduria Dolce, Naturale, DOCG. What's that? It's the real traditional original style of primitivo because primitivo because of its structure, it is, it is a lot of sugar. So Sugar pump. Yeah. Yes. Definitely. So the the the workers in the vineyards, they used to work for the owner, and at the end, traditionally, at the end of the arvest, they used to split the harvest in two apart for the owner and a part for them, and they used to leave for them the best lines in the vineyard to produce this sweet wine because Primitivo, as I told you, sir, as a a characteristic, which could be considered as a default in, when making terms, but actually it makes his richness because the in the bunch of primitivo, you have berries which are an ordinary ripening and berries which are, almost dried. This makes the sweetness of the of the of the wine. And then in the best vintages, you have the natural Apacimento. Otherwise, we bring we bring the the harvest inside the the cellar and when we let them dry for a few weeks. Yeah. That's the Apacimento, the drying period. Yes. I mean, one one of the quotes, faults, or characteristics of this particular great variety of the Primitivo is this, as you said, this uneven ripening. So this style of Dolcein Natruale that you've explained is a really kind of logical step. Isn't it? And I think that's a great example of adapting your wine making style to what local conditions give you? I I I agree. I think I'm I'm passionate about wine because in every region, you see the the struggle of the the people living there to produce wine to adapt the the style. And for us, this become, this is the the real, the archetypical style for primitive of the Dolce and Matrale, even if the production has a very niche production, but I think even because you can do Dolce and Natrale only with the best grades, very nice, concentration. Yeah. I mean, the yields are for the Dodge natural set much lower than they are for the, you know. Yes. You can have the thirty quintets per actor. It it's very concentrated wide. How do you add value to that though? I mean, a lot of the preconceptions about wines from the sub and Italy, are they good for blending for the north or historically they were, and they've been devalued, and they're not worth very much money. Actually, I have to tell you that I have it's twenty years that I've been working in the winery, and I had the chance to grow together with the history of this economical phase of Pulia. And for Pullian people, for Pullian wineries, we have become very strong in distributing all over the world and now the challenge is distributing and getting more and more brand awareness in Italy. Really? Because, I think if you go to many markets abroad, like in, Brazil, like in South is generic. Plimitivo is a standard for good wine. Even because of his versatile organoleptic, the It tastes. Yes. It's it goes very well with some very spicy cuisines with a lot of big game in Brazil and Argentina. So it's now in Italy that we are late a little bit because, you know, Italy, there is a lot of wine, a lot of production, a lot of history. So it's difficult to take your place under the sun. So it's much more difficult here in Italy than, abroad. Yeah. It's a good point, actually. The struggle, you know, to sell wine, to sell wine wine locally, when exports are obviously clearly going quite well. Anyway, I think it's a fantastic wine, like Pemitivo. I think it gets a lot of bad press sometimes. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I worked in California, and I'm that's when I had some fantastic Primitivo wines, and I'm biased because my late father norris Puyasi. I just wanna say thanks to my guest in Malo Dimacho for filling us in on the delights of the Primitivo from Manduria. Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting us, Monte. And also there's another lovely for you to talk about the local landscape. This is the stone walls I've forgotten about that. It's, I've got a city it, I just I was back in Pullio, and I you're driving or anything. Oh, this is like we have a place in England called the Lake District, which is they have these stone walls to keep the sheep in. And I felt it's like it's like the lake district within the Mediterranean. It's like it's not raining in where the lake district like, cold and foggy. And, it is a beautiful place to to to visit. It really is a stunning place that I'm biased. So please come. I will. Nice to meet you. Thanks a lot. It was a pleasure. Thank you. Thanks for tuning into the Italian wine podcast. Our channels are SoundCloud. Tunes, Spotify and Himalaya FM are also widely available on other podcast apps. Our official website is italian wine podcast dot com, and that's all one word. If you're using iTunes feel free to rate the podcast or write a review. Thanks. This podcast has been brought to you by Native Grape Odyssey, discover bring the true essence of high quality wine from Europe. Find out more on native grape odyssey dot e u. Enjoy. It's from Europe. Follow Italian white podcast on Facebook and Instagram.