National Research Council and Duca Carlo Guarini Farming Enterprise work together in order to improve the quality of Salento wine.
The project is ambitious and marks a step forward in increasing the success of Salento wines.
Protagonists: the world of research and two agricultural enterprise, with the support of the Regione Puglia.
On May 2nd , 2006 a temporary association for this purpose was created between the CNR (National Research Council) and the Duca Carlo Guarini Farming Enterprise of Scorrano and the Santi Dimitri Farming Enterprise of Vincenzo Vallone of Galatina. After two years of research which have made it possible for the experts of the CNR to isolate the fermentation yeasts of the autochthonous 'negroamaro', thanks to the active collaboration of the Duca Carlo Guarini cellar, it is now intended to continue the research also with the 'primitivo' and experiment on large quantities, not only on a small scale, and then put the selected yeasts into production. Here the Regione Puglia has an important rôle, as it sees in the agroalimentary sector one of the priority sectors to be encouraged by the Regione which will finance the project "Autochthonous yeasts as fermentative starters for the production of Apulian quality wine." This is an important step ahead which moves attention from the fields, that is from the vineyards, to the finished product, that is the wine. "We want to select, mark and classify the vinestocks of yeasts typical of the different accessions of "Negroamaro" and "Primitivo", present in the various wine-producing areas in Apulia", declares Dott. Francesco Grieco of the National Research Council in charge of the project. The final aim is to create a cocktail of yeasts to be used in the fermentation of the musts which can be used by enologists in Apulia and elsewhere.
"The use of selected vinestocks, confirms Giovan Battista Guarini, will make it possible to express better the organoleptic features (aromas, structure and colour) typical of the most important DOC productions of the region, giving the wine produced its distinctive character, so that the typical features of the vine species can also be expressed during the delicate process of fermentation."
A thousand-year-old enterprise which produces innovations, that is the Duca Carlo Guarini Farming Enterprise. Since the 11th century when Roger (Ruggero) Guarini reached Apulia in the retinue of Robert Guiscard until our days with the four Guarini- Giovanbattista, Fabrizio, Anna and Januaria at the head of the family enterprise which has its head office in Scorrano, 30 Kilometres from Lecce. Having become the owners of many fiefs in the past, the Guarini family still keeps today farms and estates that cover about 700 hectares of land cultivated as vineyards, olive groves and sowable ground. A hundred hectares are found on the Piutri estate between Brindisi and Lecce in the countryside of Torchiarolo, and 70 hectares are vineyards, mostly autochthonous – 'Negroamaro', 'primitivo' and 'Malvasia nera'. The sandy, clayey soil and the particular microclimate, a consequence of the nearness to the Adriatic Sea by which the estate is washed, make this area one of the most suitable in Salento for wine-production. The vinestocks bury their roots among Roman coins and the remains of jars, witnesses of distant times in which Virgil from these coasts admired the mountains of Epirus (present-day Albania) and the men of the ancient Roman town of Valetium, to whom these places belonged, produced those wines that Pliny appreciated so much. At the beginning of the nineties, when very few people knew of the existence of 'primitivo' and 'negroamaro' grapes, and the people of Salento were almost ashamed to show the name of their autochthonous vine species, the Guarini produced the first bottle of pure 'Primitivo', writing the name of the vine species on the label. Since then a lot has been done to make typical Salento wines well-known, concentrating on Igt Salento and on the names of autochthonous vine species. At the last edition of Vinitaly in Verona pure 'malvasia nera', a unique product of its kind, was a great success. Swedes, Germans and Americans, but also well-known Italian enogastronomists, gave full marks to 'Malia' 2003, Igt Red Salento, a ruby-coloured wine with garnet shades, which has a delicate bouquet and a full, harmonic flavour, excellent throughout the meal. The wine-cellar of the Duca Carlo Guarini Farming Enterprise is in an old palace built at the end of the eighteenth century, where, however, all the phases of production are innovative and the best equipment for wine-making and controlling the temperature are used. There are two cask chambers: one has been made out of a hypogeum dug into the rock, in the 16th century used as an oil-mill, where the wine is left to settle in small and large oak casks and where the bottles of the various years are kept. The other is in a recently built construction and it is exactly here that the University and the CNR (National Research Council) have carried out experiments for the selection of autochthonous yeasts of 'Negroamaro' wine. THE VARIETIES OF WINE: BOEMONDO ('Primitivo'), VIGNE VECCHIE ('Primitivo'), PIUTRI ('Negroamaro'), CAMPO DI MARE ('Negroamaro'), ACCARDO ('Negroamaro', 'Montepulciano', 'Cabernet Sauvignon'), MURŔ ('Sauvignon blanc'), MALIA ('Malvasia nera'), I GALLI ('Negroamaro', 'Montepulciano', 'Malvasia nera'), BURDI ROSSO ('Negroamaro','Malvasia nera'), BURDI ROSATO ('Negroamaro'), BURDI BIANCO ('Bombino'), RARUM ('Negroamaro','Malvasia nera').
Information: Duca Carlo Guarini Farming Enterprise, Largo Frisari, 1, Corranno (LE)
Tel. 0836 460257 fax 460288 ducaguarini@tin.it
