Cantine Due Palme

The Cantine Due Palme is a successful example of the fact that prejudices against large cooperatives are often wrong. Because the Cantine Due Palme is large. And incredibly successful. Worldwide. This is a man's "fault". Angelo Maci. A scion of a small winemaking family in Salento recognized the problems of the winegrowers in Puglia at the end of the 1980s. Instead of quality, quantity was produced and delivered mainly as cask wine at rock-bottom prices to better known wine regions as blended wine. But Angelo Maci began to convince small winegrowers to do better, to join the cooperative and gradually increase quality, investing in modern cellar technology and sustainable cultivation.

Over the decades, 15 members have grown to over 1,000, who nurture and care for the best grapes according to the strict quality guidelines of the agronomists and then deliver them to the Cantine Due Palme, where a team of experienced oenologists can apply the appropriate cellar technology to the individual sites and selected grapes to produce high-quality and authentic wines.

"To cultivate a good vineyard, you must first cultivate the person who works it. Wine exists only because there are people who cultivate the soil and look after the grapes every day," says long-term president Maci. But his visions and quite risky investments went much further. Because he was aware that you have to sell the wines. And at prices that are moderate, but which also secure the income of all members and create scope for new investments. These ideas and measures were so successful that other cooperatives joined Due Palme, such as the then much better known Cantine Riforma Fondiaria in Celline and Monteroni Arnesano or Angelini in San Pietro Vernotico and Cantina San Gaetano in Lizzano. Today they all sail under one flag. With a successful sales team they export to over 40 countries around the globe.

Today, the grapes come from over 2,500 hectares of cultivated land. The land between the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea has long been a third sea, one of vines. Many companies outside the cooperative society still produce average mass goods for the discounters here. Due to the size that Cantine Due Palme has reached, one is in the comfortable situation to select and employ qualified personnel. Today the team of agronomists advises the members, among other things, on which soils the suitable grape varieties should be cultivated.

These soils are sandy, loamy and interspersed with clay, but in many places they are only a relatively thin layer on calcareous rocky ridges. Due to the constant sea breezes from both sides of the often only 50 km wide cultivation area, the grapes always remain healthy and hardly any chemical intervention is required. The hot daytime temperatures alternate with cool, windy nights, which makes fruit and good acidity structure possible. We pay close attention to all these influences and select the grapes from the best locations.

For some years now, Cantine Due Palme has also been using almost extinct, autochthonous grape varieties such as Susumaniello and Nero di Troja. In addition, there are of course the draught horses Primitivo and Negroamaro next to Malvasia Nera, Aglianico, Syrah and the white varieties Fiano, Falanghina, Vermentino, Malvasia, Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio. SUPERIORE.DE

"Cantine Due Palme ... is a good example that with good work and clear ideas a cooperative winery can become a safe haven for many small winegrowers."Gambero Rosso 2014