Have you ever tasted or heard of the DOC Cacc'e Mmitte di Lucera? And of Paolo Petrilli's tomatoes? We are in the north of Puglia, in Contrada Motta della Regina. The flat landscape is enchanting, unspoiled, and you can feel the slowness. It is January 3, 2025, and as we travel along the white limestone roads surrounded by fields, we arrive at a magical place where time seems to have stood still.
We cross the entrance of the farmhouse and enter the courtyard, where we are warmly welcomed by Tiago, a dog with very white fur who leads us to our appointment with Paolo Petrilli and his wife Paola. From the very first glance, both convey elegant simplicity and genuine kindness, making us feel right at home.
Some do things randomly and some pay attention to things: we immediately realize that the Petrilli belong to the second category.
Paolo's story begins by walking among the vineyards of the winery, 11 in total, interrupted only by the constant sound of the wind that provides optimal conditions for organic farming, which has been practiced here since 1988. “We bought scions to graft,” Paolo recounts, “because we liked passing on the craft of the grafters who, sitting on the ground with the scion between their legs, would manually make the cleft graft.”
The king of the vines here is the Nero di Troia, accompanied by Sangiovese and Montepulciano for the usual blend of the DOC, along with a pinch of Bombino Bianco and Aglianico. No international varieties: by choice and territorial conviction, in line with the advice of the anarchist master Luigi Veronelli, with whom Paolo exchanged letters. The Troia grapes are harvested at the end of October, left to overripen, almost "dying on the vine." A variety extremely difficult to cultivate due to the risk that unexpected rains or fungal diseases, such as botrytis and downy mildew, could compromise the yield of the vintage, as has happened in the past.
It is a continuous challenge between man and nature, made of waits, risks, and courage.
Let's talk about this relatively unknown DOC: Cacc'e Mmitte, a wine of the farmers who had almost nothing, who would "spigolavano" (gather) in the vineyards of large estates, collecting here and there what was left over after the harvest and, taking it to vinify in borrowed presses, would shout: “Cacc' il mosto e mmitte l’uva!” (Put in the grapes and take out the must). A small DOC, with only 5 producers, slightly “betrayed”: short macerations are not carried out, and there is a tendency to allocate the white grapes to the sparkling of an extraordinary classic method pas dosé made from pure bombino bianco… Try it, if you are fortunate enough to find it, to believe!
The visit continues in the cellar, where winemaking takes place in small truncated conical tanks open from 10 quintals and without induction to fermentation. The aging varies: steel, barrique, and tonneaux of French oak from a master cooper from Treviso. The annual production is about 40 thousand bottles. We taste from the tank and as a preview, before the arrival of the Apulian tannins, the Rosato Motta del Lupo 2024, a wine made from Nero di Troia grapes: bright light coral pink with an astonishing Provençal style, floral and citrus scents. Delicious.
A Petrilli tomato is not just an ingredient: it is a story of hands, families, and memory.
The tomatoes – primarily of the Docet variety, a relative of the San Marzano – come from the fields of the company and are entrusted to the skilled hands of 60 (yes, you read that right, sixty) women from Lucera, divided into two teams for each daily shift. They are aged between 18 and 67, including daughters, mothers, sisters, and grandmothers, who often pass down knowledge and teachings within the same family. These 120 hands select the tomatoes that are harvested in April, wash them, blanch them, and peel them: they then end up in jars with a fresh basil leaf. Paola opens a jar of bright red peeled tomatoes, the aroma is intoxicating, genuine. They are sweet and juicy to just the right degree. It's almost like eating a soft, juicy candy. In the kitchen, they can become the stars of the simplest and most imaginative preparations: from the timeless bruschetta to spaghetti, to the unusual tartare made with Petrilli tomato fillets created by Spanish chef Ferran Adrià.
There follows, in voluptuous conviviality, tastings of Agramante, in honor of the king of the Moors of Africa from Orlando Furioso, and of Ferraù, both Cacc'e Mmitte DOC vintage 2022 which stand out for their aging, the first in steel, the second in wood, with different toasting techniques designed for each individual grape variety and, still from the 2022 vintage, the Igt Il Guerro from nero di Troia grapes. The fil rouge that is perceived and that unites these grand wines lies in their richness and expressive territoriality, in the pleasantness of balance, in the intense strength of the aromas, and in the extremely elegant tannins. But above all, in the mirror that fully reflects the care, aesthetic attention, and authentic passion of those who produce them. One last sip of wine, and we rise smiling from the table; the afternoon has flown by in stories and new delightful discoveries, and we come to the farewells, promising to see each other again after a few weeks in Florence for Pitti Taste.
