It was really an exceptional year for wine, 1997. And it could not be otherwise, for the Primitivo di Manduria doc. Perhaps, it was the scent released by the vines that were preparing to produce those few beautiful bunches and the aware foreboding of the quality of the wine that would come out, to lead a small group of friends to become enthusiastic, in that summer, about the idea of setting up a Consortium of companies that would promote, protect and enhance a product until that day almost considered the "son of a lesser god".
The instrument was the law no.164 of 1992, and on that device they arrived to the notary constitution, on 16th February 1988, where the first statute was recorded by the signing of ten companies, both social and private, certainly among the most representative and illuminated in the area. After that first, essential starting point, every effort was aimed at increasing the number of adherents to get that 40% of the representativeness of the product in protection, the minimum required by law for ministerial recognition, which was finally achieved with the Ministerial Decree of 5th April 2002.
Today, finally, we are able to operate institutionally in the service of producing companies deserving the success achieved thanks to a certain quality to a universally recognized typicality.
The representativeness is increased and, with it, the awareness of producers who, despite the specificity of each individual company, should take a common path guaranteeing a constant minimum quality to make success not fleeting meteor, but beautiful and well–established reality. This task is almost a mission, for the current board of directors who, through shared initiatives and programs, tends to the protection, enhancement and promotion of the Primitivo di Manduria: an ancient wine for an emerging DOC.
