AUTHENTIC AND NATIVE HARVEST

In fact, in the company's vineyards, no teams of third-party harvesters are employed but local people take care of the manually harvested bunches.

<< San Donaci is an agricultural municipality and for us it is important to involve the inhabitants, an element that strengthens the identity of our wine as well as representing a moment of cohesion >>. Says the winemaker Nicola Leo. << Experienced together with our community, the harvest is enriched with meaning: not only a moment of celebration, but also an incentive to remain tied to one's land. >>

After Chardonnay, Fiano and Pinot Grigio , harvested at night to avoid high temperatures, the harvest of Primitivo is now underway, whose maturation was slowed down by the great heat of July, which will be followed by Negroamaro . A positive delay, as it will allow the grapes to benefit from the cooler September temperatures and the temperature variations between day and night , ranging from 10 degrees in San Donaci to 16 in Locorotondo. And if at the beginning of the summer the downy mildew was scary, in retrospect it can be said that it had a partly beneficial effect, reducing the quantity of grapes per vine in favor of the concentration of aromas and sugars. The harvest is proving to be good.

In addition to Salento, the Paololeo winery is harvesting the grapes from the Monteparano vineyards, in the Primitivo di Manduria denomination, and the harvest has also begun in Valle d'Itria with the Minutolo, in Locorotondo . In this case the harvests will be entrusted to the expert hands of the winemakers that Paololeo has helped to recover , taking over on the one hand the old Monteparano winery and on the other financing the recovery of the Minutolo, Bianco di Alessano, Verdeca and Susumaniello vineyards of three winemakers who, following the bankruptcy of the Cantina Sociale of Locorotondo, risked seeing their life's work in vain. Thanks to the Alture project , however, Paololeo has recreated interest in this important territory.

<< The value of people is central to us . – Says Paolo Leo, founder of Cantine Paololeo. – We are happy to have given these winemakers a new motivation to believe in the territory and bring value with their work. A job that is handed down in many cases from generation to generation and which we bring back into our wines . >>