Loco - Vittorio Pugliese
The headquarters of the Loco Wines winery is in Cisternino in the province of Brindisi. We are in the Itria Valley, that splendid strip of land that connects Bari to Brindisi and it is in this area that Vittorio Pugliese lives and works, the soul and arms of the "Loco Wines" project.
The vineyards are at an average altitude of 300 meters above sea level, the soils are predominantly red clays.
Vittorio discovers natural wine in 2017 and was a bolt from the blue, he becomes passionate, begins to study, participates in many fairs around the world, tastes, tries to understand and from there he soon realizes that he wants to be part of that world he began to love. "I wanted to open a natural wine shop in Bari, but then the covid arrived and then I went back to the original idea: that of producing wine".
From there began the search for grapes and vineyards to be saved from abandonment.
An "explorer" producer
"The idea was: better to make wines a little leaner, to be careful with extractions (as opposed to the regional tradition), rather than having wines sitting and without acidity, with a lot of alcohol and heavy.
To do this I relied heavily on tasting, I define myself as an explorer: I believe that from time to time you always learn new things and not having a historian and no reference point in the area, tasting becomes a fundamental step in the Itria valley. there are no natural wine producers. ".
"I started winemaking in 2020 in a garage in a village called Fasano.
With the result of the first vintage I decided to become a winery.
Now my winery is in Cisternino another small village in a hill area called valle d'itria.
Red ground and calcareus soil.
Even the area is more knowed for thought wine i decide to try to make something more light.
I'm a negociant right now but I'm going to rent 2 half hectares from now.
I made a lot of different experiments so I ve many cuvees. "