Produttori di Manduria

The people behind it

Produttori di Manduria is a cooperative, and its face is above all a collective one. The staff page names Pasquale Brunetti as president and Vittorio Moscogiuri as general manager; beside them are the heads of sales, cellar, warehouse and shop, a person dedicated to relations with the members, and the oenologist Leonardo Pinto, who follows the wines as a consultant. Behind the labels, though, stand the member growers: the winery describes a membership that runs from its youngest member, aged 25, to its oldest, almost a hundred. Since 2000, every July, the square in front of the winery has hosted a party for the members and their families that draws in the whole of Manduria, and a series of interviews published on the website gives a voice to individual growers.

The story begins in 1928, when a small group of vine growers took over an old plant and founded the Federazione Vini. On 9 July 1932 the association became a cooperative, under the name Consorzio Produttori Vini e Mosti rossi superiori da taglio per la zona di Manduria: at the time Primitivo was mostly used to give body to French and northern Italian labels. The turning point came in the mid-1990s, when the winery chose to focus on quality and on bottled wine, with an agronomist supporting the members in the vineyards.

Sources: Produttori di Manduria — Staff · Produttori di Manduria — I nostri soci · Produttori di Manduria — Storia dell'azienda

What they make

The range revolves around Primitivo di Manduria in several versions. Sonetto and Elegia are the two Riserva wines of the denomination, Memoria and Lirica the Primitivo di Manduria DOC wines, Electric Bee a Primitivo IGT Salento. Madrigale, a Primitivo di Manduria DOCG Dolce Naturale, represents the sweet style of the grape. Alongside Primitivo the winery bottles Negroamaro as Abatemasi and Neama, the Salice Salentino Riserva Adora, the rosés Aka and Garnet, the Fiano Zìn, the Verdeca Alice, the Chardonnay Santa Gemma and the Leggiadro sparkling wines, brut and rosé, made by the classic method.

Madrigale is the wine that currently carries the cooperative's name in the Gambero Rosso guide. According to the technical sheet published by the winery, it is made from Primitivo alone, from vineyards 30 to 50 years old trained as bush vines and on trellises, harvested in the second half of September with an average yield of 40 quintals per hectare. It is fermented on the skins at a controlled 22 to 24 degrees and aged in steel and in bottle; it reaches 15 per cent alcohol. The sheet describes dried figs and dates, plums and blueberries in jam, violets, delicate spice and undergrowth on the nose, closing on dried fruit and cocoa, and suggests it with dry pastries and blue cheeses, served at 10 to 14 degrees.

Sources: Produttori di Manduria — sito ufficiale · Produttori di Manduria — Madrigale, Primitivo di Manduria DOCG Dolce Naturale

Ingredients and territory

The grapes come from the members' vineyards in the Primitivo di Manduria area. According to the vineyards page, more than half of the area is planted with Primitivo. The older vineyards are mostly bush-trained alberello, the low traditional shrub of this countryside, while younger plantings use trellises; the average density is between 4,000 and 5,000 vines per hectare, and for Primitivo di Manduria DOC the yield may not exceed 90 quintals per hectare. Negroamaro, the other historic grape of the Salento, accounts for a quarter of production; Merlot, Cabernet and Malvasia complete the picture in smaller quantities.

In the vineyards the cooperative and its members follow integrated pest management, which reduces the use of plant-protection products: mating disruption with pheromone dispensers against harmful insects, release of their natural predators, more resistant varieties, crop rotation and removal of infected plants, with treatments only when the risk of infection is real. The winery has also decided to stop all treatments about 40 days before harvest. Research projects with the CNR and the University of Bari have joined the tradition, and since 2018 the winery has been certified as a sustainable business under the Equalitas standard, alongside ISO norms and the IFS and BRC standards.

Sources: Produttori di Manduria — I nostri vigneti · Produttori di Manduria — Storia dell'azienda

Recognition

In Gambero Rosso's Vini d'Italia 2026 guide, the Primitivo di Manduria Dolce Naturale Madrigale 2023 by Produttori di Manduria received Tre Bicchieri, the guide's highest award. Gambero Rosso published the list of winning wines from Puglia in October 2025, when the 2026 edition came out: twenty-six labels in all, with Primitivo and Negroamaro to the fore and the Gioia del Colle and Manduria denominations named as the driving force of the region's quality production.

The guide's commentary singles out Madrigale's very style: among the Tre Bicchieri of Puglia, Gambero Rosso writes, the "first time" for Primitivo di Manduria Dolce Naturale stands out, an ancient version of the region's historic grape. The award concerns one specific wine and its vintage: 2023 is the harvest of the awarded Madrigale, 2026 the edition of the guide. For anyone visiting Manduria it is a good starting point for tasting Primitivo in a guise other than dry red, the one the winery recommends with dry pastries and blue cheeses. The same edition also lists another Primitivo di Manduria among the winners, the Mirea 2023 of Masseria Borgo dei Trulli in Maruggio: a sign of how alive the denomination is around the town.

Sources: Gambero Rosso International — Tre Bicchieri 2026: the 26 best wines of Puglia · Produttori di Manduria — Madrigale, Primitivo di Manduria DOCG Dolce Naturale

Going there

The winery is at Via Fabio Massimo 19 in Manduria. Visitors first meet the nineteenth-century star vaults of its oldest wing and then the underground cisterns, home to the Museo della Civiltà del Vino Primitivo: an ethnographic and documentary collection on the centuries-old relationship between the people of Manduria and the craft of winemaking. From 2003 to 2019 the cooperative also published a magazine, Alceo Salentino, devoted to wine culture and the territory. In recent years the square and the museum have also hosted the concerts of the Acustica10 series.

Guided tours of the museum and tastings are by booking. The winery asks visitors to write to pr@produttoridimanduria.it or info@museodelprimitivo.it, or to call +39 099 2233022, giving the day, the number of people and a telephone number. The on-site shop, which sells the whole range, is open without a break from Monday to Saturday, 8 am to 7 pm, and on Sundays and public holidays from 9 am to 1 pm; from 15 June and through July and August it stays open from 8 am to 8 pm. The winery is closed on 25 and 26 December, 1 January, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday and 15 August. The cooperative is a member of the Movimento Turismo del Vino Puglia.

Sources: Produttori di Manduria — Contatti · Produttori di Manduria — Ospitalità · Produttori di Manduria — Storia dell'azienda · Produttori di Manduria — sito ufficiale

Products and flavours

Primitivo di Manduria

DOC · DOCG · Wines

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Primitivo di Manduria

The red between Taranto and Brindisi: grape and land, DOC rules, the Dolce Naturale DOCG, fifty years of protection, summer in the villages and a day in Manduria.

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Puglian wines

Exploring wine across the Murgia, Manduria and Salento through flavour and landscape.

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Photo: Saggittarius A / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized and converted to WebP.

The region

Puglia