DISCOVER THE TREASURES OF DAUNIA

Start in San Severo (Foggia Province), the nerve centre for innovation and enhancement of the local wine-making tradition: San Severo Doc, created in 1968, is the oldest Doc wine in Puglia. Underneath the city centre there is a maze of limestone tunnels which for a long time have been the ideal place for small family wineries.

The vineyards surrounding the city are definitely dominated by dark-skinned grape varieties: these include Montepulciano, Sangiovese and Nero di Troia, used to make wines with a very strong local identity, and quite different from wines made from the same varieties in other areas of Italy and even of Puglia itself.

La compresenza di autoctoni e di vitigni “importati” – ormai perfettamente adattati alle caratteristiche pedoclimatiche - testimonia l’antica attitudine vitivinicola della zona che, nei secoli scorsi, ha rappresentato un importante bacino produttivo anche per altre regioni. Vi suggeriamo una passeggiata nel centro storico dove, oltre a visitare le affascinanti cantine di alcune aziende socie del Movimento, potrete scoprirne l’antica struttura medievale, con viuzze irregolari e tortuose fra le quali si aprono piazze e larghi dove ammirare imponenti chiese e affascinanti palazzi nobiliari.

The co-existence of indigenous varieties and of “imported” vines – now perfectly adapted to the local soils and climate – are evidence that this area is eminently suitable for wine growing; in previous centuries this was also an important production area for other regions of Italy. We suggest you take a stroll around the old city where you can see the picturesque wineries belonging to some of the Movimento’s members, and also discover its Mediaeval heart, with narrow winding alleyways opening on to spacious squares with imposing churches and beautiful palaces - once the homes of the local nobility. San Severo has a long history (its legendary founder was the Greek hero Diomedes), and the city lies just a few kilometers away from the ancient route of the Via Sacra Longobardorum, in an area full of Neolithic remains.

Go north through the vast areas of vineyards, and you come to the town of Torremaggiore, worth a visit and well known for its excellent extra virgin olive oil. A few kilometers from the town centre you can see the remains of the Mediaeval fortress of Castel Fiorentino. It was here in 1250 that the emperor Frederick II died, thus fulfilling the court astrologer’s prediction that he would die in a place named after a flower. 

WINERIES:

D'ALFONSO DEL SORDO
San Severo (Fg)

d'ARAPRI'
San Severo (Fg)

L'ANTICA CANTINA
San Severo (Fg)

TEANUM
San Severo (Fg)

TENUTE COPPADORO
San Severo (Fg)

CANTINA LE GROTTE
Apricena (Fg)