The Perrini family, based in the southern Salento Peninsula of Puglia, has been growing grapes for generations, originally selling most of their fruit to local négociants like many small contadini without the means to bottle their own wine. In 1993, siblings Vito and Mila Perrini transformed their 50-hectare estate by converting fully to organic farming—well ahead of the regional curve—and investing in an underground cellar, a rarity in Puglia but essential for producing more nuanced wines from the area’s powerful native grapes. Their 30–35-year-old vines are spread across various hillside and coastal parcels around Castellaneta near Taranto, kept to low yields, and farmed with spring plowing and hand harvesting into small baskets. Vinification is done gently in temperature-controlled stainless steel with 12–14 days of maceration, followed by aging in stainless and glass-lined tanks. Today, the entire estate is fully certified organic, even under USDA standards.
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