Winegrowing
Inspired by the openness and warmth of Italy, our idea of winegrowing is about adding good food, conversations and togetherness to everyday life. Each bottle of Casa Marrone is made with organic grapes, with genuine passion and craft, lastly sealed by hand with the traditional spago that has become our signature. Welcome to Casa Marrone.
What is Appassimento?
Appassimento is an ancient winegrowing practice where the grapes are dried before the fermentation. During the drying process, the grapes lose up to half of their weight. The result is a rich wine with an intense character.
When summer turns to early autumn in our vineyards in Puglia, the grapes are left on the vine to dry for around two weeks. Sugars and aromas become more concentrated for each day. A few grams of natural grape sugar can remain in the finished wine as a result of the appassimento process. Helped by constant sunshine and soft breezes, the grapes stay healthy as they dry.
The dried grapes are then collected by hand in small baskets. They arrive whole and undamaged to the winery, ready to turn into the wines that will end up in your glass. We hope that you will enjoy the aromas of dried plum and cherries that were captured under the southern Italian sun. Read more about our organic farming.
Our Appassimento wines come from Puglia
If you travel as far south as you can come on the eastern part of the Italian peninsula, you will arrive to Puglia. The Romans called it A-pluvia, meaning ”lack of rain”. A suitable name for a region where sunshine prevail along with the glimmering reflections from the surrounding Adriatic and Ionian seas. In this Mediterannean climate, the Casa Marrone wines are made from the Italian grape varieties Montepulciano, Negroamaro, Primitivo, Malvasia Nera and Uva di Troia. The absence of rain and humidity makes it easy to grow using organic methods.
When you visit cities such as Foggia, Bari and Lecce you will see traces from both Greek and Roman culture. From the fortress-like masserie buildings carved out of white stone, to the ancient amphitheathre in Lecce. Its strategic position and calcareous soils has made Puglia an attractive region throughout history. Wine grapes enjoy these white, bright soils since they retain water for a long time. Locally, wines are enjoyed with specialities such as calzone barese or orecchiette – baked pizza and ear-shaped pasta with olives, vegetables and salty ricotta cheese.
Our Pinot Grigio is grown in Veneto
You can arrive to Veneto in many different ways. With boat to the lagoon of Venice, from north through the Dolomities or from the east, passing by the Garda lake. This region in north eastern Italy is surrounded by alpine mountains and the Adriatic sea. While the mountains protect the vineyards from cold winds, the mild maritime influence from lakes and sea will even out seasonal weather changes.
With this protected and mild climate, it does not maybe come as a surprise that you can find a great variety of wine styles coming from Veneto. Crisp, lemon-scented Pinot Grigio will find it’s expression when grown on rocky and volcanic soils. The vineyards of Valpolicella, Soave and Bardolino can all be found in western Veneto, while the Glera grape used for Prosecco grow north east of Venice.
