Morella. Bravery, Biodynamics, Isolation and Fish Markets.
Where was I mentally on my last day in Puglia? I felt inspired. I felt physically great, running through infinite landscapes of olive and plum and pomegranate had brought me into a vivid present tense. All the pasta was working miracles. Isolation in an empty 16th century farmhouse provided focus and loneliness in equal parts. A next-to-last day loomed. I would traverse mountains in Campania, to see a few places at the 11th hour. Traveling south from Rome, I made off-the-cuff appointments on a hunch and a recommendation, doubling down on the power of luck and chance.
A lack of bravery
extended my southern excursion to Morella. Manduria isn’t the easiest place to
reach. After an alternatingly drab and gorgeous drive from Trani to Bari to
Taranto, highways gave way to two-lane roads through busy small towns, red
lights and potholes: a slog. Malfunctioning GPS took me to a fish market on a
one-way road only 100 street numbers from the actual cellar, close but simultaneously
inscrutably far from our meeting point. I wove through a warren of stone-walled
side streets and narrow unidirectional alleys to find the actual spot… but Lisa
had split. Her mum was at the farm from Queensland, and it was time for lunch.
I was late.
Armed with compass
coordinates, I set out to find Lisa and Gaetano’s house in the hinterlands.
Their street has no name and no sign. At least twice I parked at the end of it,
and peered down a dusty gravel expanse, with no appreciable visible structures
to the horizon. I circled. I went down a couple of incorrect long driveways.
Eventually I grew a spine, and set off down the right road. Their new house is
located a mile or two through the olive trees and bush vines. It seamlessly
combines new construction with very old stone stables. Lisa said there are
still artisans active in her area that build houses using centuries-old
methods. The mason she employed didn’t use any power tools to cut and build her
stone home. It’s a beautiful multi-story place with a panoramic view of the
landscape to the sea(s.) On a clear day Lisa has spotted the mountains of
Basilicata, across the water to the west.
I like the linguistics
of English speakers from faraway places. To my ear Lisa makes quirky word
choices. It could be her Anglophone isolation, an Australian living in Puglia
who speaks Italian most hours of her days. But Lisa is a character. Her syntax
and florid vocabulary could stem from individuality alone. I like that she says
groovy a lot. I like that her vocal intonations are in a register I associate
with positivity, even when she’s talking about the terrible job done by their
trash collector, or the hegemonic power of crop science corporations.
Lisa and Gaetano have
been buying vineyards. They have 12 hectares of bush vines now, on 18 hectares
of land. Manduria is drier than most of Puglia. During harvest 2016, average
rainfall in the larger region was 200ml. Morella received 100ml. Rainfall in
Manduria this year was 2/3 of the town’s average total.
Morella is certified
biodynamic. “Biodynamics is about looking after the workers,” Lisa said. The
farm is 70 meters above sea level, and surrounded by water at a distance of
only a few kilometers. They are on the “instep” of the boot. “We are living
here to make better grapes.” They hope to build a new winery on the same gravel
road in the next year. Lisa likes to stand on her rooftop and watch fog roll in
with the sirocco winds from the
south. Because of the peculiar shape of the land and water surrounding
Manduria, the fog bends in odd patterns, passing the vineyards by initially,
before flowing back to the farm from the north.
Manduria is a warm
place. Primitivo is well-suited to its local mesoclimate. Average temperature
here in summer is 30 degrees Celsius. Dry winds form the north can quickly
reduce humidity in the vineyards by up to 45%. “Wind is the dominant thing
here,” Lisa says.
The wines show this
regional warmth in their ripeness. Because of Lisa’s work in the cellar and
perspective on quality wine (she has friends in many wine regions) the
Primitivos at Morella are also dry. It is common in the region to encounter
sweet versions, often made sweet post-fermentation.
The 2015 Mezzogiorno
(Fiano) is really subtle. It has better precision and delicacy of flavor than
many cool-climate whites I encounter. It does the trick of being bright,
without noticeable acidity screeching across your palate. This seamlessness is
a marker of deft winemaking for me.
The 2013 Morella
Primitivo Malbeck is made from fruit grown on 40-year-old bush vines. It’s very
nice: savory. Malbeck has a history here in Puglia, which is why Lisa and
Gaetano chose to use the local spelling for the grape.
The 2013 Old Vines
bottling (from an average of 85-year-old vines) and La Signora are both very
good. Intense, dry, ripe, meaty, substantial reds, with an uncommon degree of
finesse and complexity.
We took a walk through
their fields after our tasting. It was the right way to end a week of working
in Puglia. The diverse sub-plots of vines were striking. It’s easy to notice
where one old farmer’s work ended, and another’s began. Lisa’s a great guide:
quick-witted, funny, thoughtful and opinionated. She has a global perspective
on the challenges facing farmers in her new locale. We talked at length about
the reasons why natural wine has resonance in this area. “By the 80’s
fermentation in Puglia had changed. People had very little involvement (in the
process.) They made wine… and waited for the E.U. to distill it.”
“Technology took hold,
via big wineries. Yeasts, autofermenters, temperature control: they got control
of fermentation, but in a sterile way.”
But awareness of a
different path was only dormant. “Before the 80’s, everyone made wine at home.
There was great knowledge, and courage. The wines were volatile, often bad.”
Hence, the seeds of
the local natural wine movement. “We can start a new era, with a traditional
point of view. Small winemakers today can depart from the point of view of the
home winemaker, it’s what people in their families used to do anyway.” Lisa
believes this is the reason Italy is such a source of adopters of natural
winemaking. “People here used to make tons of Pet Nat wines, even. That would
often explode….” Petillant Naturel wines are fashionable in natural wine
circles. They are sparkling wine bottled before the secondary fermentation is
finished, without the addition of yeasts or sugars. With the assistance of talented
oenologists like Lisa, stable and tasty wines made on a human scale can become
a part of the area’s future.
I left. The sun was
already low in the sky. My drive north became dreamy radiant orange port towns,
and painful westward squinting. Today, as I multitask hopscotch, and chalk
drawings of bugs and flowers with my sunny three-year-old, I strain to remember
the feel of that remote place. Windy. Arid. A little forlorn. Wild.