Jorche Winery in Manduria & Porto Caesare

 Buongiorno a tutti!

As promised, today’s post covers our wine-tasting trip into Manduria, to the vineyards of the Jorche Winery and Ristorante Il Bacino Grande.

                                        

Jorche is in its 5th generation of wine-making.   Its current wine-makers are sisters Dalila and Emanuela from the Gianfreda family. Together they manage wine making operations as well as a large masseria.  

We were told that the weather conditions particular to this zone of Italy help reduce the need for human intervention in the wine-making process (i.e., the reduction of addition of chemicals, sugars, etc.) to permit the use of traditional practices to present the most natural tastes.

Grapes are picked by hand and placed in small crates to allow the sun to continue to do its work in the maturation process. When deemed ready, the grapes are taken to the winery, crushed and placed in stainless steel tanks for fermentation and macération. 

A unique feature of this winery, given its size, is the introduction of a laboratory to help monitor soil, weather and insect conditions.

                                    Bottling takes place using the most modern equipment…

                                        …but labels for the backs of the bottles are applied by hand!  These are the labels that contain government health warnings, certifications etc., that can vary significantly from country to country.  Even within the EU.  Check out the guy on the left!

To assist in the wine-tasting we had some lovely fresh bread with Jorche olive oil, cheeses and this big bowl of ringed and toasted breads (they had the consistency of Cheezies!)

This is our charming hostess, who is using an aerating device to ensure the wine is perfect when served!

Here is the full suite of wines and olive oil produced by Jorche.  We sampled the reds: Riserva (Primitivo di Manduria), Primitivo di Manduria Dolce Naturale, Soltema-Primitivo Salento; and one white, Fiano & Bianca D’alessano.  

                                       

                                                 …kid in the candy store…

                                            …and yes, we bought some wine to have when we get to Salerno!

When the wine tasting ended, our driver Manuele took us to a beautiful seaside restaurant called il Bacino Grande in Porto Cesareo.

                                        Just look at that sea!  Beautiful!!

 

Antipasti was an array of the freshest seafood - including calamari, anchovies, smoked salmon

                            `We had the classic presentation of very fresh fish to select for our main:  

                                                

                                 Gotta love those googly eyes! We picked one big one and one smaller one…

                                            They became this…

….white fish encased in roasted potato slices and zucchini - YUMMM!

                            And for dessert, I don’t remember the name of it, but boy was it good!

That’s it for now - tomorrow we’ll be bringing you stories from our driving tour in the very south of Puglia!

Ciao!