Torrevento

The story of the Torrevento winery begins in the heart of the Alta Murgia National Park, the first landscape park in Italy. A land where the inseparable union of man and nature dominates, where human activities and the environment perfectly combine with tradition. Here, in 1400, in the district of "Torre del Vento" (Tower of the Wind), a Benedictine monastery was built entirely of stone.

The story of Torrevento

Torre del Vento is a name that will shape the history of the Torrevento winery, a history that begins in 1913, when Francesco Liantonio (the grandfather of namesake Francesco, current president of Torrenvento Ltd.), at the age of almost 16, decided to board the ship "Hamburg", which was bound for New York, in search of happiness.

In 1923, ten years after his arrival in America, Francesco Liantonio makes a fortune thanks to an ice cream factory and returns with the fruits of his hard work to his beloved Puglia, where, in the town of Palo del Colle (stick on the hill), he realizes his dream: the production and trade of extra virgin olive oil and the production of wine.

In 1948, the Liantonio family acquired the old Benedictine monastery and the surrounding 57 hectares of vineyards in the Torrevento district, right at the foot of the famous Castel del Monte. Two years later Gaetano Liantonio inherited the estate, renovated it and continued the production activity in the form of a winery called Vinicola Torrevento (Torrevento Winery). Finally, in 1989, together with Francesco Liantonio (current President and CEO), he merged them into one company, Torrevento SRL.

Torrevento - the vineyards and the terroir

With Torrevento we are in the wildest and roughest part of Puglia. Here the limestone rocks form the plateau of the Murge, whose name is derived from the Latin word Murex, which means sharp stone. Ridges and karst depressions alternate with flat areas where the stony soil, made cultivable by man's ingenuity, has made the Apulian crops what they are today - unique and special in taste and quality.

Torrevento is located in the northernmost part of the Murgia, in the areas of the Apulian DOC region, which takes its name from the splendid estate of Frederick II: "Castel del Monte". It is an untamed area with a typically Mediterranean climate, where hot, dry summers alternate with long, cool winters, often accompanied by snowfall in the northern part. Rainfall, which is very rare in summer, falls abundantly in late autumn.

Grape varieties of Torrevento

In the northern part of Apulia the best local grape varieties are cultivated:

• Nero di Troia
• Bombino Nero
• Bombino Bianco
• Moscato Reale
• Pampanuto
• Aglianico

They guarantee wines with full bouquet, spicy fragrance and full taste.

The vineyards at the foot of the Castel del Monte

In the Torrevento vineyards at the foot of Castel del Monte, in the heart of the Alta Murgia, stony soils combine with natural vegetation interspersed with strips of cultivated fields. The characteristics of the soil here are particularly suited to the cultivation of the local grape variety Nero di Troia, from which Torrevento produces well-structured wines with a dominant bouquet of red fruits, wood, roses and herbs. These wines are well suited for long ageing. The Aglianico is also widespread in this area. It is a grape variety of medium strength, with medium sized, cylindrical or conical, often winged grapes.

Aglianico produces Torrevento wines of more or less intense red colour with violet reflections, good intensity of perfume, cherry and plum aromas and herbaceous tobacco scents. The taste is acidic, fresh, spicy, with strong tannins and wonderfully full.