Italy · Daunia & Foggia (northern Apulia)

Botter

Botter's Doppio Passo Primitivo comes from 1,500 hectares in Salice Salentino, Puglia, made with a two-stage harvest and a ripasso second fermentation that adds body and dark fruit depth to the grape's natural weight.

The producer

Botter was founded in 1928 by Carlo Botter and his wife Maria in Fossalta di Piave, a small town in the Veneto near Venice, where they sold wine in bulk. Their sons Arnaldo and Enzo moved the business into bottles in the 1960s, and the third generation, Luca, Annalisa, and Alessandro, built it into a multi-regional operation with 23.5 million litres of storage across 452 fermentation tanks. The commercial centre has moved south: Doppio Passo Primitivo is now produced at Masseria Doppio Passo, a 1,500-hectare estate in Salice Salentino that Botter acquired in 2017.

The name is literal. Doppio passo means double step, and it describes how the grapes are grown, harvested, and fermented. Pickers move through the Primitivo rows twice, roughly ten days apart. Before the second pass, a portion of the fruit is left on the vine to partially dry, concentrating sugar and flavour. After primary fermentation, the wine passes back through the spent pulp and skins for a short second fermentation that adds body, colour, and mid-palate texture. The technique follows northern Italy's dried-grape tradition and applies it to a southern Italian grape in one of Italy's hottest growing regions. Botter is now part of the ARGEA SpA holding company.

Known for

Doppio Passo Primitivo, ripasso-technique wines from Puglia

Notable facts

The story

The Bottle Over the Barrel

In the 1960s, Arnaldo and Enzo Botter made a decision their father Carlo had not: they would sell the family's wine in bottles rather than barrels. Carlo had built the business near Venice on bulk sales, moving wine out of the Veneto to buyers who did the bottling themselves. His sons saw a different future. They brought the label inside the business, put their own name on the glass, and shifted the entire commercial operation towards bottled wine. It was a generational bet on brand over volume, and it changed what Botter was. The third generation inherited a bottled-wine business rather than a bulk-wine wholesaler, and when they moved the Doppio Passo range south to Puglia in the 1990s and eventually bought 1,500 hectares of Salentine land in 2017, the infrastructure for that scale had already been built by the sons who chose the bottle over the barrel.

The Bottle Over the Barrel

In the 1960s, Arnaldo and Enzo Botter made a decision their father Carlo had not: they would sell the family's wine in bottles rather than barrels. Carlo had built the business near Venice on bulk sales, moving wine out of the Veneto to buyers who did the bottling themselves. His sons saw a different future. They brought the label inside the business, put their own name on the glass, and shifted the entire commercial operation towards bottled wine. It was a generational bet on brand over volume, and it changed what Botter was. The third generation inherited a bottled-wine business rather than a bulk-wine wholesaler, and when they moved the Doppio Passo range south to Puglia in the 1990s and eventually bought 1,500 hectares of Salentine land in 2017, the infrastructure for that scale had already been built by the sons who chose the bottle over the barrel.

From the atlas

Botter

At A Glance

Producer: Botter (Casa Vinicola Botter) Type: Large-scale wine producer and négociant Headquarters: Fossalta di Piave, Veneto Estate: Masseria Doppio Passo, Salice Salentino, Puglia Grape: Primitivo, Nero d'Avola Listed wine: Doppio Passo Primitivo IGT Puglia Founded: 1928 Ownership: Third-generation Botter family, part of ARGEA SpA

The Producer

Botter makes its case on a single method applied to a single southern Italian grape. The company was founded in 1928 by Carlo Botter and his wife Maria in Fossalta di Piave, a small town in the Veneto near Venice, where they sold wine in bulk. Today the operation is run by the third generation and spans two Italian regions, with 23.5 million litres of storage across 452 fermentation tanks. The commercial centre has moved south.

Doppio Passo Primitivo is an IGT Puglia wine produced at Masseria Doppio Passo, a 1,500-hectare estate in Salice Salentino that Botter acquired in 2017. The estate gave the brand its own land base in Puglia for a range that already carried the Doppio Passo name. The name is not marketing shorthand: doppio passo means double step, and it describes exactly how the grapes are grown, harvested, and fermented.

Place

Salice Salentino sits near the southern tip of Puglia on the Salento peninsula, the narrow heel of the Italian boot that pushes into the Adriatic and Ionian seas. The climate is one of the hottest and driest in Italy: long summers, low rainfall, and intense sun that push Primitivo towards high sugar levels, deep colour, and concentrated dark fruit. Wines from this part of Puglia carry weight by default; the winemaking question is what to do with that weight.

Salice Salentino is a DOC appellation, but Botter's Doppio Passo is labelled IGT Puglia, giving flexibility to source across a broader area of the Salento peninsula. The Primitivo Organic draws from three provinces: Lecce, Taranto, and Brindisi, covering most of the southern Puglian plain. Nero d'Avola crosses the water to Riesi in the Caltanissetta province of Sicily, where clay soils give the grape more savour and firmer grip.

Soil And Site

Masseria Doppio Passo covers approximately 1,500 hectares in Salice Salentino. The flat Salentine plain is dominated by red and brown soils over calcareous subsoil, with limestone close to the surface in places. These soils drain well even in a dry climate, reducing water stress without eliminating it entirely. Primitivo grown here builds thick skins, which matters because the winemaking relies on those skins for a second fermentation pass.

The Nero d'Avola Organic is sourced from clay-based soils in Riesi, Sicily. Clay holds water longer than the Puglian limestone-influenced ground, which slows ripening slightly and holds the grape's natural acidity closer to the surface.

Story

Carlo and Maria Botter began in the 1920s selling bulk wine from barrels near Venice. The Veneto was a practical base: the region was already a commercial wine hub with access to northern European markets. In the 1960s their sons Arnaldo and Enzo moved the business into bottles, a decision that transformed a wholesale operation into a producer with its own label.

At the end of the 1990s the third generation entered: Luca, Annalisa, and Alessandro Botter. The family had outgrown its Veneto origins and was sourcing grapes and wine from across Italy. The commercial logic pointed south, where Primitivo in Puglia offered the deep colour, ripe fruit, and soft tannins that were selling in export markets.

The 2017 acquisition of Masseria Doppio Passo in Salice Salentino changed the producer's relationship with its Doppio Passo range. Botter had been building the Doppio Passo brand without owning the land it was named after. Buying 1,500 hectares in Puglia grounded the label in its own estate, giving the third generation a physical asset to match the commercial one. Botter is now part of the ARGEA SpA holding company.

Vineyards And Cellar

The Doppio Passo method begins in the vineyard with a split harvest. Pickers move through the Primitivo rows twice, with the second pass coming roughly ten days after the first. Before that second pick, a portion of the grapes is left on the vine to partially dry, concentrating the sugars and intensifying the fruit. This technique borrows from the dried-grape winemaking tradition of northern Italy and applies it to a southern grape in a hot climate.

After primary fermentation, the wine undergoes a short second fermentation on the pulp and skins left from the first. This ripasso step draws extra colour, body, and texture from the marc, pushing the wine towards a richer mid-palate without needing extended maceration time. The result sits between a conventional fermented wine and a full dried-grape wine in body and concentration.

The Nero d'Avola Organic follows a more direct cellar route: destemmed, crushed, seven to eight days of skin maceration, then fermentation and malolactic conversion in stainless steel tanks. No second pass. The grape's natural dark fruit and herb character comes through without the added density of the ripasso technique.

An organic tier sits alongside the conventional range for both Primitivo and Nero d'Avola.

Wines

The Doppio Passo range is built around two southern Italian varieties and two production approaches.

Doppio Passo Primitivo IGT Puglia is the core wine. One hundred percent Primitivo from Salice Salentino, made with the two-stage harvest and ripasso second fermentation. The method adds body and dark fruit depth on top of the grape's natural weight. Ripe black cherry, blackberry, and smooth mid-palate texture. Soft tannins and a fruit-forward finish that sits low in grip.

Doppio Passo Primitivo Organic draws from Lecce, Taranto, and Brindisi in the broader Salento peninsula. The same two-stage harvest applies. The organic version carries darker, more layered fruit: dark cherry, forest raspberry, violet, and a trailing note of sweet liquorice. The organic farming tends to produce slightly more individual fruit character from season to season.

Doppio Passo Nero d'Avola Organic steps outside Puglia. The grape comes from Riesi in Caltanissetta, Sicily, where clay soils and a slightly cooler growing season give the fruit a different register. Dark cherry, plum, violet, and dried herbs. Fermented in stainless steel without a ripasso pass, the wine is more savoury and less concentrated than the Primitivo range. A firmer finish and cleaner herb edge distinguish it clearly from the Puglian bottles.

The range architecture is simple: Primitivo carries the ripasso technique, Nero d'Avola broadens the geographic and flavour reach into Sicily, and the organic tier runs in parallel with the conventional line across both varieties.

In The Glass

Doppio Passo Primitivo opens with ripe black cherry and blackberry, the kind of fruit that Puglian Primitivo produces without encouragement. What the ripasso method adds is volume: the second fermentation on spent skins fills the mid-palate with a soft, rounded weight that plain-fermented Primitivo rarely achieves at this price point. Tannins are low and smooth. The finish is fruit-forward, warm, and short on grip. Nothing here fights back.

The Primitivo Organic shifts the character slightly: the dark cherry persists but forest raspberry and violet appear alongside it, and a sweet liquorice note runs through the back of the mouth. The fruit reads as more layered, less blunt than the conventional wine.

Nero d'Avola Organic is the driest and most savoury of the three. Clay-grown fruit from Sicily gives dark cherry and plum at the front, then dried herbs and a firmer finish that the Puglian wines lack. Seven to eight days of skin maceration in stainless steel produces clean, direct tannin without any of the ripasso-style softening. The contrast with the Primitivo range is real and useful for anyone tasting across the lineup.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Doppio Passo Primitivo IGT Puglia. It is 100% Primitivo from Salice Salentino, harvested in two stages and passed back through the fermentation skins for extra body and fruit concentration. Black cherry and blackberry on the nose, a rounded and generous mid-palate, low tannin, and a warm finish. The method is what Botter is built on, and this bottle demonstrates it without distraction. It is the most widely available wine in the range and the clearest expression of what the double-pass harvest and ripasso second fermentation actually produce in the glass.

Anecdote

In the 1960s, Arnaldo and Enzo Botter made a decision their father Carlo had not: they would sell the family's wine in bottles rather than barrels. Carlo had built the business near Venice on bulk sales, moving wine out of the Veneto to buyers who did the bottling themselves. His sons saw a different future. They brought the label inside the business, put their own name on the glass, and shifted the entire commercial operation towards bottled wine. It was a generational bet on brand over volume, and it changed what Botter was. The third generation inherited a bottled-wine business rather than a bulk-wine wholesaler, and when they moved the Doppio Passo range south to Puglia in the 1990s and eventually bought 1,500 hectares of Salentine land in 2017, the infrastructure for that scale had already been built by the sons who chose the bottle over the barrel.

Final Word

Botter is a commercial-scale producer with an honest method at its centre. The Doppio Passo name describes a real vineyard and cellar sequence, not a brand story. Two passes through the vineyard, two fermentations, one wine. At the scale Botter operates, that kind of procedural clarity is rarer than it looks.

Sources

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