Cantina Sociale Cooperativa di Copertino SCA

The story

1976: A label changes

In 1976, the Copertino DOC received official recognition, putting a formal appellation name on territory where Cupertinum had been making cooperative wine for forty-one years. The designation changed what the cooperative's flagship bottle could say on the front label: no longer simply a Salento red from the cooperative cellar, but a Copertino DOC Riserva, with the village name carrying legal weight and the appellation rules specifying Negroamaro as the defining variety. The wine in the bottle had not changed. The label had, and with it the cooperative's position as the producer most closely identified with an appellation drawn around its own vineyards.

Thirty-six growers, one cellar

In 1935, thirty-six vine-growers in Copertino decided to stop selling their grapes to middlemen and press the fruit themselves. The cooperative they formed gave members collective ownership of a single cellar and the ability to trade wine under their own name rather than through bulk buyers. The model took root: by the time the Copertino DOC was formally recognised in 1976, the cooperative had been the dominant producer in the territory for four decades, and its member count had grown from thirty-six to a base that now stands at around 300 growers.

From the atlas

Cantina Sociale Cooperativa di Copertino SCA

A Salento cooperative founded by thirty-six vine-growers in 1935, building the Copertino DOC around Negroamaro and producing Primitivo under the Aldieri label.

At A Glance

The Producer

In the heel of Italy, where Negroamaro has been called the enological symbol of Salento, a cooperative of vine-growers has been making and selling wine under its own name since 1935. Cantina Sociale Cooperativa di Copertino, which trades as Cupertinum, began with thirty-six members who wanted to press their own grapes and trade without relying on bulk buyers. The cooperative now has around 300 members farming roughly 300 hectares of Salento vineyard.

The range centres on Negroamaro, with the Copertino Riserva DOC as the flagship. A separate label, Aldieri, carries the cooperative's Primitivo, vinified without oak and released as a Salento IGT.

Place

Copertino sits in the Salento peninsula, the long southern spur of Puglia that stretches toward the heel of the Italian boot. The area is flat, dry, and exposed to summer heat from both the Adriatic and Ionian coasts. Vines have been grown here for centuries, but the appellation itself is recent: Copertino DOC was formally established in 1976, four decades after the cooperative began producing wine.

The territory covered by the DOC is roughly 300 hectares, the same scale as the cooperative's own holdings, which places Cupertinum at the centre of the appellation's practical geography.

Soil And Site

The Copertino vineyards sit on clay soil over a hard limestone base known locally as tufa. Clay retains moisture through the dry Salento summers, which helps the vines stay productive without irrigation. The limestone beneath drains excess water in the wet season and keeps vine roots reaching downward. In Negroamaro, the combination gives wines with dark fruit, firm tannins, and enough body to age; in Primitivo, the same ground produces dense, warmly flavoured reds with ripe cherry and dark plum character.

Story

The cooperative's founders were sharecroppers and smallholders working a system that kept the profits of their fruit in the hands of merchants and bulk traders. In 1935, thirty-six of them formed a single collective body, pressed their own grapes, and sold wine under their own account. The choice was practical: collective ownership of the cellar gave the members scale they could not have had individually.

For forty years the cooperative produced wine before its appellation had a legal name. The Copertino DOC arrived in 1976, formalising a territory where the cooperative had been the principal producer for four decades. With the appellation came the label rights that allow the cooperative's flagship Negroamaro to carry the Copertino Riserva DOC designation. Beyond the flagship, the cooperative has developed the Aldieri label for its Primitivo, a variety that grows alongside Negroamaro and Malvasia across the Salento holdings, vinified separately and released without oak ageing.

Vineyards And Cellar

The cooperative draws from roughly 300 hectares of member vineyards around Copertino. The main varieties are Negroamaro, Malvasia Nera, Primitivo, and Malvasia Bianca, reflecting the traditional Salento planting mix that covers both the red and white sides of the range.

The Aldieri Primitivo is fermented and aged in stainless steel, a choice that keeps the fruit open and the colour vivid without adding the vanilla and spice of oak. The Copertino Riserva, built from Negroamaro, takes a different path: longer ageing that develops the leather, blackcurrant, and Mediterranean herb character associated with the variety at full ripeness.

Wines

The range divides between the DOC tier and the IGT label. The Copertino Riserva DOC is the cooperative's senior wine: Negroamaro aged to a ruby red with garnet edges, with aromatic depth that builds toward blackberry, plum, Mediterranean vegetation, and leather. It carries the appellation name on the label and represents the grape variety the DOC was built around.

The Aldieri Primitivo Salento IGT sits outside the DOC framework, which in Puglia simply means a broader geographic designation rather than lower ambition. It is a different grape doing different work: fermented and held in stainless steel for a wine that is dark purple-red, fruit-forward, and meant to be poured young. Bibenda, the guide published by the Italian Sommelier Foundation, awarded the Aldieri Primitivo 4 Grappoli, its four-cluster rating.

In The Glass

The Copertino Riserva Negroamaro opens with intense blackberry, plum, ripe fruit, Mediterranean vegetation and leather on the nose. On the palate it is warm and generous, with almond and blackcurrant flavours and a finish that suggests the long growing season of the Salento south.

The Aldieri Primitivo takes a different shape. The colour is dark purple-red; the aromas run to ripe cherry, myrtle berries, humus, spice and almond. In the mouth it is smooth, savory and warm, with dense tannins and flavours of chocolate and plum jam. Stainless-steel ageing keeps the fruit expressive and the wine drinkable without extended cellaring. The cooperative recommends serving it at 18 degrees Celsius alongside red meat, game, or aged cheese.

A Bottle To Understand It

The Aldieri Primitivo is the bottle to open first. It is the cooperative's most direct expression of the Salento style outside the DOC: Primitivo from clay-limestone ground, fermented in stainless steel to keep the dark cherry and plum fruit clear, with dense but smooth tannins and a warm finish marked by chocolate and spice. The wine shows what the cooperative does with a variety that grows across its member holdings but sits apart from the Negroamaro-led flagship range.

Anecdote

In 1976, the Copertino DOC received official recognition, putting a formal appellation name on territory where Cupertinum had been making and selling cooperative wine for forty-one years. The designation changed what the cooperative's flagship bottle could say on the front label: no longer simply a Salento red from the cooperative cellar, but a Copertino DOC Riserva, with the village name carrying legal weight and the appellation rules specifying Negroamaro as the variety that defined it. The wine in the bottle had not changed. The label had, and with it the cooperative's position as the producer most closely identified with an appellation that had finally been drawn around its vineyards.

Final Word

Cupertinum is a Salento cooperative with two distinct bottles: a Negroamaro Riserva built around the Copertino DOC, and an Aldieri Primitivo aged in stainless steel for fruit-forward drinking. Both come from the same clay-limestone ground and the same community of growers who have been pressing their own grapes since 1935.

Sources

• https://www.cupertinum.it/en/home-en/
• https://www.banvillewine.com/im/en/producer/22/copertino
• https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/7729301/
• https://www.cupertinum.it/en/primitivo-en/
• http://www.cupertinum.it/en/wine-spectator-and-wine-enthusiast-award-the-wines-of-cupertinum/
• http://www.cupertinum.it/en/copertino-riserva-doc-en/