Italy · Murge Centrale & Valle d'Itria (Trulli country)

Cantine Coppi

Puglian estate farming 200 hectares of indigenous varieties between the Bari hills and Salento, with a flagship Primitivo vinified by carbonic maceration and aged in Slavonian oak.

The producer

Cantine Coppi farms 200 hectares of indigenous Puglian vines across southeastern Italy, from the limestone hills south of Bari down to the warmer terrain of the Salento peninsula. The estate works exclusively with autochthonous varieties: Primitivo, Negroamaro, Aleatico, Falanghina, Malvasia Bianca, and Malvasia Nera. No international grapes enter the range.

Founded in 1882, the winery spent nearly a century as a bulk producer before Antonio Coppi took over in 1979 and rebuilt it around a different idea. In the early 1990s he bought the first bottling line, and the estate has operated under its own label ever since. The flagship is Don Antonio Primitivo, vinified by carbonic maceration and aged in large Slavonian oak barrels, a deliberate departure from standard Puglian red winemaking that earned Gambero Rosso 3 Bicchieri for the 2017 vintage.

Known for

Primitivo, Negroamaro, Malvasia Bianca; indigenous-only commitment across the full range

Notable facts

The story

A Century Before the Label

In the early 1990s, Antonio Coppi bought the first bottling machine the winery had ever owned. The estate had been founded in 1882 and had been producing wine for over a hundred years, but everything had left the property in bulk, sold without a label, with no Coppi name attached to it. Coppi had taken over in 1979 and spent more than a decade preparing for that purchase: the vineyards, the cellar, the range. When the bottling line arrived, a winery that had existed for more than a century put its name on a bottle for the first time. The wine going into those first labeled bottles came from vines the family had been farming since before anyone then alive was born.

From the atlas

Cantine Coppi

At A Glance

The Producer

Cantine Coppi farms 200 hectares of indigenous Puglian vines across southeastern Italy, from the limestone hills south of Bari down to the flatter, hotter terrain of the Salento peninsula. The estate bottles exclusively from autochthonous varieties: Primitivo, Negroamaro, Aleatico, Falanghina, Malvasia Bianca, and Malvasia Nera. No international grapes enter the range.

The winery was founded in 1882 by an Apulian winemaker who left no name in the public record. For nearly a century it remained a bulk producer, its wine leaving the property in tank and barrel without a label. In 1979, Antonio Coppi took over and made the transformation of the winery his life's project. In the early 1990s, he purchased the first bottling line. That purchase is the moment the estate became what it is today: a named, branded, estate-bottled Puglian producer at significant scale.

Place

The Gioia del Colle DOC sits on the Murge plateau, the limestone upland that rises south of Bari before the land flattens toward the Salento coast. At elevation, the nights are cooler, the soils have more limestone, and Primitivo ripens with more acidity than it typically does in the deeper, hotter ground of Salento. The DOC designation on a Coppi Primitivo is a geographic claim: these are hill grapes, not coastal plain grapes, and the label reflects a legal boundary that enforces that distinction.

The IGP Puglia and IGP Salento designations cover the wider estate holdings and allow the full varietal range, including the Malvasia Bianca and Negroamaro that make up the Serralto and Pellirosso bottles. Salento is the southern peninsula; its terroir is warmer and lower-lying, which shapes the fuller, softer character of the Negroamaro in particular.

Soil And Site

The Gioia del Colle zone sits on limestone-influenced soils in the Murge uplands, where the elevation moderates temperatures and adds acidity to Primitivo fruit. The wider estate holdings across southeastern Puglia take in varying soil profiles between the Bari hills and the Salento coast, though detailed parcel-level soil data is not published for individual wines. The 200-hectare spread, split evenly between owned and permanently rented land, indicates a deliberate decision to work at meaningful commercial scale while maintaining direct control over vineyard management.

Story

The winery existed for ninety-seven years before Antonio Coppi arrived. When he took over in 1979, the estate had a long history of grape growing but had not bottled under its own name. Coppi's stated mission was to establish the winery as a wine estate in its own right, not merely a supplier of unlabeled bulk wine to the regional trade.

The early 1990s purchase of the bottling chain was the operational turning point. From that moment, every bottle carried the Coppi name. The decision to bottle under a single estate name also shaped what the range would contain: only indigenous Puglian varieties, fermented and aged in ways specific to each grape. That commitment has remained in place across four decades of estate-bottled production.

The Don Antonio Primitivo, named for the founder, became the winery's flagship and the bottle that attracted Gambero Rosso's top award, three Bicchieri, for the 2017 vintage.

Vineyards And Cellar

All 200 hectares are farmed with what the estate describes as meticulous care, managed in-house across both owned and rented parcels. The commitment to indigenous varieties shapes every choice from the vine outward: the range covers six Puglian grape families, each vinified to express its own character.

The most technically specific process in the cellar is the vinification of Don Antonio Primitivo. After harvest, the grapes undergo carbonic maceration for seven to eight days, a method that draws colour and primary fruit from the grapes without the extended skin contact and tannin extraction of conventional red winemaking. The wine then undergoes malolactic fermentation in large 100-hectoliter Slavonian oak barrels. The Slavonian oak is traditional, porous, and mild in flavour impact; the large barrel size limits the oak-to-wine ratio, so the wood adds subtle spice and soft texture without dominating the fruit.

The Serralto Malvasia Bianca is fermented at controlled temperature in stainless steel with selected yeasts, a method that preserves the floral and stone-fruit aromatics of the grape without oxidative contact or oak character.

Wines

The Coppi range covers whites, reds, and dessert styles, all built from indigenous varieties.

Serralto Malvasia Bianca IGP Puglia is 100% Malvasia Bianca, fermented cold in stainless steel. The grape produces a bright golden yellow wine with aromas of white peach, apple blossom, and floral notes. On the palate it is full and fruity with a thread of fresh acidity running through a discreet residual sweetness, giving the wine an unusual width for a white from this region.

Pellirosso Negroamaro IGP Salento is 100% Negroamaro from the Salento peninsula. Dry and full on the palate, it is notably soft and fruity, with a rounded rather than angular character. The palate is balanced; this is not a tannic, extracted Puglian red but a wine built for earlier drinking, with the dark fruit of Negroamaro kept approachable.

Don Antonio Primitivo IGP Puglia is the flagship, 100% Primitivo vinified by carbonic maceration followed by Slavonian oak ageing. The wine is purplish-red and brilliant in the glass. The bouquet is intense and persistent: ripe red fruit with spicy undertones from the oak. On the palate, the carbonic maceration shows as freshness and lifted fruit rather than the heavy extracted character typical of Primitivo at this ripeness level. The 2017 vintage won Gambero Rosso 3 Bicchieri.

Senatore Primitivo DOC Gioia del Colle carries the more specific DOC designation, placing the grape in the limestone-influenced hills south of Bari. Its relationship to Don Antonio in the range hierarchy is not confirmed in current sources.

In The Glass

The Serralto Malvasia Bianca opens with white peach and apple blossom from the nose. In the mouth the wine is round and fruity, with enough acidity to keep it from feeling flat, and a finishing sweetness that is soft rather than cloying.

The Pellirosso Negroamaro moves into darker fruit territory, plum and blackberry, but the palate is gentler than most Salento reds of its weight. It finishes clean and dry, the tannins soft and integrated.

Don Antonio is the most layered of the three main reds. The carbonic maceration gives the wine an initial lift of fresh red fruit, cherry and raspber­ry, before the Slavonian oak arrives with spice and a warm, rounded mid-palate. The finish is persistent, with the ripe concentration that Primitivo delivers from Puglia, but the overall weight is lighter than a conventionally fermented Primitivo of comparable ripeness.

A Bottle To Understand It

Don Antonio Primitivo IGP Puglia is the bottle that shows what Coppi is doing differently. It is 100% Primitivo, fermented by carbonic maceration for seven to eight days and then moved into large Slavonian oak barrels for malolactic fermentation. The technique separates this wine from standard Puglian Primitivo, which is typically fermented with extended skin contact and comes out dense, tannic, and high in alcohol. Don Antonio is still a full southern red, but the carbonic maceration extracts colour and ripe fruit ahead of grip. It is intense and dark-fruited on the nose, with spice from the oak, and fresher on the palate than the grape's southern origin would suggest. The 2017 won Gambero Rosso's top award. Start here.

Anecdote

In the early 1990s, Antonio Coppi bought the first bottling machine the winery had ever owned. The estate had been founded in 1882 and had been producing wine for over a hundred years, but everything had left the property in bulk, sold without a label, with no Coppi name attached to it. Coppi had taken over in 1979 and spent more than a decade preparing for that purchase: the vineyards, the cellar, the range. When the bottling line arrived, a winery that had existed for more than a century put its name on a bottle for the first time. The wine going into those first labeled bottles was from vines the family had been farming since before anyone then alive was born.

Final Word

Cantine Coppi has farmed southeastern Puglia for well over a century and has been bottling under its own name for roughly thirty years. The range is built on six indigenous varieties, produced at meaningful scale, with the Don Antonio Primitivo as the clearest statement of what the winery is capable of. The Gioia del Colle DOC designation anchors the flagship Primitivo to the cooler limestone hills south of Bari, and the carbonic maceration vinification keeps the wine fresher than its southern ripeness would otherwise allow.

Sources

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