Italy · Daunia & Foggia (northern Apulia)

Casa Marzoni

Organic appassimento wines from Puglia, made from indigenous southern Italian varieties by a Veneto partnership with nearly a century behind it. Grapes dry on the vine before fermentation, concentrating everything.

The producer

Casa Marzoni makes appassimento wines from Puglia, the long, sun-baked heel of southern Italy. The wines are produced in cooperation with Casa Botter, a family-owned Veneto négociant founded by Carlo and Maria Botter in 1928 and now in its third generation. The practical result is Puglian indigenous varieties dried on the vine before fermentation, bottled under EU organic certification, and sealed by hand with traditional Italian string. That last detail, the hand-tied spago cord, is the one thing every person who has handled these bottles can describe afterward.

The grape varieties are all southern Italian: Montepulciano, Negroamaro, Primitivo, Malvasia Nera, and Uva di Troia. When summer turns to early autumn in Puglia, grapes are left on the vine for approximately two weeks. Constant sunshine and soft breezes keep the bunches healthy while moisture evaporates. By the time they are hand-gathered in small baskets, the grapes have shed up to half their weight, their sugars and aromas packed into a far smaller volume. No pesticides, no chemical fertilisers, and vegan-friendly clarification using bentonite clay and plant casein.

Known for

Appassimento method, Puglian indigenous varieties, EU certified organic

Notable facts

The story

The Lighter Bottle

In 2022, Casa Marzoni reduced the weight of its standard glass bottle from 750 grams to 550 grams. The decision came from the brand's sustainability programme and was framed as a carbon calculation: lighter glass means fewer emissions per case shipped across Europe. The problem was optics. In wine, heavy glass reads as a quality signal, and reducing the bottle weight by 200 grams runs directly against a market habit so deep most producers would not touch it. Casa Marzoni reduced the bottle anyway, published the change, and tied the decision to measurable targets rather than to the vague language most sustainability commitments settle for. The lighter bottle now goes to market sealed in the same hand-tied spago cord as before.

The Lighter Bottle

In 2022, Casa Marzoni reduced the weight of its standard glass bottle from 750 grams to 550 grams. The decision came from the brand's sustainability programme and was framed as a carbon calculation: lighter glass means fewer emissions per case shipped across Europe. The problem was optics. In wine, heavy glass reads as a quality signal, and reducing the bottle weight by 200 grams runs directly against a market habit so deep most producers would not touch it. Casa Marzoni reduced the bottle anyway, published the change, and tied the decision to measurable targets rather than to the vague language most sustainability commitments settle for. The lighter bottle now goes to market sealed in the same hand-tied spago cord as before.

From the atlas

Casa Marzoni

At A Glance

Country: Italy Region: Puglia Method: Appassimento Grapes: Montepulciano, Negroamaro, Primitivo, Malvasia Nera, Uva di Troia Farming: EU certified organic Signature: Casa Marzoni Appassimento

The Producer

Casa Marzoni makes appassimento wines from Puglia, the long heel of southern Italy that runs into the Adriatic and Ionian seas. The wines are produced in close cooperation with Casa Botter, a Veneto négociant founded by Carlo and Maria Botter in 1928 and now in its third generation. Puglian indigenous varieties are dried on the vine before fermentation, bottled under EU organic certification and sealed by hand with traditional Italian string.

That last detail, the hand-tied spago cord, is the one detail every person who has handled these bottles can describe afterward. In a category where closures are overwhelmingly machine-applied, the gesture is deliberate.

Place

Puglia runs nearly five hundred kilometres down Italy's south-eastern coast, one of the driest and sunniest agricultural zones in the country. Rainfall is low. Summer heat is sustained and direct. The combination creates exactly the conditions appassimento grapes need during their late-summer drying window: no rot pressure, steady dehydration, fruit that concentrates without spoiling.

The soils are calcareous, pale-toned, and water-retentive. In a region where drought stress is the more common risk, soils that hold moisture matter. The vines draw on that reserve through the dry months and produce grapes with thick skins and high sugar levels before any drying begins.

The label carries no village or appellation designation. Casa Marzoni wines sell as Puglian wines, broadly placed, with the production method carrying more weight on the bottle than any specific geographical sub-division.

Soil And Site

The calcareous soils of Puglia are bright and porous at the surface but retain water at depth, giving vines access to moisture without the waterlogging that encourages disease. Low ambient humidity reduces fungal pressure across the growing season. Sunshine hours are high from spring through harvest. These three factors together mean that organic farming, which elsewhere requires intensive canopy management and spray programmes, becomes considerably more tractable here. No pesticides or chemical fertilisers are used.

Story

Casa Botter's history in Veneto goes back nearly a century, to Carlo and Maria Botter's founding in 1928. Three generations later, the family operation had the reach and technical infrastructure to build a new brand around a method and a southern Italian region rather than around the Veneto heartland. Casa Marzoni is that project: appassimento wines from Puglia, sold across Europe under organic certification.

In 2022, the brand made a decision that cuts against the image most people have of premium wine packaging. The standard glass bottle was reduced from 750 grams to 550 grams. The reasoning was carbon: lighter bottles mean lower transport emissions per case. The change is traceable, dateable, and measurable, and it sat uncomfortably with the idea that heavier glass signals quality. The brand chose the lighter bottle anyway.

The grape varieties are all southern Italian: Montepulciano, Negroamaro, Primitivo, Malvasia Nera, and Uva di Troia. None of these are Veneto grapes. The partnership is logistical and generational; the wines come from Puglia.

Vineyards And Cellar

When summer turns to early autumn in Puglia, the grapes are left on the vine to dry for approximately two weeks. This is on-vine appassimento, a variation from the more commonly seen indoor drying on straw mats or racks. The vine itself holds the fruit through the drying window. Constant sunshine and soft, steady breezes keep the bunches healthy as moisture evaporates. Grapes can shed up to half their weight during this period.

Before fermentation begins, the dried grapes weigh less and are more concentrated: sugars compressed, acidity concentrated, aromatic compounds packed into a reduced liquid. After two weeks, the dried grapes are hand-gathered in small baskets so they arrive at the winery whole and undamaged.

Fermentation and ageing details are not fully disclosed. For the red Appassimento and Gran Marzoni, oak treatment is applied; vessel type and duration are not specified. The Appassimento Bianco is fermented and aged entirely in stainless steel, with no oak contact. Clarification across the range uses bentonite clay and plant casein, making every wine vegan.

Wines

Three wines carry the appassimento label.

Casa Marzoni Appassimento is the signature red. Analytical data from the 2020 vintage puts alcohol at 14.5%, residual sugar at 10 grams per litre, and pH at 3.45. The profile is full-bodied, concentrated, and smooth-textured, with the weight and warmth that comes from fruit dried to near-raisin density before pressing. The blend draws on Montepulciano, Negroamaro, and Uva di Troia with other Puglian and Italian varieties; current vintage proportions are not disclosed. Oak is applied.

Gran Marzoni Appassimento takes the same method and tightens the selection before drying begins. Only the ripest, most concentrated bunches from the harvest are chosen. Gran Marzoni offers a more intense, concentrated, oak-touched red profile, positioned above the core Appassimento in the range.

Casa Marzoni Appassimento Bianco applies the same on-vine drying technique to white varieties, then ferments and ages in stainless steel with no oak. Where the reds are warm, dense, and round from both the drying and the wood, the white lands differently: the concentration from drying is present, but stainless steel preserves the aromatic freshness and keeps the texture clean rather than broad.

In The Glass

The Casa Marzoni Appassimento opens with dark fruit, dried plum, and a faint sweetness from the residual sugar. It is a wine that begins warm and stays warm through the palate. The concentration from the two-week drying is unmistakable: the fruit weight is dense, the body fills the mouth, the tannins from the Negroamaro and Montepulciano are present but smooth after oak contact. Acidity holds the 10 grams of residual sugar in balance, keeping the finish from feeling flat. The wine does not finish dry; it finishes long, warm, and faintly sweet.

The Gran Marzoni carries that profile further. The colour is deeper. The fruit is more compressed. The palate is richer, with a longer finish and a more pronounced oak signature.

The Bianco is cooler in every sense: aromatic and lighter on the palate despite the concentration from drying, the stainless steel ageing keeping it fresh and direct rather than heavy.

A Bottle To Understand It

Casa Marzoni Appassimento is the red to start with. It is made from Montepulciano, Negroamaro, and Uva di Troia, dried for two weeks on the vine in Puglia, then fermented and aged with oak. At 14.5% alcohol and 10 grams of residual sugar, it is unmistakably a southern Italian appassimento wine: full-bodied, dark-fruited, smooth in texture, and warm through the finish. The spago cord is already tied around the neck when it arrives. Open it with a rich meat dish or ripe cheese. This is what on-vine drying in Puglia produces.

Anecdote

In 2022, Casa Marzoni reduced the weight of its standard glass bottle from 750 grams to 550 grams. The decision came from the brand's sustainability programme and was framed as a carbon calculation: lighter glass means fewer emissions per case shipped across Europe. The problem was optics. In wine, heavy glass reads as a quality signal, and reducing the bottle weight by 200 grams runs directly against a market habit so deep most producers would not touch it. Casa Marzoni reduced the bottle anyway, published the change, and tied the decision to measurable targets rather than to the vague language most sustainability commitments settle for. The lighter bottle now goes to market sealed in the same hand-tied spago cord as before.

Final Word

Casa Marzoni is built around one technique applied in one region. The appassimento method, on-vine rather than rack-dried, in dry Puglian sunshine, concentrates Negroamaro, Montepulciano, and Uva di Troia into a dense, warm, smooth red that tastes nothing like a conventional Puglian table wine. Organic certification, vegan clarification, and a genuinely lighter bottle are the practical commitments behind the label. The history belongs to Casa Botter and 1928; the wine belongs to Puglia.

Sources

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