Femar Vini

The story

The Name In The Bottle

When Felice Mergè registered Femar Vini in 1995, the name was already a decision. His father Armando had built the original company in the 1970s around the edges of Frascati and Monte Porzio Catone, the Castelli Romani wine country just south of Rome. Felice took that company, converted it, and chose a name that stitched both generations together: FE from Felice, MAR from Armando Mergè. Every bottle the company makes carries both men inside the label. The wines themselves look south rather than to the hills outside the office door: Primitivo and Negroamaro from Puglia, Nero d'Avola from Sicily, Montepulciano from Abruzzo. The Castelli Romani address stayed; the grapes came from somewhere else entirely.

The Name In The Bottle

When Felice Mergè registered Femar Vini in 1995, the name was already a decision. His father Armando had built the original company in the 1970s around the edges of Frascati and Monte Porzio Catone, the Castelli Romani wine country just south of Rome. Felice took that company, converted it, and chose a name that stitched both generations together: FE from Felice, MAR from Armando Mergè. Every bottle the company makes carries both men inside the label. The wines themselves look south rather than to the hills outside the office door: Primitivo and Negroamaro from Puglia, Nero d'Avola from Sicily, Montepulciano from Abruzzo. The Castelli Romani address stayed; the grapes came from somewhere else entirely.

From the atlas

Femar Vini

At A Glance

The Producer

Femar Vini is registered in Monte Porzio Catone, a hill town in the Castelli Romani area southeast of Rome, but its wines come from further south. Felice Mergè founded the company in 1995 by converting his father Armando's earlier regional business into a new operation with a wider sourcing map: Primitivo, Negroamaro, and Fiano from Puglia, Nero d'Avola from Sicily, Montepulciano from Abruzzo. The company owns around 40 hectares of vineyards and draws additional supply from associated producers.

The name is a compressed family document. FE comes from Felice, MAR from Armando Mergè. The company, in its title, carries two generations. A third generation back, Manlio Mergè had produced wine and olive oil in the 1920s, though Manlio's methods and location were different from what Felice built.

Femar operates at commercial scale, with multiple brands in its portfolio rather than a single estate hierarchy. The Epicuro range is the most export-visible, sold widely into Scandinavian monopoly markets.

Place

The Puglia that supplies most of Femar's labelled wines is Italy's southern heel: flat to gently rolling limestone plains and low hillsides running toward the Adriatic and Ionian coasts. The climate is hot, dry, and intensely sunny through summer, which pushes grapes toward ripe, full-bodied, deeply coloured reds. Primitivo ripens early in this heat, developing dark fruit concentration and high natural alcohol. Negroamaro, grown in the Salento peninsula at Puglia's southern tip, adds darker, more tannic weight to the mix.

Femar's registered address is in the Castelli Romani hills, a different place entirely: the volcanic landscape of extinct craters south of Rome, associated with Frascati and other white wines. The grapes and wine personality on Femar's bottles are Puglian, not Roman. Fiano, Primitivo, and Negroamaro carry the heat, weight, and southern Italian character of the region they actually come from.

Soil And Site

Puglia's vineyards sit predominantly on calcareous clay and limestone soils, with good drainage and high sun exposure keeping yields moderate and concentration high in a typical year. Primitivo vines in the Manduria area and across the Taranto province are often old and low-trained, which further limits fruit load. Negroamaro is concentrated in Salento, on similar limestone and sandy soils near the coast.

The Monte Porzio Catone cellar is built into tuff, the volcanic rock that underlies much of the Castelli Romani landscape. The underground cave is a natural temperature regulator, which suits slow barrel ageing. That geological material of Lazio is where the southern grapes are brought to finish.

Story

The Mergè family's wine history runs back to Manlio in the 1920s, when wine and olive oil were produced together in the regional tradition. Armando Mergè formalised the business in the 1970s, working from the area around Frascati and Monte Porzio Catone, within Castelli Romani wine country. That company reflected where it stood: a central Italian, Lazio-based operation.

When Felice Mergè took over and converted the company into Femar Vini in 1995, the decision he made was geographical. He kept the Lazio address but redirected the sourcing south, to Puglia, Sicily, and Abruzzo, and to the native varieties that define those regions. The choice committed the company to a different style of wine: riper, heavier, more concentrated than the Castelli Romani whites and light reds nearby.

The portfolio expanded across multiple brands, each addressing different market positions or regional stories. Epicuro became the flagship export line, carrying Primitivo under the Zinfandel name into Scandinavian and other northern European markets.

Vineyards And Cellar

Femar's 40 hectares of owned vineyards are spread across its sourcing regions, supplemented by fruit and wine from associated companies. The cellar in Monte Porzio Catone covers approximately 6,000 square metres and runs two distinct winemaking systems side by side.

One side is built for fresh, clean wine styles: cold technology, stainless-steel fermentation tanks and storage vessels, a modern bottling line, and a laboratory for ongoing analysis. Temperature control through stainless steel keeps fruit character bright and primary, which suits the aromatic profile of wines like Fiano and lighter expressions of Primitivo.

The second unit is an underground cave cut from the local tuff, where more than 800 barriques sit alongside areas reserved for large Slavonian-oak barrels. This cellar handles the wines that need ageing and development: Gran Appasso spends a short period here in partial oak contact before bottling. The barrique and large-format oak split means different extraction levels for different cuvees, though Femar's oak programme is described as partial rather than heavy.

Wines

Femar's portfolio spans nine brands: Masseria Trajone, Faunus, Nero Grande, Antico Ceppo, Montecore, Anfiteatro Tuscolano, Urbe Aeterna, Terre Domiziane, and Epicuro. Epicuro carries the widest distribution and the most commercially visible range.

Epicuro Zinfandel is made from Primitivo grown in Puglia. Production rules set a minimum of 85% Primitivo, with other permitted grapes filling the balance; the 2024 vintage was bottled at 100% Primitivo. The wine is deep red in colour, with dark plum and blackberry fruit on the nose, a spicy, peppery quality on the palate, and a full, warm body that reflects Puglia's ripening conditions. It drinks accessibly young but carries enough dark-fruit depth to hold for a few years.

Gran Appasso is made by the appassimento method: Primitivo and Negroamaro grapes from Puglia are partially dried before fermentation, concentrating sugars and flavours. The 2019 blend ran 60% Primitivo and 40% Negroamaro. The wine spends a short period in partial oak contact. It is compact and dense in the glass: dried dark fruit, dark chocolate, pepper, and firm tannins from the Negroamaro, with the concentration that dried-grape fermentation adds across every element.

Fiano, Nero d'Avola, and Montepulciano appear across the wider brand range, each coming from its home region: Fiano from Puglia, Nero d'Avola from Sicily, Montepulciano from Abruzzo.

In The Glass

Epicuro Zinfandel opens on ripe dark fruit, blackberry and plum, with a warm spice and pepper note underneath. In the mouth the body is full and round, the tannins are soft and accessible, and a peppery finish carries through. The heat of Puglia is present in the wine's weight and alcohol, but the fruit stays primary and generous rather than overripe.

Gran Appasso is a more concentrated glass. Dried dark fruit, dark cherry, chocolate, and a firm tannin line from the Negroamaro form the backbone. The appassimento process pushes everything inward: the body is denser, the fruit more condensed, the finish longer and firmer. The short oak contact adds a quiet woodspice note without dominating the fruit. It is a wine that rewards food with weight: grilled meat, aged cheese, or a pasta with rich meat sauce.

Fiano from Puglia, in wines across the range, contributes aromatic white character: stone fruit, almond, and a slightly waxy texture, with enough natural acidity to feel fresh.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Epicuro Zinfandel (Primitivo) from Puglia. It is the plainest expression of what Femar does with its most important grape: ripe Primitivo from southern Italian sun, fermented clean, bottled accessible. The wine is dark, warm, and generous in the glass, with dark fruit and pepper across the palate and a full body that reflects the grape and the climate together. It carries no oak character and no added complexity. Drink it within three to five years of vintage, with grilled lamb or a plate of cured meats, and the combination of southern grape, heat, and accessible weight becomes immediately legible.

Anecdote

When Felice Mergè registered Femar Vini in 1995, the name was already a decision. His father Armando had built the original company in the 1970s around the edges of Frascati and Monte Porzio Catone, the Castelli Romani wine country just south of Rome. Felice took that company, converted it, and chose a name that stitched both generations together: FE from Felice, MAR from Armando Mergè. Every bottle the company makes carries both men inside the label. The wines themselves look south rather than to the hills outside the office door: Primitivo and Negroamaro from Puglia, Nero d'Avola from Sicily, Montepulciano from Abruzzo. The Castelli Romani address stayed; the grapes came from somewhere else entirely.

Final Word

Femar Vini is a multi-source, multi-brand operation, not a single-estate domaine. Its wines are made from Puglian, Sicilian, and Abruzzese grapes, bottled in a Lazio cellar, and sent north under the Epicuro name. The model works because the grapes are native and the sourcing is consistent. Primitivo from Puglia is what Femar does most visibly, and Epicuro Zinfandel is the bottle that carries that most clearly.

Sources

• https://www.femarvini.com/en/about-us/history.html
• https://www.femarvini.com/en/company/establishment-and-processes.html
• https://www.femarvini.com/en/company/geographical-areas.html
• https://www.femarvini.com/en/company/grape-varieties-and-areas.html
• https://www.femarvini.com/en/
• https://www.falstaff.com/en/wineries/femar-vini
• https://www.femarvini.com/it/brand/epicuro/18-zinfandel.html
• https://www.vinmonopolet.no/Land/Italia/Puglia/Epicuro-Zinfandel-2024/p/700201
• https://www.vinguiden.com/produkter/epicuro-zinfandel/
• https://www.vinguiden.com/produkter/gran-appasso/