Podere 29

The story

Plot 29

After one of the twentieth century's wars, the Italian government broke up large agricultural holdings across the Tavoliere plain and redistributed parcels to soldiers coming home. Each plot went into the land registry with a number. One number was 29. The Marrano family received that parcel, farmed it across the following decades, and when Giuseppe Marrano formally established the winery on 6 June 2005, he gave it the only name that had ever belonged to the land. The estate bottle carries a grape variety and a vintage on the front label. On the back, in the name, it carries the cadastral number from a government register drawn up to settle men returning from war.

From the atlas

Podere 29

At A Glance

The Producer

Podere 29 is a family-run organic estate on the Tavoliere delle Puglie plain, founded in 2005 by Giuseppe Marrano in Tressanti, a hamlet in Cerignola, Foggia province. The name is not a marketing invention. It comes from the cadastral register: Plot 29, a numbered parcel of agricultural land assigned through a post-war redistribution programme designed to settle returning soldiers. The Marrano family farmed that plot. When they established the winery, they kept the number on the label.

Giuseppe Marrano runs the estate with a commitment to natural farming that draws on biodynamic principles, and oenologist Luca Pugliese makes the wines. Twenty hectares are under vine. Four indigenous Pugliese varieties supply the whole range: Nero di Troia, Primitivo, Susumaniello, and Minutolo. More than 40% of production leaves Italy, reaching EU markets, Asia, and beyond.

Place

The Tavoliere delle Puglie is the largest plain in Italy after the Po Valley, a wide wheat-growing expanse in northern Puglia that runs to the Adriatic coast. Podere 29 sits near Cerignola, within reach of the Margherita di Savoia saltworks and flanked by the Ofanto and Carapelle river basins. The landscape is flat and open, exposed to sun and wind in equal measure.

Climate shifts as you move from coast to interior. Closer to the sea, conditions are Mediterranean: warm, moderately humid, tempered by Adriatic air. Inland at Cerignola, the character turns continental, with sharper swings between warm days and cool nights. Those diurnal temperature contrasts slow the final ripening of grapes, concentrate phenols, and build aromatic intensity in the fruit before harvest. The result on the label is wines from indigenous varieties that carry a particular freshness for southern Puglia.

Soil And Site

The estate holds four distinct soil types across its 20 hectares. Clay and sand dominate. Clay retains moisture through dry summer months and gives the red wines a density and mid-palate grip. Sand drains freely, reduces vine vigour, and favours aromatic expression. The combination runs through every bottle in the range as a textural signature: weight from the clay, lift from the sand.

Story

The Marrano family did not build the estate from a winemaking dynasty. They farmed land, and the land had a number. Plot 29 was part of a post-war redistribution programme that broke up large agricultural holdings and parcelled them out to veterans. The family kept the plot, kept farming it, and in June 2005 formalised it as a winery.

From the beginning, Giuseppe Marrano moved the farming toward organic methods and biodynamic principles, a direction that reflects both a family connection to the land and a conviction that native varieties grown with minimal intervention express something that imported grapes and heavy-handed viticulture cannot. Organic certification followed, and the range grew around the four grapes already suited to the plain: Nero di Troia, Primitivo, Susumaniello, and Minutolo. The export programme built slowly, now accounting for more than 40% of production.

Vineyards And Cellar

The 20 hectares are farmed organically, certified by a recognised body, and managed with biodynamic principles that guide vineyard timing and intervention decisions. The Tavoliere climate demands attention to water management: summer heat is intense, and clay soils help buffer vine stress during dry periods. The four varieties are kept separate through harvest and vinification, each handled to preserve its native character rather than to impose a uniform house style.

In the cellar, Luca Pugliese uses French-oak barriques for two wines: Unio, the Nero di Troia and Primitivo blend, and Gelso d'Oro, the varietal Minutolo white. Gelso d'Oro spends eight months in French oak, long enough to add a spiced texture and roundness without overwhelming the grape's orange blossom and apricot character. Gelso Nero, the straight Nero di Troia, is vinified to keep the variety's red fruit, pepper and clove profile clear.

Wines

The range has three wines, each a direct expression of one or two of the estate's four indigenous varieties.

Gelso Nero is varietal Nero di Troia, the dark-skinned grape historically associated with northern Puglia and the Castel del Monte DOC tradition. On the nose it shows red fruit alongside fig, black pepper and clove. In the mouth it carries the grape's characteristic chewy tannin and savoury spice, with the clay soils adding body and the diurnal temperature variation preserving freshness on the finish.

Unio blends Nero di Troia with Primitivo, Puglia's most internationally recognised red variety. Primitivo adds dark fruit density and a riper, fuller body to Nero di Troia's pepper and clove profile. The blend is aged in French-oak barriques, which integrates the two varieties and adds a layer of oak-derived texture without dominating the native fruit.

Gelso d'Oro is the estate's sole white, made from Minutolo, a rare aromatic variety uncommon in northern Puglia. Minutolo produces wines closer to orange blossom, peach and apricot than to the neutral whites that dominate much of southern Italy. Eight months in French-oak barriques gives the wine a round, full mouthfeel and a spiced finish while the grape's acidity keeps it from turning heavy.

Susumaniello, listed among the estate's varieties, is a dark-skinned grape traditionally associated with Brindisi and Ostuni; no named wine from Susumaniello appears in the current range.

In The Glass

Gelso Nero opens with ripe red fruit, a fig note, and the distinctive black pepper and clove that Nero di Troia carries from warm clay soils. In the mouth it is medium to full in body, with tannin that grips cleanly and an earthy, spiced finish. The cool nights at Cerignola give it more freshness than most warm-plain reds.

Unio is darker and broader. Primitivo rounds the Nero di Troia's spiced edge into a wine with more dark plum and blackberry at the centre. The French oak adds a dry, integrated texture rather than obvious vanilla; the finish is long and savoury.

Gelso d'Oro has the most aromatic presence in the range. Peach and apricot lead, with white flowers behind them. The oak ageing fills in the mouthfeel and adds a faint spiced quality to the finish, but the Minutolo grape drives the wine. Acidity keeps the weight in check across the palate, so the finish stays clean rather than heavy.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Gelso Nero. It is a varietal Nero di Troia grown on the Tavoliere plain at Cerignola, made without oak, and sent into the bottle to do one job: show what the grape tastes like when it is farmed carefully and left to speak clearly. Red fruit comes first on the nose, then fig, then black pepper and clove. In the mouth the tannin is present but not hard, the body is medium to full, and the spice from the grape carries through to a savoury finish. No oak to decode, no blending partner to separate out. One variety, one place, one bottle.

Anecdote

At some point after one of the twentieth century's wars, the Italian government broke up large agricultural holdings across the Tavoliere plain and redistributed parcels to soldiers coming home. Each plot went into the land registry with a number. One number was 29. The Marrano family received that parcel, farmed it across the following decades, and when Giuseppe Marrano formally established the winery on 6 June 2005, he gave it the only name that had ever belonged to the land. The estate bottle carries a grape variety and a vintage on the front label. On the back, in the name, it carries the cadastral number from a government register drawn up to settle men returning from war.

Final Word

Podere 29 is an organic estate on the Tavoliere plain farming four indigenous Pugliese varieties with a biodynamic sensibility and very little compromise. The wines are direct: Nero di Troia spiced and earthy, Primitivo adding dark fruit weight in the blend, Minutolo doing something different from any other white in the range. The name on the label is a land registry number. The farming is a family decision. More than 40% of production is exported to EU markets, Asia, and other markets.

Sources

• https://cuveeimports.com/our-producers/producer:podere-29/
• https://pugliawineworld.it/en/aziende/podere-29/
• https://www.hellotaste.it/vino/cantine/p/podere-29
• https://www.podere29shop.it/prodotto/gelso-nero/
• https://www.podere29shop.it/prodotto/unio/
• https://www.podere29shop.it/prodotto/gelso-oro/
• https://vinosapiens.it/product/gelso-doro/