Azienda Agricola La Cattiva, Sammichele di Bari
A common passion for the wild world of fermentation brought these guys (Alfredo, Manfredi, Loreto, Leonardo, Paolo and Michael) together. They became friends while brewing beer and started this project for their love of natural wine.
In 2018 they met Marianna, she lives on a farm in Puglia that grow and sells organic grapes, so they bought some grapes to experiment a bit. The tryouts didn’t turn out that bad and made them eager for more wine, so in 2019 they rented 3 ha from Marianna, to be able to both work in the vineyards and make more wine.
They also started to restore her old abandoned ‘Masseria’ (traditional style Puglia farmhouse) where they held cows before, where they now make and store the wines.
The grapes they farm is Primitivo, Negramaro, Aleatico,
Montepulciano, Aglianico and Trebbiano.
What they want to achieve is both bringing life back to this historical place and to create unique, authentic wines. Because of their history as brewers, they have a very open mind when it comes to wines. The only limits are that it needs to be wines they want to drink, and of course produced without any additives.
These wines really have their own characters. They are refreshingly easy to drink, uncomplicated, yet interesting and fun. Try it out!
2021, 2022 La Cattiva Spettinata
Soil: Clay and limestone
Grape: Trebbiano
Appellation: VDT
Age of Vines: Planted 2001
Vinification: The fermentation is spontaneous and after 2 months of ageing in tank, about 10% of fresh must is added to the wine for refermentation and ageing in bottle for another 6 months creating fine bubbles.
2020 88 Tasti
Soil: Clay and limestone
Grape: Negroamaro
Appellation: VDT
Age of Vines: Planted 2001
Vinification: The Negroamaro is directly pressed and after about 8 months ageing in tanks, it is bottled with the addition of the liqueur de tirage. After another 6 months in bottle the riddling is carried out until disgorgement for a perfect ”metodo classico” takes place after a year in bottle.
2021 La Cattiva Bianco (2022 in 20 liter key keg)
Soil: Clay and limestone
Grape: Trebbiano
Appellation: VDT
Age of Vines: Planted 2001
Vinification: Direct press before fermentation and ageing in stainless steel tanks for 6 months before bottling.
2021 L’Incontro (2022 in 20 liter key keg)
Soil: Clay and limestone
Grape: Trebbiano (2022 80% Trebbiano 20% Malvasia)
Appellation: VDT
Age of Vines: Planted 2001
Vinification: 25% of the grapes were macerated with the skins for 4 days and then blended with the rest of the juice that was directly pressed. Aged in a steel tank for 7 months before bottling.
2022 Oran-Gino
Soil: Clay and limestone
Grapes: Trebbiano, Pampanuto (local variety), Moscatello, Malvasia, Sauvignon Blanc
Appellation: VDT
Age of Vines: Planted 2000-2008
Vinification: 1-4 weeks skin contact depending on the grape. After blending the wine spent 6 months in tanks before bottling.
2021 No Virus Please on the dance floor (25cl can)
Soil: Clay and limestone
Grape: 50% Negramaro 35% Aglianico 15% Trebbiano
Appellation: VDT
Age of Vines: Planted 2001
Vinification: Direct press before fermentation and ageing in stainless steel tanks for 6 months before bottling with an addition of unfermented must, to create natural light bubbles. The name refers to the a gang of different grape varieties mingling on a ’disco’ hence creating this wine. The virus was of course a natural thing to add to the name during these pandemic times. Cheers!
2020 La Cattiva Rosato (2022 in 20 liter key keg)
Soil: Clay and limestone
Grape: Montepulciano and Primitivo
Appellation: VDT
Age of Vines: Planted 2001
Vinification: The grapes are crushed and macerated with the skins for 12 hours, before a careful pressing is carried out. Then the fermentation continues in stainless steel tanks followed by ageing in the same for 6 months before bottling.
2020 La Cattiva Rosso
Soil: Clay and limestone
Grape: Primitivo
Appellation: VDT
Age of Vines: Planted 2001
Vinification: The first harvest of Primitivo. Was harvested 1 week before Running a business & Riposata. The grapes are destemmed and then crushed followed by a short maceration for i day with frequent punch downs. It is then pressed and moved to stainless steel tanks for fermentation and maturing until bottling in mid May 2021.
2021 Trebbianico
Soil: Clay and limestone
Grape: Trebbiano, Aglianico, Montepulciano & Primitivo
Appellation: VDT
Age of Vines: Planted 2001
Vinification: A collaboration of friends where the Aglianico is from La Cattiva’s vinyerads in Sammichele and the Trebbiano from the Ortona vineyards of Cantina Indigeno in Abruzzo.
These grapes were put in tank together for a one week whole cluster carbonic maceration.
After fermentation the press took takes place followed by fermentation and ageing in stainless steel tanks. This wine was later blended with Montepulciano and Primitivo that was harvested a week later than the grapes for the initial wine and was left on the skins for a 12 day carbonic maceration.
Bottling in mid May 2022.
2021 Running a business with nature can never be 100% correctly predicted
Soil: Clay and limestone
Grape: Primitivo
Appellation: VDT
Age of Vines: Planted 2001
Vinification: Whole cluster carbonic maceration for 15 days. After this the grapes are pressed followed by ageing in steel tanks until bottling in mid May 2022. .
(The very long name of the wine refers to the unpredictability of things when working in nature, with natural winemaking).
2020 La Riposata
Soil: Clay and limestone
Grape: Primitivo
Appellation: VDT
Age of Vines: Planted 2001
Vinification: After 72 hours of maceration the fermenting must was divided: half was put in wooden barrel and half in clay amphora. After resting for about a year, the juice from barrel and amphora was finally blended together just before bottling in May 2022.
2021 Smoking Blu
Soil: Clay and limestone
Grape: Tebbiano, Malvasia and smoked grapes (Primitivo & Negroamaro)
Appellation: VDT
Age of Vines: Planted 2001
Vinification: The name Smoking Blu comes from the typical transparent blue tint of the smoke during a good quality smoking. The Malvasia and Trebbiano was each directly pressed and the musts combined right after pressing. It’s another story for the smoked grapes. The smoking was carried out over about 8 hours at 70°C using seasoned local olive & cherry tree logs. Once the smoking was completed the grapes were destemmed, crushed and left to macerate on the skins with the Trebbiano and Malvasia must for 30 days, with frequent punch downs. After maceration, the smoked grapes were pressed and the marc. set aside for distillation, while the wine continued ageing in stainless steel tanks. After about 8 months, the wine was finished following the Classic Method for sparkling wine. Therefore a liqueur de tirage was also added and the wine is bottled. 6 months later, the riddling begun leading up to the ultimate disgorgement.