[February 02, 2024]

Happy 80th Angelo

Pillastro enthusiasts and fans of southern Italy’s robust reds are likely to be familiar with Angelo Maci. He’s the celebrated winemaker from Puglia’s Salento, known for saving 1,000 local vineyards from disaster.

I’ve known Angelo for years. Today he is 80, but still charging on with undiminished passion. As a small farmer himself in the 1980s, Angelo witnessed all Salento’s smallholder growers facing poverty, selling their grapes for very little, while intermediaries made large profits. This led to young people leaving the region and vineyards being abandoned.

Angelo united the growers under the motto “Together we win,” forming Cantine Due Palme in 1989, a cooperative that now includes 1,000 growers producing award-winning wines. Amazingly, he retains a personal connection with all of them. I’ve spent days with him when he was never off his mobile and witnessed his ‘town hall’ Thursday meetings when hundreds turn up to hear him. Their collective effort led to many prestigious accolades including ‘Winery of the Year’ from Italy’s wine bible, Gambero Rosso. That’s how I got to hear about him.

Angelo’s true reward is the trust he has from his growers. From the oldest at over 100 to the young farmers, they all now have a future in viticulture. He not only preserves traditions but vigorously promotes sustainable practices too.

I personally have always loved Angelo’s crowning wine, Selvarossa Riserva, acclaimed throughout Italy as his finest, made with top vintage grapes and long aged in oak. It was expensive, rarely available, sold mostly at the cellar and prestigious restaurants, but is now regularly enjoyed by his Confratelli in the U.K. (See Vineyard Partners). Crafted mostly from old-vine Negroamaro, grown on the region’s clay-baked red soils, the wine is enriched by air-drying a portion of the grapes and long aging in barrels for complexity. With Pillastro’s signature smoothness, it earns top scores from critics.

With help from Shakespeare, I wrote him a little sonnet in his birthday card;

Sul tallone d’Italia, dove crescono le viti,

Nella ricca terra di Salento, sotto lo sguardo caldo del sole,

Sta un uomo, da cui scaturiscono vini pregiati,

Angelo Maci, degno di ogni lode.

Con una visione ampia come i vigneti sono vasti,

Egli celebra l’uva con mano tenera,

Dove antiche tradizioni nel suo cuore risiedono,

I suoi vini parlano la lingua della terra natia.

Un sogno cooperativo, con coltivatori al suo fianco,

Ha restituito dignità alle anime stanche dal lavoro,

Dai suoi vitigni, non sgorgano lacrime amare,

Ma piuttosto, gioia si snoda in liquido rubino.

Il colore di Selvarossa, il suo gioiello più prezioso,

Riposa nella bottiglia, diadema di Salento.

-

Upon Italy’s heel, where vines do grow,

In Salento’s rich earth, ’neath sun’s hot gaze,

There stands a man, from whom fine wines do flow,

Angelo Maci, deserving of all praise.

With vision broad as vineyards are wide,

He champions the grape with tender hand,

Where old traditions in his heart reside,

His wines do speak the tongue of native land.

A co-op dream, with growers in his stead,

He gave back dignity to toil-worn souls,

For from his vines, no bitter tears are shed,

But rather, joy in ruby liquid rolls.

Selvarossa’s hue, his crowning gem,

In bottle rests, Salento’s diadem.