JORCHE SHOP
There are several marketing studies on how to find the right name for a product. Often this depends on the type of market this product is designed for, its characteristics and the habits and customs its consumers have. Huge wineries that need to sell millions of bottles must keep these studies in mind and thus pick their wines name in this way.
When instead you are a small reality like us, you don’t ask yourself whether the name will be appreciated (although you hope), draw the client’s attention from the shelf or make you sell some more bottles since you chose the “right” name…since in our case our wines are our creations, a part of us, they are our own children!
…Would you ever name your child with a name that other people like but you don’t or has not a profound meaning to you? I don’t think so…
For us each wine represents a story.
When in a restaurant the waiter brings a bottle of wine to the table, what is being taken is not only a drink that will delight dinners, but an idea, a thought, a story…what is being taken is the result of a long and hard work, the producer that introduces and expresses him/herself through that wine. Think about it…sometimes, through his/her product, that producer is showing his/her deepest sides too.
And what is the first thing that the client sees? The first thing that allows us to give some initial information about us, the reason why that wine was born and what we want to convey with that type of product? It’s the NAME.
Our wines’ name is all related to something important to us. Obviously, it’s always the wine with its path and its features that comes first, then comes the name to tell what that wine represents, which are its peculiarities or the reasons why we decided to make it in that specific way.
It’s true, there are some of our wines which have not a proper name but one that coincides with their denomination (for instance, Primitivo di Manduria without an invented name), but also this choice too has a deep meaning: that wine aims to represent in the purest and most pristine way its land e the features of its own vineyard, it wants to tell the world “I am this because I come from that place and there’s no other place I could’ve become what I am.”.
So, let’s venture and discover together the meaning of our six wines’ invented names…have a nice trip!
“Naghiro” – Fiano Minutolo del IGP Salento
This wine is a Fiano Minutolo in purity which is put on the market a few months after the harvest and ages only in steel. It’s a simple, aromatic and genuine wine. It has a very pale color, that at first sight made us think of a story that our grandfather always used to tell us: the story of the NAGHIRI!
The Naghiri (sing. Naghiro) were the ones who worked in the hypogeum oil mills that are present in abundance in our area: one can be found in our Masseria too and today our restaurant is located in it.
These men usually came from the Lecce province and stayed in our area for all the duration of the olive oil process period, which at that time was quite long, usually from October to March. It was lamp oil, destined to light up the villages, and not cooking oil, both because of its very high acidity and because few people could afford what was considered the gold at that time.
And that’s the reason why the Naghiri were locked from the outside by the oil mill owner that brought them food everyday but didn’t let them get out, fearing they could steal the precious olive oil: they were allowed to go out only once, that is on Christmas night to attend the Holy Mass.
In the Church they were immediately recognized because of their pale faces: unlike other people that worked in the countryside under the Apulian scorching sun indeed, they never saw the sunlight being locked underground for months.
“Caleido” – Negroamaro IGP Salento
Negroamaro is a really peculiar vineyard and sometimes a little bit difficult to manage: it has a not always optimal maturation and so it tends to have quite marked acidities and a tannin that tends to remain a bit green and needs long refinements to soften.
Moreover, it has not very fruity aromacities but more oriented towards balsamic, floral, earthiness and undergrowth smells and this is why this variety is usually blended with fruitier ones.
Although, we wanted to leave it like it is, in purity, so that it could express its true essence and typicity.
Moreover, the great thing of this wine is its aromatic complexity and it is from here that derives its name: Caleido, indeed, derives from kaleidoscopic and from the idea that, just like looking through a kaleidoscope we can discover thousands of facets and colors, also by swirling this wine into the glass and sniffing it, we can enjoy endless facets of aromas.
It is in fact a wine that reveals itself slowly and that, if you’re patient when you are tasting it, it will really give you great emotions and will reveal its hidden side: it is suitable for those who want to taste something that goes beyond the usual standards of appreciation and wants to discover the real soul of Negroamaro.
“Dipinta” – Negroamaro Rosato IGP Salento
This pale-pink Negroamaro rosé is born from the interpretation, not only enological but also artistic, of our Emanuela Gianfreda, the enolog of Jorche (that is me! :D). The label is a painting made by me and every year I create a different one which interprets the vintage, not only intended as harvest, but also as year of life and experiences…it talks about the experienced emotions in that year or a moment that has been particularly meaningful to me.
This wine also reflects the ability of the female figure to valorize with her touch everything in her path, just like an artist makes with a blank canvas.
“D.I.P.I.N.T.A.”, apart from being a feminine name (which we particularly care of), represents the acronym of DONNE INSIEME PER IL NOSTRO TERRITORIO APULIA (WOMEN TOGETHER FOR OUR TERRITORY APULIA), recalling the contribution that we, as women, feel to give to the growth of a land full of potential, in which we believe very much and deeply love.
“Soltema” – Primitivo IGP Salento
SOLe (Sun), Terra (Soil), Mare (Sea) are three fundamental elements of our land, which give this wine unique typicity and characteristics:
- the sun of Puglia so intense and warm favors the correct maturation and the appassimento on the plant, giving the wine the right smoothness and alcolicity
- the red soil laid down sandstone layers gives power and structure, since it favors the right absorption from the vine of all the substances present in the soil
- the sea breeze, which caresses the vines in the summer fresh evenings, gives the so appreciated sapidity
This wine is a simple and sincere one, fruity, smooth and delicate, ideal for every kind of occasion and appreciated by everybody since, in its simplicity, gets everybody to agree.
“Lo Apu” – Primitivo di Manduria DOCG Dolce Naturale
This is the wine that more than anyone else recalls our traditions and tells a story that can seems ancient, but in reality is actually quite recent and those who know well our area can well testify.
Before telling this story, a premise is necessary: our family has been producing wine for five generations, but until our father our wine used to be sold bulk to other wineries, usually in Northern Italy, which have always used our structured and colorful wines to improve their ones.
My sister and I were the first ones in the family to decide to bottle our products and therefore we built a new and modern winery that was ready for bottling.
Meanwhile, in the old winery, our grandfather’s one, our father keeps on producing bulk wine for wholesale and there are many farmers that proudly give him grapes from their little Primitivo vineyards.
There was one farmer in particular that every year brought exceptional grapes coming from a single 80-year-old bush-trained hectare.
One year my father didn’t see him coming…he met him a few months later on the streets of Sava, a local town, and stopped to ask him what happened: the man told him that he didn’t quite understand what the mediator had told him and for this reason he had decided to bring his grapes elsewhere.
At this point my father told him to forget about mediators and to go straightforwardly to him every year, because his grapes were the best around and he would have always bought it, no matter the price.
The man was thrilled and vaunted with other farmers about the privilege he had received.
Anyway, one year the harvesting period was already passed and the farmer’s sister went to visit my father to told him the sad news of her brother premature passing. My father was extremely sorry to hear that and asked her if there was anything he could do to help…the woman then asked him to buy her brother’s vineyard and my father was left speechless:
“No, Ma’am, I’m sorry but right now I’m not looking for other vineyards to buy…” and she ” But Sir, you said that you would have always bought my brother’s grapes and now that he’s gone who is going to look after that vineyard?”
Upon hearing this, my father couldn’t say no and promised her to take some time to look into the matter with us…
We were thrilled! Such a beautiful vineyard, bush-trained, with such exceptional grapes…only a very particular wine could surely come out of it and therefore we decided to bought it.
When we confirmed the purchase, the woman was deeply thankful and she added to my father: ” Sir, would you like to buy my brother’s Lo Apu too? (that was a try to turn into Italian the word “l’Apu” that is how in the local dialect the ape-car is called, a small vehicle still nowadays used by many local farmers to get around their vineyards) ” Because he took it to get to the plot, who’s going to drive it now that he’s gone?” The woman snatched a smile to my father that thus accepted her proposal and said that, yes, we would have taken LO APU too, which still nowadays runs proudly around our vineyards and Masseria!
Symbol of the attachment to traditions and the great sacrifices that our farmers make to carry on these tiny, very old but outstanding plots of vineyards, our Primitivo di Manduria DOCG Naturale comes from Munnu Nueu (New Word) area in Sava countryside, an old bush-trained vineyard to which a farmer devoted his whole existence.
The only faithful companion of this hard work was Lo Apu…
