Tenuta Demaio

The Origins:

I am Antonio Demaio, and I present to you my estate: My connection to agriculture is innate. In the early 1900s, my grandfather Domenico cultivated olives in Rignano Garganico, a charming medieval village nestled in the Monti Dauni mountains in Puglia, province of Foggia. After moving to San Severo in the Tavoliere delle Puglie, he continued the family tradition and passed on his love for olives and vines to my father. Since I was a child, I started pruning the olive trees and vines, harvesting their fruits, and vinifying our grapes. We had an underground cellar, a type that was abundant in San Severo at that time.

In the 1970s, the advent of cooperatives and the idea that "unity is strength" led me to suspend the transformation activities and focus primarily on agriculture. During those years, I became a professor of Business Economics and later a school principal at the ITC in San Severo, never abandoning my first passion. I concentrated all my physical and financial resources to grow the company, dreaming of restarting, one day, to produce wine and olive oil as I did when I was a child.

In 2010, I began the renovation of an old farmhouse into the current winery, and since 2013, with the help of my son-in-law Giovanni, who shares the passion for wine, we started the transformation of the first grapes, following both in the vineyard and in the cellar, the organic and traditional method. In the vineyard, we practice minimal interventions, and in the cellar, we carry out spontaneous fermentations without clarification or filtration, as my father taught me and as I teach my children.

The Wine:

The estate consists of 35 hectares of olive groves and vineyards. All the agricultural practices in the field are organic (certified since 2004). The wines undergo spontaneous fermentation in stainless steel, and for one wine (the macerated wine), fermentation/maceration in oak barrels takes place. There is no clarification, stabilization, or sterile filtration, and only a small addition of sulfites is made. Currently, we produce five labels: Bombino Bianco, Bombino Macerato (orange wine), Nero di Troia Rosato, Nero di Troia Rosso, and Bombino Spumante Ancestrale.

The packaging of our bottles seeks to respect nature as much as possible. We have chosen a lighter bottle, and the labels are made of Stone Paper ©, a special paper made from stone powder, which allows us to save over 65% of paper compared to other types. The capsule is made of poly-laminate to avoid the use of PVC plastic, and the cardboard boxes have no graphics for 100% recyclability.

The design of our labels is simple yet effective. The labels represent a square with the color of the wine, emphasizing the naturalness of our wine, the absence of chemical additives, and a wine made from its own grapes, which has the color of its grapes.

Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil:

The fertile land, the right exposure, and the clean air create an ideal climate for the cultivation of our olives. In San Severo, in the heart of the Tavoliere delle Puglie, a land with a centuries-old and skilled agricultural tradition, we practice the Sanseverese vase pruning method exclusively by hand. This facilitates the collection of the drupes using the ancient method of "brucatura" as soon as the olive fly infestation begins, ensuring the fruit is healthy.

The value of our organic extra virgin olive oil is enhanced by the careful selection of healthy drupes during the hand-picking process. The cold pressing takes place at a state-of-the-art continuous cycle mill, which preserves the natural substances present in fresh olives, providing the oil with pleasant aromatic nuances, a harmonious and round flavor, with the right touch of bitterness and pungency.