In the heart of the vineyard: the rebirth of Notardomenico

There are companies that boast centuries of history behind them, and there are others that are just starting out. This is the case with the Domiziano farm, a company “without history” – as Vincenzo Nacci himself likes to say – but with roots that are firmly planted in a land that, with passion and enthusiasm, has never stopped telling its story.

With a farmer great-grandfather and an orthopaedic surgeon grandfather (and sons), it seemed that the vocation for the land had been interrupted. Then, one day, the news of vineyards for sale rekindled a spark in the grandfather, who could not resign himself to feeling “retired from agriculture”. So he called his grandson Vincenzo and proposed an adventure that became more than a job, it became destiny.

Vincenzo, who was little more than a student at the time, accepted the challenge. It wasn't so much the wine that attracted him as the authentic promise of the land. He graduated in 2018 and since then has devoted himself to the business as one does with absolute love: body, soul and heart. In just a few years, he increased the number of hectares under vine from eight to fifteen, managing everything himself – from accounting to sales, from pruning to the silent rhythm of the rows. His farm has been organic since 2013, a sign of his simple and radical determination: “We are what we eat,” he says with conviction.

Today, the wine is still vinified on behalf of third parties, but plans to build his own winery are already underway. Yet Vincenzo's ambition is not to grow without measure: the ideal limit remains around 40,000 bottles. A choice that reveals the heart of his work: to preserve craftsmanship, to keep wine on a human scale, recognisable and authentic.

The restoration of Notardomenico: an act of remembrance

The real turning point came with Notardomenico. The name sounds ancient, and indeed it is: an almost forgotten variety, which the local farmers called Santu Nicola. It was considered a “poor” grape: low alcohol content, less structure, often relegated to being used simply as a blending wine. Vincenzo rediscovers it almost by chance, talking to his grandfather's brother. It is the beginning of an adventure that takes the grapes to the Agricultural Institute of Locorotondo, where their identity is certified: Notardomenico. A grape variety that, throughout Puglia, survives today in only a few other wineries.

With courage and determination, Vincenzo decided to replant it. The first vintages were difficult, with failures and patchy vineyards, with young plants and more solid ones coexisting in the same half hectare. Yet, from those vines, a wine was born that is both new and ancient at the same time: 1,100 bottles of freshness, with their light alcohol content (11.5 degrees) and that vein of acidity that makes them modern and contemporary. A wine that does not seek power, but authenticity. Notardomenico wine is not yet available in our selection, but will soon be added to our catalogue.

Notardomenico is more than ever the symbol of what this winery wants to be: a bastion of authenticity.

And perhaps it is precisely here, in this balance between roots and vision, that the greatest value of his winery is revealed: the ability to transform a “lack of history” into a new, living history that is worth telling.