Castel del Monte Nero di Troia Riserva DOCG

The ’Aristocrat’ of Apulian grapes. Unlike the jammy Primitivo, Nero di Troia is defined by violet aromatics and firm tannins. It was historically used to add structure to blends.

The Terroir The Murgia plateau’s limestone bedrock is the key here. Nero di Troia is a late-ripening variety that can become overly tannic and rustic if water-stressed. The clay pockets within the limestone of the Castel del Monte area allow just enough water retention to ripen the tannins fully, while the altitude provides cooling relief to preserve the floral aromatics.

The Riserva Rules The Riserva requires a minimum of two years’ aging, with at least one year in wood. This extended contact deepens colour and integrates tannins, shifting the profile from floral freshness toward dried rose, tobacco, and dark fruit.

The Critical Take A wine of finesse rather than brute force. At its best it competes with mid-tier Barolo for structural elegance — all violet, graphite, and restrained dark fruit. The Rivera ’Il Falcone’ Riserva is the reference point.

The Name, and the Legend Attached to It Nero di Troia is also called Uva di Troia, and the pretty story has Diomedes bringing the vine from Troy after the fall of the city and planting it on the Apulian coast. The duller and likelier explanation is the town of Troia in the province of Foggia, sixty kilometres north of here, where the variety was long concentrated. Both accounts circulate locally; only one of them is evidence.

The Latest Grape in Puglia This is the region’s slowest ripener by a wide margin, routinely picked into late October when the Primitivo has been in tank for a month. That extra hang time is what allows the tannins to soften, and it is also the risk: an autumn that turns wet before the fruit is ready leaves a wine that is green, hard and unsellable. Growers here are gambling on the weather in a way that growers of early varieties in the same province are not.

Why It Was Always a Blender For most of its history the grape was valued for what it could contribute to somebody else’s wine — colour, acid, tannic backbone — rather than for what it was on its own, and the varietal bottlings that now define it are barely thirty years old. The Riserva rules exist to force the ageing that the tannins require.

At the Table Lamb from the Murgia, brasciole of horse or beef braised slowly in tomato, game, and hard aged cheese. Serve at 17–18°C and decant a young bottle.

Benchmark Producers Rivera (Il Falcone), Torrevento (Vigna Pedale).