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2024 Valle d’Itria Minutolo “Rampone”
I Pástini
The exotic perfume of this white, made from the rare Minutolo grape, will take you straight to the sunny shores of Puglia, savoring a crisp aperitivo in an enchanting seaside village where worries and cares seem to drift right up into the clear blue sky. Minutolo nearly went extinct decades ago, but dedicated local farmers replanted to ensure its survival. Crudo is my favorite pairing, but a bowl of Castelvetrano olives will more than do the trick with this salty, invigorating white scented of jasmine and lemon verbena.
—Anthony Lynch
Wine Type: | white |
Vintage: | 2024 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | Minutolo |
Appellation: | Valle d’Itria IGP |
Country: | Italy |
Region: | Puglia |
Producer: | I Pástini |
Winemaker: | Gianni Carparelli |
Vineyard: | 3.5 ha, planted in 2001 |
Soil: | Red clay, limestone |
Farming: | Organic (certified) |
Alcohol: | 12.5% |
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About The Producer
I Pástini
I Pástini is a small, family-run winery in the Valle d’Itria in eastern central Puglia. Founded by Gianni Carparelli and his father Donato, they grow three local white grapes, Verdeca, Bianco d’Alessano, and Minutolo, and the local red grape, Susumaniello, on land their ancestors worked: a beautiful limestone plateau overlooking the Adriatic Sea that is co-planted to ancient, (multi-millennia old!), olive groves.
After vinifying their wines in a neighbor’s cantina for a number of years they built their own winery and cellars, which came online in 2012. They are currently nearing the end of their organic conversion in the vineyards and will be certified organic starting with the 2019 vintage.
About The Region
Puglia
Puglia is Italy’s second most prolific wine-producing region (after the Veneto) and for decades was known as a source of bulk wine. But today, the heel of the boot is more than ever focused on quality, as ambitious growers seek to take advantage of the area's abundant natural riches to produce wines of character and identity. The hot, dry climate and marine influence from the long Adriatic coastline predispose Puglia to growing high-quality fruit, while a wealth of fascinating indigenous grape varieties thrive in these conditions. Changing fashion and a growing respect for the region's mostly calcareous terroirs have breathed fresh air into the Puglian wine scene, and with more than thirty distinct appellations, it is home to a tremendous variety of styles.
While the region is best known for inky, concentrated reds from grapes such as Primitivo and Negroamaro, the first KLWM Puglian imports are in fact white wines—aromatic charmers made from native varieties including Verdeca and the rare Minutolo. They hail from central Puglia’s Valle d’Itria, a plateau that shares a relatively flat topography and limestone soils with the Salento peninsula in the south. The north, in contrast, is hillier and features grapes more common to southern and central Italy including Montepulciano, Sangiovese, and Trebbiano.
Puglian wines are the product of intense southern sunshine and an ancient history of viticulture. With other local specialties including olive oil and burrata, the region has enormous potential for delicious combinations.
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Where the newsletter started

Where the newsletter started
Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch