Crifo: the outcome of 60 working years among the most cultivated vines in Puglia

The Ruvo di Puglia Winery has a sixty-year history. For sixty years, it has been working with the most cultivated grape varieties in Puglia across its approximately 600 hectares of vineyards, producing the best Puglian wines. The treasure of its territory is the Nero di Troia grape, the third most important Puglian variety after Primitivo and Negramaro.

Commercially, the Winery is represented by the Crifo brand, which adorns its finest bottled wines. The name “Crifo” is formed from the acronym of the original name “Cantina della Riforma Fondiaria” combined with the stylized symbol of the Griffin, a mythical creature that ancient builders sculpted on the facade of the Ruvo di Puglia cathedral.

To bring each wine of what we might call the “Crifo collection” to life, the Ruvo di Puglia Winery relies on the expertise of oenologist Massimo Tripaldi, President of the Puglia, Calabria, and Basilicata section of Assoenologi since March 2019.

Members of one of the largest wine cooperatives in the region, the partners primarily focus on providing the best grapes for winemaking from the Nero di Troia, Bombino Bianco, Bombino Nero, Pampanuto (also known as Verdeca), and Moscatello Selvatico cultivars.

To date, there are more than 500 members who deliver over 10,000 tons of grapes per harvest, 60% of which belong to the native varieties of the Alta Murgia just listed. The harvest comes from over 1,000 hectares of vines cultivated with various systems, including espalier, Puglian pergola, and bush-trained, thriving in the limestone territory of the Castel del Monte area, between the provinces of Bari and Barletta-Andria-Trani.

In 2020, the Ruvo di Puglia Winery produced over 2,700,000 bottles in the 0.75-liter format, distributed through HoReCa and GDO/DO channels in Italy and abroad, confirming its absolute leadership in production and sales in this format.

Let’s briefly retrace the steps that led to this success, the result of 60 years of work among the most cultivated grape varieties in Puglia.

The cooperative was founded in 1960 in the heart of the Alta Murgia, a few kilometers from Castel del Monte, by a small group of winegrowers determined to escape the speculative mechanisms of intermediaries in the wine sector and establish a transparent supply chain, from grape delivery to winemaking. At the beginning of its activity, during the Land Reform period, the cooperative was only a producer of musts. Harvest after harvest, the Ruvo di Puglia Winery gradually assumed a prominent role among the wine realities of Southern Italy, also perfecting the winemaking processes.

The most significant years for the Ruvo di Puglia Winery are:

• 1960-1980 The “Crifo” brand is born.
• 1980-1990 The Ruvo di Puglia Winery makes its debut at national and international trade fairs, showcasing the first Castel del Monte DOC label, inspired by the intense ruby color of Nero di Troia.

The Winery’s notoriety goes hand in hand with the growth in productivity: there are deliveries for 204,000 hectoliters, and production benefits from a state-of-the-art bottling machine that enables new economies of scale.

• 1990-2000 Advertising and marketing efforts increase to support the new and more extensive sales network, the product assortment grows, and the Crifo brand becomes a feature on the wine lists of numerous restaurants.

Thanks to ISO certification, the Ruvo di Puglia Winery enters the organized large-scale distribution (GDO). Crifo wines appear on supermarket shelves throughout Italy, boasting the Castel del Monte DOP and Puglia IGP designations, representing the region’s main native grape varieties.

• 2000-present The Winery’s first true cru is born: the Augustale Murgia IGT – Indicazione Geografica Tipica from Uva di Troia.

The Winery inaugurates a modern facility that allows for more sophisticated production processes and ensures bottling rates in line with exponentially growing demand.