DANTE MARRAMIERO

“I ask you never to betray your Labour, but, from wherever it may come, to desire it and to love it, because in it you will find, and if lost you will find again, Confidence, Happiness and Well-Being”.

This phrase summarises the spirit of a man, my father, who made of labour his philosophy of life.

A philosophy that gets its roots from the world of agriculture from which Dante Marramiero was born and to which he remained faithful, in spite of his entrepreneurial commitments in other sectors.

His way of working was always inspired, on one side by his values of generosity, respect, politeness, loyalty and “the word of a gentleman” that find their solid basis in our agricultural traditions, and on the other by his constant curiosity and research into everything that technology can offer to facilitate man's work and to produce results that are always more satisfying. The desire for constant improvement, accompanied by his iron will, made him successful in reaching his objectives. His personality, strong and compelling, permeated his companies, his colleagues and that which his companies produced.

Fascinated by a landscape that passes in rapid succession from the peaks of Gran Sasso to the soft hills of the Masseria Sant'Andrea, finally to arrive at the sea, he understood that there, on the land that had belonged to his family for tens of years, he could refine the grape. In an ideal microclimate, on soil characterised by a predominance of clay, he could elevate that exceptional grape that is known as the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo.

The activities of the Azienda Marramiero have never been carried out as a mere job, but rather as an adventure to have pride in, through which it is possible to measure the extent of one's love for the land and to maintain the depth of one's own Abruzzo roots. Born as an act of love even before being an imprenditorial initiative, with the will, clear from the start, to arrive at a product that could represent the very spirit of its founder.

This search began thanks to the close collaboration of Antonio Chiavaroli, who shared in these values and objectives, thanks to the skills of the oenologist Romeo Taraborrelli, and thanks to the support of all those who joined the company, sustaining the efforts and the continuing will to improve. Together, we have undertaken slow and patient work that, following the teachings of my father, has tried to give importance to every detail, reaping always the best that nature and technology can offer.

In the choice of the grape, we have never had doubts. Already nature had showed us the right place: the oldest part of the vineyard, already cultivated for 40 years, where the equilibrium between vine and soil has arrived at its optimum condition, thus limiting the production to 6,000 to 7,000 kilograms per hectare. It is from these grapevines that our workers select, marking them, the bunches that at the early stage of ripening present an absolute uniformity, such that the grapes can be collected in perfect and homogeneous conditions of maturation, the quantity of which will be 2,500 to 3,000 kilograms per hectare. This attention to detail also continues in the wine making, where regard for tradition is accompanied by the most modern oenological techniques: from the fermentation with their skins in wooden vats to that in steel fermenters where the infusion is assisted through the carbon dioxide that is naturally produced. The search for quality continues in the selection of the types of oak that allow the best maturation of the Montepulciano, before it arrives for the final refining in the bottle.

Our efforts have found their first response in the 1998 vintage. Today, after 60 months, of which 18 have been spent for refining in vats and steel containers, 24 in wooden barrels and 18 in bottles, we have obtained a wine with a strong character, with the capacity to offer complex, profound and lively sensations, and that is therefore fully qualified to bear the name of the founder of the company: DANTE MARRAMIERO.

Enrico Marramiero