MASSERIA LI VELI

Salice Salentino, Italy

In 1999 the Falvo family, with over 40 years of experience in the wine business, purchased and renovated the property to give birth to an ambitious project in Apulia, a region with a long vine-growing tradition.

Masseria Li Veli is located on an ancient Messapian site dominating the fertile and sunny Salento plain. It was founded by the Marquis Antonio de Viti de Marco (1858-1943), an internationally known Italian economist and university professor, Radical Party Deputy of the Reign of Italy, whose ambitious project was to transform the Masseria into a model cellar for the entire South. Today the beautifully restored Masseria covers an area of 33.000sqm, 3750 of which include offices, a reception area, vinification, storage and ageing cellars.

All wines are produced in the large cellar built in a light coloured stone, carparo, similar to the local pietra leccese. Beyond the main entrance is the barrel cellar, protected by a large glass door and located on the ground level beneath groin vaults. An air-conditioning system set at 16° guarantees an ideal temperature. The total capacity of the cellar is of approximately 10,000 hectoliters, divided between steel vats and about 400 French oak barriques. The ancient storage cellar now houses modern fermentation tanks: eight horizontal submerged cap vats with a capacity of 125 hectoliters and ten vertical vessels with a capacity of 130 hectoliters, which allow pumping over with fractioned and programmed délestage, must aeration, total programme management and traceability of the vinification. Owing to the high flexibility of these machines the processing phases can be adapted and programmed according to the specific winemaking procedures of the various grape varieties. Bottling and storing of bottles for ageing takes place in the same building, in separate areas.

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