JORCHE SHOP
Antonio Gianfreda’s story anchors its roots in his great-grandfather Giovanni’s life, who gave birth to the family activity with his “palamientu” (the ancient form of winery), the bigger one in his little village, Torricella, in the earth of Primitivo di Manduria territory.
The same one proceeded with his son Costantino, Antonio’s grandfather, who cooperated with his father in the activity when, in the Twenties, they had to face a particular moment in the Apulian viticulture history: the vineyards were in fact destroyed by the phylloxera. All the resources and the energies were so dedicated to the planting of new vines – that took the place of the old fig and almond trees – and the production of wines at that time destined especially to the Northern Italy wineries.
Cosimo, Giovanni’s nephew and Antonio’s father, continued the family tradition with great determination, increasing the production and structuring its organization, until the Seventies when he built the first real mechanized winery: it was thanks to him that Antonio moved his first steps in the wine world and later in the winemaking one.
The recent story sees Antonio as its protagonist, a synthesis of the previous generations’ knowledge combined with the technical competences acquired during his studies at the Winemaking Secondary School G.B. Cerletti in Conegliano Veneto, precisely from 1972 to 1978.
He left from Torricella, a little village of just 3800 inhabitants, when he was only 14, during an historical moment in which the difference between the North and the South of Italy was clearly evident: that experience, at the beginning so difficult to face and painful sometimes, was the lymph of Antonio’s professional and personal growth, exactly in the age in which a boy’s personality develops.
He spent part of the 6 studying years in the Boarding School, with its firm rules but also with its occasions of condivision with the other boys, different from him in some ways but similar sometimes, and finally closer and closer to him with the passage of time: Antonio still keeps important friendships with men and women known among those school desks and not only. So that, when he finished his studies, he was extremely torn in having to leave that place to come back to his native land, with the aim of helping his father and continue the family activity.
In fact, after an 18-year-long experience as Executive Director in the Lizzano Wine Cooperative, Antonio gave a new drive to the activity of his father Cosimo, reconstructing and expanding the cellar and increasing the wine commercialization with the North of Italy.
Today, at the 5th generation, Dalila and Emanuela – his two daughters – dedicate themselves with curiosity, creativity and enthusiasm to the historical familiar activity and also to the management of the Masseria Antonio bought and renovated in the 1990, with the idea of joining in a future hospitality and viticulture in a perfect symbiosis: Dalila takes care of the hospitality in the Masseria as well as of the commercial matters in the Winery, while Emanuela, following her father’s footsteps, graduated in Winemaking and Viticulture in San Michele all’Adige and is today the enologist of Jorche.
Together, the two Gianfreda sisters have been the first ones in the family to bottle their own wines, valorizing their own brand and their territory, exporting them in the world with dignity, love and respect for their own Land. And their father Antonio, full of pride and affection, continues to be at their side in this new adventure that – we hope! – may bring them far away and towards great successes!
Dalila Gianfreda