Summary
Schola Sarmenti is a family estate in Nardò in the heart of Salento, the southernmost tip of Apulia. Founded in 1999 by the Calabrese and Marra families, it is based in a restored 19th-century winery. Its around 75 hectares are planted mainly with native varieties – Primitivo, Negroamaro, Malvasia Nera, Susumaniello and Fiano – many of them still trained as traditional Apulian alberello bush vines. With the Primitivo Cubardi, the house recently made the leap to the top of the Italian wine guides: the 2023 vintage received its first Tre Bicchieri in Gambero Rosso's Vini d'Italia 2026.
History
The story of Schola Sarmenti begins with a building: a mid-19th-century winery in Nardò that had been shut down for more than fifty years. The Calabrese and Marra families acquired it and restored it over more than three years. In the process they uncovered the characteristic star vaults of tuff and Lecce stone; the old underground cisterns were converted into a temperature- and humidity-controlled barrel cellar.
The estate began operating in 1999. The Latin name – roughly "school of the vine" – says it all: the founders did not want to preserve Salento's rural winegrowing tradition as a museum piece, but to bring it into the present with modern cellar techniques. Today the Marra family runs the estate, which in just over two decades has become one of the most distinctive addresses in southern Apulia.
Location & Terroir
Nardò lies in western Salento, just a few kilometres from the Ionian Sea. The peninsula is enclosed by two seas – the Ionian and the Adriatic – whose winds temper the hot, dry summers and bring cooler nights. The vineyards sit on Salento's typical red earth, iron-rich soils over limestone, set in a landscape of dry-stone walls, olive groves and Mediterranean scrub.
A large share of the vineyard area is still trained as traditional Apulian alberello: free-standing, low bush vines without wires that demand a lot of manual work but deliver low yields and concentrated grapes. According to the estate, the oldest vines are 80 years old and more. Younger plantings, for example for Critèra, are trained on Guyot trellises.
Style & Philosophy
Schola Sarmenti relies consistently on Salento's native grape varieties. Primitivo delivers velvety, dark-fruited reds, Negroamaro spicy, earthy depth, Malvasia Nera perfume and softness, and the long almost-forgotten Susumaniello freshness and colour. Among the whites, Fiano and Chardonnay take centre stage. According to wine guides, no chemical fertilisers or herbicides are used in the vineyard.
In the cellar, the range runs from fruit-driven, unoaked Primitivo to riservas matured in French tonneaux. The aim is a style that shows the warmth and opulence of the South while keeping freshness and drinkability – which also includes the rosati from Negroamaro and Susumaniello so typical of Salento.
Notable Sites & Wines
The range is broad; among the best-known wines are:
- Cubardi – varietal Primitivo from alberello vines over 60 years old, Tre Bicchieri for the 2023 vintage
- Diciotto – Primitivo from vines over 80 years old, a limited, numbered bottling
- Critèra – easy-going Primitivo from young Guyot plantings, without oak
- Nerìo – Nardò DOC Riserva from Negroamaro and Malvasia Nera, aged in French tonneaux
- Roccamora – varietal Negroamaro
- Masserei – rosato from Negroamaro
- Antièri – Susumaniello, as both a red and a rosé
- Naùna – blend of Negroamaro and Primitivo
Awards
The greatest recent success is Gambero Rosso's Tre Bicchieri for the Cubardi 2023 in the Vini d'Italia 2026 guide – the estate's first award of its kind. Gambero Rosso had already highlighted Critèra for its value for money. The Diciotto 2023 received the top rating of 5 Grappoli in the Bibenda guide and 3 stars from Veronelli, plus gold at the Wine Hunter Award. At the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles there were silver medals, including one for Nerìo. This makes Schola Sarmenti one of the estates carrying Salento's promise of quality far beyond Apulia's borders.
