Rivera | Puglia
The de Corato family is deeply rooted in the soil of Puglia: Rivera was founded in the late 1940s by Sebastiano de Corato. To this day, he pursues the ambitious principle of enhancing the quality potential of viticulture in the Castel del Monte area and making it known throughout the world. Building on this maxim, within a few decades the Rivera winery has become one of the most important names in the Apulian wine world. Sebastiano's son Carlo brought about numerous innovations in the vineyards as well as in the wine cellar in the 80's and made the winery the motor of the Apulian renaissance. Currently, Carlo's sons and grandsons of the founder continue the business with a fresh drive.
The fascinating, noble Castel del Monte dominates over one of the most important areas of Puglia dedicated to viticulture and is certainly the appropriate symbol for the DOC denomination created in 1971 and the DOCG denomination launched in 2011. The area covers the entire space north of Bari, from the table mountains Alta Murgia to the Adriatic Sea, and includes two zones with different soil types and landscapes.
Rivera sees itself as a preserver of the classic, Apulian viticulture - the wines are far from modern frills. Yet the often opulent, high-alcohol style reminiscent of cooked fruit does not dominate Rivera wines. Instead, the de Corato family brings a fruit-, tannin-, and definitely acid-emphasized trifecta to the bottles. Although also aged in wooden barrels, no pronounced barrique flavor is desired; instead, the focus is on the unadulterated character of the respective grape variety. Rivera wines benefit from a certain amount of pre-ripeness and are quite suitable for longer aging. - Gerardo
"Founded in 1950 by Sebastiano De Corato, the winery, now under the direction of son Carlo, remains a firm reference point for the DOC Castel del Monte. In fact, practically all the wine typologies foreseen by the regulations of this production area - whites, reds and rosés, single varietal grapes as well as blends - can be found in Rivera's wide range of products. The vines, cultivated as a cordon with cones, stand in the terrain dominated by calcareous tufa of the karstic plateau of Murgia, very close to the fort of Frederick II'. - Gambero Rosso
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Negroamaro Salento IGT 2019Rivera, Puglia
Varietal Negroamaro of muted ruby color. Typical fruity aroma at the nose. Juicy and fruity in the mouth, with good tannins and good acidity. Neither overloaded nor artificial. - Gerardo
€ 6,95 € 5,99 7,99 €/L
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Primitivo Salento IGT 2019Rivera, Puglia
Classic Primitivo of ruby red color and violet reflections. Typical fruity notes and jammy hints on the nose. On the palate impressions of bitter chocolate, quite acidic and of present tannin. - Gerardo
€ 6,95 9,27 €/L
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Salice Salentino DOC 2018Rivera, Puglia
Classically kept Salice Salentino from predominantly Negroamaro with a small injection of Malvasia Nera. Vigorous ruby color and intense aroma of black and red fruits. On the palate, it is tannic with a subtle bitterness. It is probably the most famous red wine from Puglia. Rivera's version is dry and rich, well structured and sophisticated. - Gerardo
€ 6,95 9,27 €/L
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Preludio No 1 Chardonnay del Castel del Monte DOC 2021Rivera, Puglia
Classic Chardonnay from the Castel del Monte growing area: intense straw yellow color in the glass. Aroma of citrus, pear and peach blossom. The palate is full-bodied, fruity and with a subtle minerality. - Gerardo
€ 7,50 10,00 €/L
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Cappellaccio Aglianico Riserva DOC 2014Rivera, Puglia
Pure varietal Aglianico of strong ruby color and garnet reflections. Intense aroma, with typical Aglianico spice and impressions of prunes, black pepper, wood spice and some leather. On the palate of good density and structure and integrated tannins, persistent. - Gerardo
€ 9,95 13,27 €/L
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Puer Apuliae Nero di Troia Riserva DOC 2014Rivera, Puglia
"Rich, deep dark ruby. Opens with rich, intense nose, smells of leather, pickled nuts, also pickled cherries and plums, seductive. On the palate the wine is dense and deep, opens with tightly woven, present tannins, polished and elegant at the core, spreads out nicely, reverberating with cherry and cranberry, long." - Falstaff
€ 23,90 31,87 €/L
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Puer Apuliae · Nero di Troia Riseva DOC 2014 (6er Holzkiste)Rivera, Puglia
Six bottles of Nero di Troia Riserva Puer Apuliae in a high quality original wooden box with sliding lid:
€ 158,00 35,11 €/L
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Rivera | Puglia | Buy at Gerardo
The de Corato family is deeply rooted in the soil of Puglia. It was here, towards the end of the 1940s, that Sebastiano founded the Rivera winery in the family farm of the same name, located in the environs of Andria, with the intention of enhancing the enormous quality potential of viticulture in the Castel del Monte area and spreading it throughout the world. Success was not long in coming, and in a short time the Rivera winery became the main point of reference for the Apulian wine world and the driving force behind its renaissance, thanks also to the innovations in the vineyard and cellar brought about by Sebastiano's son Carolo from the 1980s onwards. Today, with the arrival of Sebastiano and Marco - Caro's sons and grandsons of the founder - the winery continues with pride and fresh drive to produce wines that express the intense and elegant character of this growing area and its grape varieties.
The quality project of the Rivera winery is based on prudent management of the 75 hectares of company-owned vineyards. Here the vines are kept according to sustainable agriculture protocols in cordon with cone pruning and Guyot system with high vine density per hectare and low yield. The vineyards are located in two different terroirs: Torre di Bocca and Coppa vineyards, between 200 and 230m above sea level, characterized by deep soils with calcareous and tuffaceous rocks, yielding white grapes from native grape varieties and red grapes of great elegance and structure. On the other hand, the impressive Lama di Corvo vineyard, facing the sea and the Gargano massif, was planted on the rocky soils of the Alta Murgia tableland at an altitude of 350 meters. Here ripen Chardonnay and Sauvignon grapes of particular freshness and minerality.
Rivera is one of the few Apulian wineries that can really compete with the best at the national level. The De Corato family, which today holds the ownership of the Rivera winery together with the Francia family, has held an avant-garde role in regional viticulture since the beginning of the century, whose development it stimulated and influenced to the greatest extent possible. After the Second World War, experiments in newly planted vineyards, in which non-native varieties such as Sauvignon or Pinot-bianco were planted, as well as the bottling of wines from the grapes of its own vineyards, heralded the modern development of the winery. In the meantime, Carlo de Corato had joined Sebastiano, the founder of the winery, and continued on the same path with the same motivation as his father.
Only recently, next to the old winery in the Rivera district, a new winery with considerable capacity has been built, representing the latest technological development. The vineyards in the municipalities of Andria, Minervino, Murge and Corato are located in the Castel del Monte production area, which takes its name from the octagonal castle of the Hohenstaufen king Frederick II. Rivera's wine range includes several varieties from this appellation, including those from the new Terre al Monte line. Among them are wines made from Sauvignon, Pinot-Nero and Aglianico, the latter in particular could follow in the footsteps of Falcone, one of the most important Apulian reds of recent years. - Gerardo
"Founded in 1950 by Sebastiano De Corato, this large winery now offers, under the direction of son Carlo, a wide range that gives as much space to local grapes as to international varieties planted in the eighties. The DOC Castel del Monte is of great importance, but this does not diminish the quality of the other labels. The vines, raised with the cordon-cone pruning system, ripen at 200 to 220 meters above sea level on soils rich in limestone and tuff, or on the rocky Murgia hills at 300 to 350 meters above sea level." - Gambero Rosso
"Rivera is one of the most important wineries in Puglia in terms of image and quality. I was able to taste through two vintages of recent releases and was delighted by the two top-shelf wines (the Puer Apuliae and Il Falcone Riserva) from the 2009 vintage. To my palate, these are two of the finest wines ever made by Rivera. Rivera has overwhelmingly mastered the difficult art of making great wine from the finicky Nero di Troia variety. Because of its thin skin, the grape often suffers from mold and mildew. But Rivera has gained experience over the years to lessen the impact of these issues." - Robert Parker