Patritti
The city of Adelaide is known as the cradle of South Australian food culture. For hedonists, the city offers more interesting restaurants, wine bars and cafes than the other, and for culture-hungry people there is guaranteed to be plenty to do. Many people may not know that in the urban landscape south of the city of Adelaide, there is also the Patritti winery, which started in 1926 as an innovation of Giovanni Patritti. Today, it is also the only family-owned farm in the city, with the third generation James Mungall in charge of the farm's winemaking. In the facilities located in Dover Gardens, everything happens from the fermentation of the wine to its bottling and packaging.
In 1925, Giovanni Patritti was one of the first Italian immigrants to arrive in South Australia. Although the original intention of this 25-year-old gentleman was to travel to America to meet his sister, fate had decided otherwise and Giovanni's ship landed in the port of Adelaide. Although Giovanni didn't know a word of English, he anglicized his name to John and ended up selling ice cream at the gate of Adelaide's beautiful Botanic Gardens. A year later, he already rented vineyards south of the city of Adelaide and started making wine for people like him for New Australian immigrants. The fact that winemaking was practiced for several years before electricity was brought to the farm in 1947 speaks volumes for Giovanni's determination! For decades, the operation of the farm developed, with the farm focusing on the production of dry red wines and fortified wines until the 1960s.
A new takeover of territory on the farm was experienced in the 1970s, when, in a pioneering spirit, Patritti released its first naturally non-alcoholic grape juices. Thus, 50 years later, following the trend of low-alcohol and alcohol-free wines, it can be said that Patritti knew how to predict future demand very successfully. In the 21st century, the center of Patritti's production has been premium wines and unique wines made from exceptional and less frequently used varieties, such as the farm's 100% Saperavi.
After the urbanization of Adelaide from the 1950s onwards, Patritti started acquiring vineyards from the nearby McLaren Vale area, which spreads to the south of the city. In the Heikki sub-region of Blewitt Springs, the farm has 11 hectares of old Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Mataro vines, and in the Tatachilla region 15.5 hectares of groves consisting of Grenache, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. There are still 1.4 hectares of urban vineyards, and these plots growing Grenache and Shiraz vines are among the oldest urban vineyards in the world, as the first vines were planted as early as 1907. In addition to his own vineyards, Patritti also buys grapes from other South Australian winegrowers.
The producer has a Sustainable Winegrowing Australia certificate.
