The origin of the vine

It is said that the vine appeared for the first time over 200 million years ago in various areas of the planet. Various fossils testify to the presence of the vine in the European areas where it is currently cultivated for at least a million years, especially in regions of Asia Minor (Caucasus, Mesopotamia), where winemaking also seems to have originated, dating back to 4100 BC. It was the Phoenicians who brought the vine and wine to Greece. Subsequently, the ancient Greeks colonized southern Italy (Magna Graecia), bringing the cultivation of the vine to the Peninsula. Viticulture was then resumed first by the Etruscans, then by the ancient Romans. The origin of wine as a drink certainly derives from the spontaneous fermentation of grape juices, later processed and codified in procedures that have been refined from generation to generation.

 

Wine in the Roman era

It is to the Romans that we owe the spread of the vine in almost all the territories of the Empire. Furthermore, we can trace the origins of modern oenology back to the Romans. A peculiar anecdote is the one referring to two terms from the Roman era. The word “vinum” which indicated a wine mixed with other products, such as honey, resins and water, therefore a non-pure wine. The second term instead was “merum” which was used to indicate pure wine, without any mixing. This word, unlike the first, is still used today only in the Apulian dialect. In fact, good wine is called “mieru”.

 

Wine from the Middle Ages onwards

The decadence of Roman civilization, culminating in 500 AD with the fall of the Western Roman Empire, brings us to the Middle Ages. In these years there were no or at least no substantial evidence of technical progress from an agronomic and oenological point of view. The use of wine in Christian rites, and the work of rewriting ancient treatises by monks, meant that the principles of oenology and vine cultivation were passed down until the Renaissance. It is mentioned in the floor mosaic of the cathedral of Otranto (from 1163-1165), in the panel of the month of August, where a farmer is depicted, holding a tool with a blade in his right hand and pressing the bunches of grapes already cut from a vine with his left foot in a container. With the months of September and October, the depiction of the cycle of grape cultivation and wine production is completed.

During the Renaissance, natural selection and the hand of man led to the definition of the territories most suited to viticulture.

The 19th century marked the birth of industrialized agriculture and brought notable progress also in the oenological field.

The first significant cultural transformation occurred around 1870 and continued with extraordinary intensity until the early 1900s: the vineyard area in Puglia went from 90 to around 300 thousand hectares.

 

The Palmento and the Production of Wine

The Palmenti are ancient wine production systems consisting of tanks dug into the rock, rectangular or circular in shape, connected by a hole, used both for pressing grapes and for fermenting musts. The name derives from the Latin palmes palmitis, vine shoot, or from paumentum, the act of beating, pressing.

The Salento palmenti of the Byzantine era were dug into the rock, and the grapes were crushed there. One of the most important examples of this type is found in Carpignano Salentino, in the locality of Stigliano.

Where there was no friable rock, the palmento was built in masonry, waterproofing the tanks. The grapes poured into the first tank, whose hole was blocked with clay, were pressed with the feet and left to rest there for a day and a night; then, after removing the cork, the must was allowed to flow into the second tank. Finally, the must was placed in wine amphorae.

On some of the palmentos, a cross of certain Byzantine origin is engraved, recognizable by the semifera with which the vertical arm ends.

The crosses could have been engraved by the Byzantines on palmentos previously excavated by others that they intended to use for their profitable winemaking activity, as attested by the remains of Magna Graecia wine amphorae, present on the Mediterranean coasts until the entire period of Byzantine domination.

Over the centuries, the progress of grape processing and wine production went hand in hand with the evolution of the structural characteristics of the palmento, and just as the grapes began to be processed through the use of presses, at the same time the palmento began to grow larger and become structurally more complex.

 

The evolution of palmenti over time

Palmenti were born as simple tools for the production of wine, that is, two small tanks in the open countryside, and over the centuries their shape and structure has been refined and expanded. We find palmenti dug into the rock, such as the palmento located in the countryside of Uggiano, consisting of an environment entirely dug into the rock, formed by a single large room with stone seats, a tank and a specific point for the location of the presses, accompanied by numerous crosses engraved in the rock, and the palmento located in Alessano located in the Macurano area, which accompanies the other rock structures present in the area.

With the evolution of the pajara (truncated cone-shaped trullo) and the advent of the liama or lamia, more complex agricultural activities arise compared to the olive harvest, linked to viticulture, the fig grove and the vineyard and as such it also lends itself as a seasonal home for the farmer, who uses it during the harvest period and moves the whole family there. In fact, the liama is commonly accompanied by a small oven for baking bread and roasting figs, while inside, not infrequently, there is also a cistern for collecting rainwater and a palmento for pressing grapes. Liame with oven and palmento are found especially near more fertile lands, between Acquarica, Presicce and the fiefdom of Ceddhe, where, near the liama, you can also find large blocks of limestone used as the base of the presses for pressing the grape paste. The Palmento Baroni, near the Chapel of the Madonna di Pompiniano, right on the route of the Via Sallentina, represents significant evidence of the presence of the vineyard on lands currently occupied by the olive tree. With a square or rectangular plan, with perimeter walls made of dry-laid stone, the liame are covered by a barrel vault and therefore more responsive to housing needs. Precisely because of this last characteristic, the liame and their palmenti have been the subject of renovations and recovery interventions in recent years, which have given rise to charming homes that embellish the Salento countryside.

 

Subsequently, with the agricultural and architectural evolution, it was the turn of palmenti annexed to Masserie or Casini, and this type of solution is very widespread in the countryside of Presicce. The most significant examples are the Casino Stefanelli, Casino Cazzato, Casino Sant’Angelo, Casina dei Cari, and the latter today, as in the case of many other structures, has been recovered and transformed into a luxury relais, a place where the annexed palmento finds new life and use. Moving to the countryside of Carpignano Salentino, in the locality of Stigliano, we encounter the Palmento Casina Villani, renovated in 1939, but built in the late 1800s, where a large part of the structure was occupied by the large palmento, with a star-shaped vault.

In more recent times, palmenti have also begun to be present in inhabited centers, both for the exclusive use of private homes, where they have become integral parts of the home with possible subsequent renovations, and for common use by the population. This last hypothesis is represented above all when we find large structures, real buildings used for wine production, made of tuff bricks and with typical star and barrel vaults. The most significant examples are found near Collepasso, where there is a large elevated palmento, which bears the date 1749, and on the outside it still preserves the “anchors” where the workers tied donkeys and horses with which they came here to work; while the other is present in Morciano di Leuca, where the public structure called “palmenti” is located, unique in its kind, belonging to a rural, historical and cultural heritage of considerable value. The structure has been publicly owned since 2005, and the municipal administration has carried out a radical renovation of the premises, thus preserving a very important example of proto-industrial archaeology of the territory. The structure of the Palmenti and the annexed Vano del Torchio is located within the historic center, and belonged to the adjacent Palazzo Bitonti.

This has allowed, in modern times, that the typologies of palmenti just described can be recovered, renovated and converted into real housing units.

Palmenti, even if nowadays they are no longer used for their original purpose, are still a living and active part of the architecture of Salento, they are testimonies of a very ancient era, but still alive in the present.