Botromagno – in the land of grape and grain
Ben on Tuesday 20 July
Part two of our Southern Italian odyssey, as Tim Atkin, Victoria Moore and Gabby Savage (swiftly christened Sauvage by Atkin) join me as we trek across Campania, Basilicata and Puglia. The road from Feudi in Avellino to Botromagno in Gravina in Puglia takes many forms. First, deserted motorway, ideal for zooming whilst whistling happy tunes. Next, terrible pot-holed and foundered two way ’super strada’. All the way from Candela to Vulture my back seat passengers’ teeth are rattling. Once or twice we nearly leave the road. Certainly no overtaking – so once we get stuck behind the silage truck, that’s where we stay – for 40 kilometres. Turning left at San Nicola, the road becomes deserted again. And very, very winding. And long. We descend tortuously into a valley, as the sun sets, and we start to wonder if we will ever get to Gravina. Then the road finally uncoils itself and the last 20km pass quickly. Suddenly we are in Gravina in ‘rush hour’ where everyone wanders across the road at random. I soon discover it is always like this in Gravina. We are welcomed at the d’Agostino brothers’ new restaurant, Osteria Grano e Vino. 
The restaurant’s name refers to its previous use, as the capacious cellars of a medieval townhouse. Amongst the many cave like spaces are ancient chutes leading from street level where grape and grain respectively were delivered. There is an old vat where the grapes were treaded. And most impressive of all (though this picture doesn’t do it any justice) there is an ancient ‘fridge’, a dug-out 10m deep hole which was filled with ice in the winter to store your best meats and bottles of greco. We sit down for dinner with Beniamino d’Agostino, a man who gave up a flourishing legal career to help build the Botromagno business with brother Alberto. In fact Beniamino wasn’t just a lawyer. He was also a teenage dj, earning fortunes on the dancefloors of Italy. But he gave that up too, for the noble grape. The Agostino family bought the local Gravina co-op and completely rebuilt it. With the help of legendary winemaker Severino Grafano – and more recently Alberto Antinori – they painstakingly acquired local vineyards and introduced the practices which mean that today they are able to produce clean, varietally spot on versions of local grapes. These include Greco, Malvasia, Nero di Troia and Primitivo. Of these Greco shines once again, both by itself and in the blended Gravina – one of Puglia’s notable DoCs, which is almost all produced by Botromagno. The Nero di Troia is unctuous and silky-tannined – and sports a wonderfully forbidding label. We dine on delicious local specialities including a sublime spinach and mushroom tart. Then its time for shut-eye, and vineyard visits in the morning.