35.000 vine cuttings, the final act of the research on Bombino Nero and Nero di Troia, stolen

Vine cuttings are not all the same, and any theft, logically, is in itself deplorable, so yesterday, the theft of 35.000 vine cuttings ready to be planted from Cantina Rivera, the historic winery and reference point of Puglia wines, is even more serious. These are not just any rooted cuttings, but the final act of a research project on native varieties of the territory, Bombino Nero and Nero di Troia. The project started and has been carried out since the 1990s, with the collaboration of Professor Attilio Scienza, full professor of viticulture at the University of Milan. It continued with Crea di Turi and had arrived at the moment of planting the third generation of mass selections identified to grow the grapes from which the company’s DOCG wines are produced.
The project involved 10 hectares of vineyards, but after just two days of work planting the cuttings of the company’s three selections of Nero di Troia and two of Bombino Nero, the bitter shock: a gang of thieves had invaded the winery and stolen 35.000 cuttings still to be planted, which put the entire project at great risk.
“It was a very hard blow to us. Whoever committed the theft”, commented Carlo de Corato, at the helm of Rivera, “these were only goods to be placed somehow on the black market, but for us and for the entire wine-growing area, those cuttings represent our future. Fortunately, all is not lost because the nursery still had a few thousand cuttings, from which we will start again. We certainly will not be stopped and this will not be the last vineyard I plant”.