Our strength is our history

The history of our land is intertwined with that of our Cooperative. Men have inhabited the Murgia area since the palaeolithic, and for millennia have farmed this rocky hills with little earth.This is where the roots of our cooperative belong, alongside the deeply held cultural, artistic and gastronomic traditions of our ancestors. The same ancestors who, in the 1960s, decided to free themselves from the power of the landowners to found a cultural project more than an economic one. So, our cooperative winery, uniting hundreds of local winemakers from Ruvo di Puglia to Castel del Monte, was born. Strength and cooperation in an area rich in tradition and history.

The Ruvo di Puglia winery was founded in 1960, by an original group of 28 winemakers who decided to set up a cooperative to increase their negotiating power when selling grapes, as the buyers were traditionally large national groups. Over the years, the cooperative has changed its objectives, developing from a simple producer of must to a winery able to produce excellent bottled wines. In 2010 new oenological equipment was introduced, designed to enhance the qualities of the native grape varieties of Puglia which express the unique power and elegance of an inimitable terroir.
Today the cooperative is one of the most important of its kind in Southern Italy, with over 400 partners and a harvest of over 8,000 tonnes of grapes.

Our Brand

“Cantina della Riforma Fondiaria” is our cooperative’s historic name, and it is from this the acronym “Crifo”, the word we have always marked our wines with, is derived. The Gryphon, a mythological creature sculpted by ancient architects onto the facade of the Ruvo cathedral to protect the village and the faithful, completes our brand identity and ensures we never forget where we came from.

Our Land

The vineyards of the Ruvo di Puglia winery stretch across an area belonging to two different provinces: Bari and Barletta-Andria-Trani. The common denominator of the topography of such a vast area is the rocky terrain rich in wild vegetation, at a medium altitude gently sloping towards the Adriatic sea. It is from the sea that the land receives a fresh breeze to cool the torrid summer air. In this natural context, it is possible to admire ancient grapevines grown as standing bushes, long corridors typical of vineyards grown in a cordon spur and vast swathes of fertile land planted with pergola Pugliese trained vines.