Evoluzione Naturale

A natural wine fair in the heart of Puglia

Evoluzione Naturale is the fair dedicated to artisan and natural wine that every January brings the Antico Convento dei Cappuccini in Grottaglie—the famous city of ceramics in the province of Taranto—to life. Established in 2019, the event has quickly become one of the most significant gatherings in Southern Italy for the world of authentic wines: bottles produced with respectfully grown grapes, spontaneous fermentation, and minimal intervention in the cellar.

Sixty winemakers from across Europe

The heart of the event is the tasting tables, where around sixty producers personally share the stories behind their wines. Represented Italian regions typically include Abruzzo, Basilicata, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Lombardy, Piedmont, Puglia, Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany, Trentino-Alto Adige, and Veneto, joined by a strong international presence that has brought winemakers to Grottaglie from Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany, Portugal, Slovenia, and Hungary. The format allows visitors to sample hundreds of labels and speak directly with the winemakers, without intermediaries.

Workshops and guided tastings

Alongside the tasting tables, the program offers workshops and thematic guided tastings, providing deep insights that expand the perspective from the glass to the economic, cultural, and human context in which the wine is born. Each edition addresses a different theme: from high-altitude viticulture to market dynamics, and from environmental sustainability to the relationship between wine, territory, and community.

The widespread Fuori Salone

The event is preceded by a widespread Fuori Salone (fringe festival) involving selected bars and wine shops in Grottaglie and the surrounding area: an informal evening of tastings and conviviality that strengthens the bond between the event and the local area, offering a first taste in a relaxed setting before the official days at the convent.

Grottaglie, between ceramics and wine

The choice of Grottaglie is no coincidence: the town in the Taranto area, famous throughout Puglia for its artistic ceramic workshops, offers an evocative setting in the Antico Convento dei Cappuccini that blends history, craftsmanship, and food culture. Evoluzione Naturale is thus also an opportunity to discover the ceramics district and the food and wine of the Ionian territory, in a weekend that intertwines natural wine, artistic trades, and the Apulian landscape.