Puglia, Italy on #Winechat

On last night’s Twitter #Winechat (join each Wednesday at 9pm ET), I guest hosted with a focus on Puglia. The heel of Italy’s boot is a very interesting wine region, one I discovered last summer on our week long visit. Following are the wines I opened for last night’s wine chat, facts and details I shared on Puglia as a wine region and many wines, and lastly links to more articles I’ve written about Puglia!

Enjoy and thank you to everyone who joined last night (#winechat was trending but the end)! For more details on #Winechat, visit host Life of Vines. I look forward to hosting again soon.

Saluté!

Tenute Girolamo Capo di Gallo Fiano is straw yellow color, herbal & floral nose + honey on the palate. Tenute Girolamo is a winery I discovered at the Fancy Food Show in DC this week. They are not yet distributed in the U.S. but are in Europe.
Tenute Girolamo Capo di GalloÂ Negroamaro is cherry + leather + pepper!
Tenute Girolamo Capo di GalloÂ Primitivo is classic berry + tobacco.
Tenute Rubino Saturnino Rosato Negroamaro ’10 gorgeous pink 100% Negroamaro, scent raspberry & violet; round,crisp. My favorite wine from my trip to Puglia last year. This wine won the gold medal atÂ Consours Mondial de BruxellesÂ international wine competition in May 2011 in Luxembourg.Â Rosé, as the head ofÂ Tenute RubinoÂ Luigi Rubino says, is an ancient cultural tradition in the Salento region of Pugli
Tormaresca NepricaÂ named for the 3 grape combination 40% Negroamaro, 30% Primitivo, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon was more a sweet sour cherry with hints of vanilla.

PUGLIA AS A WINE REGION

Puglia (also known as Apulia) is located in southeast Italy the heel of Italy’s boot. Today Puglia is largest producer of wine in Italy. (some dispute on this fact last night so I’m looking into)
Puglia wine dates back to Phoenician times. Greeks named it ‘Enotria’, Wineland.
Often called ‘the wine cellar of Europe’, for ‘plonk’ (or bad wine), as it used to send most of its production to rest the of Italy/Europe for blending.
Last decade seen great changes as wineries realized making/bottling quality wine for sale could be more profitable in the long run.
Red wine is king here (rosso) but you’ll find white (bianco) & rosé (rosato). Rosato was my biggest surprise & some great ones!
Climate is very warm & sun extremely strong so grapes produce a wine high in sugar thus strong in flavor and high in alcohol. Benefit from the cooling winds that blow off the Adriatic and Ionian seas.
Grapes are grown in 3 ways: pergola (overhead canopy which I saw most often), bushes & cordon-trained (traditional vines on lines).
The vineyard yields are quite high, about four to five times that of other regions.

THE REGIONS

Wines are DOCG (controlled guaranteed denomination of origin), DOC, IGT (typical geographic indication), Vini da Tavola(table wine) in Italy.
Classifications growing in Puglia…now 4 DOCG, 29 DOC, 6 IGT. Salice Salento most famous (DOC) w/ highest concentration of quality wines.
Salento reds are mostly Negroamaro grape & wines from this region can only use local grapes, whites mostly Malvasia Bianca.
Other well known DOC: Castel del Monte (Nero di Troia main grape), Brindisi (Negroamaro), Manduria & Gioia del Colle (Primitivo).
My fav region visited was Valle d’Itria IGT, heartland of whites, & beautiful towns like Locorotondo (city of white wine), Alberobello and Ostuni.
Here’s an interactive map of Puglia wine regions from @MTVinoPuglia.
Six total IGT designations include Puglia, Daunia, Murgia, Valle d’Itria, Tarantino and Salento.

GRAPES & WINES

Primitivo is native king of Puglia grapes. Name comes fr its early ripening. Identical to California’s Zinfandel (which comes from Croatia), its heavily exported for its structure.
Primitivo is intense violet color wine w/ strong fruity scents (cherries in liqueur, berry jams), spicy notes, sweet tobacco.
Negroamaro is other native red. Means ‘bitter black’ makes strong wine w/ minimum 13% alcohol & no less than 2 years of aging.
Negroamaro wine is dark red in color w/ scent of cherry, leather & pepper & taste that’s warm & powerful.
Other reds: Nero di Troia (Uva di Troia brought by Greeks 2k yrs ago), Aleatico di Apulia (sweet dessert wine), Malvasia Nera,Â Aleatico di Apulia (used for sweet dessert wine), Montepulciano and Cabernet grapes.
For whites native Bombino Bianco (also comes in red, Bombino Nero) is crisp and fresh, golden in color with a scent of ripe fruits.
Other whites: Malvasia Bianca (elegant balanced w/ scent of iris, pineapple, vanilla), Fiano, Verdeca, Bianco d’Alessano, Greco, Charddonay and Sauvignon Blanc.
Here’s an overview of all the grape varieties.

WINERIES & THEIR WINES

Wineries combo of small farmers Cantina del Locorotondo (coop of 700 farmers) & big ones like Leone de Castris & Tenute Rubino.
Cantina del Locorotondo is a 700 farmer coop…makes 18 wines, 3 sparkling, 1 grappa, 1M bottles/yr. It’s just outside town of same name, the City of White Wine. The Cantina Sociale of Locortondo was formed by a group of farmers back in 1930, the first of its kind in Puglia, to promote their wines. Their great work was rewarded in 1969 when Locorotondo was made a DOC. Met Oronzo Mastro.
Cantina del Locorotondo: We had aÂ great visit to the CantinaÂ and tasted 10 of their 21 wines. We brought home a bottle of two favorites,Â Cummerse RoséÂ (100% Pinot Nero IGT Puglia, crisp, refreshing and a light fruit taste) andÂ Casale San GiorgioÂ (Negroamaro and Primitivo IGT Puglia, a nice round and curvy red). Although we didn’t try Locorotondo’s specialty sparkling, we brought home a bottle ofÂ Locorotondo DOC PrimoSeccoÂ (60% Verdeca, 35% Biaco d’Alessano, 5% Fiano).
Leone de Castris near Lecce one of most award winning wineries in Pugla, in biz since 1665 started bottling in 1925.
Love Leone de Castris Salice Salento Riserva Red DOC ’07, 90% Negroamaro 10% Malvasia Nera, smooth blackberry, cherry, spice.
Tenute Rubino does Negroamaro, Primitivo, White & Black Malvasia, unique Susumaniello, I also liked Giancola (White Malvasia).

PUGLIA THE PLACE

Puglia, the heel of Italy’s boot, first captured my attention several years ago when I saw pictures of Alberobello‘s fairytale-like trulli, white houses with conical roofs, on the cover of Italia!
Puglia is a region of rural farming and as the land between two seas, the Ionian to the west and Adriatic to the east, its lined with coasts of beaches and cliffs. Its history dates back 8,000 years. The first settlers of note were the Greeks who settled here in 750BC…their influence can be seen across the region. At times you feel like you’re in small Greek villages. The Romans built the Apian Way in 190BC running from Brindisi (one of the two big ‘cities’ of the region) to Rome making Puglia the gateway to the East. Today Brindisi still serves a major ferry terminal to Greece.
The Valle d’Itria‘s (Itria Valley) rolling green landscape chalked full of fairytale-like trulli and pergola style vineyards is home to three of the unique towns we visited this trip. Home to Alberobello, Ostuni (white city because of its white washed architecture), Locorotondo\
Locorotondo, located in the center of the Valle d’Itria, is the cutest little white washed town sitting on top of the hill and is designated ‘burgh piÃ¹ belli d’Italia,’ one of the most beautiful towns in Italy. Its also known as the’ city of white wine,’ cite del vino bianco, so we had to visit! Records have wine mentioned dating back to 1195.
Trulli (singular trull) The limestone buildings date back to the Middle Ages and served as peasant homes. The conical roof which makes them famous is made of grey stones called chiancarelle. With few windows and a round base, they stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The name Trulli comes from the Greek word ‘tholos’ which means dome although Trullo, the singular version of the word, means silly in Italian. Â You’ll see many roofs painted with symbols which is said to keep evil spirits away.
We stayed at the lovelyÂ Masseria Torre Coccaro. Masseria are old fortified farmhouses of Puglia… many have been turned into bed and breakfasts or to five star hotels like this one.