When we think of Puglia, the heel of the Italian boot, we probably think of Salento, Polignano a Mare, olive trees, cherries, trulli, and Primitivo wine. However, Puglia is also where the Greeks settled in the 8th century BCE, bringing with them grape varieties such as Negroamaro, Uva di Troia (the latter one probably originating from Asia Minor), and the bush vine (alberello) training method. During the early Middle Ages, Frederick II of Swabia, the Holy Roman Emperor renowned for his contributions to the arts and culture of Puglia, constructed several Norman castles, including the iconic Castel del Monte. He also moved the capital of his kingdom from Palermo to Foggia, right in the area of the breadbasket of Puglia.

Already in the Renaissance era, Puglia was known for its viticulture and high-volume production of wine that arrived all over Italy and even in France. Further on, in the 17th century, the port of Gallipoli was important in Puglia for international commerce, especially for lamp oil, olive oil, and wine. At the end of the 19th century, the routes were documented in detail in Lo Spartaco, a daily newspaper founded by the journalist Giovanni Coppola, the great-grandfather of Giuseppe Coppola, the present-day owner of Coppola 1489 winery in Gallipoli. 

In the 19th century and during the long 20th century, Puglia was known for supplying blending wine to give colour and structure to wines produced in the northern regions of Italy and France. High quantities of bulk wine with lesser regard for quality were the trend in Puglia. Before the 20th century, bottling wine was not a common practice. It was not until the 1990s that producers became more aware of the need for quality and to a higher degree began bottling their own wine.

Three Main Wine Areas in Puglia

Puglia can be divided into three main areas:

1) The Northern part is called Daunia, stretching around Barletta to Castel del Monte and the Gargano. Here, the main native grapes are Bombino bianco and Nero di Troia.

2) The Central part of Puglia with Gioia del Colle and Manduria. Verdeca, Minutolo, and Bianco d’Alessano are white grapes, while Primitivo is the King of reds in this area.

3) The Southern part corresponds to the Salento area, with Negroamaro as the signature grape. The whites grown in this area are also Malvasia Nera, Verdeca, and Bianco d’Alessano.

The Northern Part of Puglia

Nero di Troia, or Uva di Troia, is the third big grape in Puglia of importance but not in volume. It has a fascinating history. Some say it stems from Troia, close to Foggia in Puglia. Others say that it comes from the small town of Cruja in Albania. The Uva di Troia grape variety also has a romantic origin linked to the legend of Diomedes. According to this story, Diomedes brought Uva di Troia vines with him when he migrated to Puglia, Italy, following the Trojan War. Additionally, the Nero di Troia wine was favored by Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor, and was enjoyed at his court.

Until the late 1990s, Uva di Troia played a crucial role in enhancing the alcohol content, color, and body of blends made with grapes such as Primitivo, Negroamaro, and Montepulciano. It was then re-evaluated in the early 2000s, leading to the institution of the appellations Castel del Monte Nero di Troia Riserva DOCG (min 90% Nero di Troia) and Castel del Monte Rosso Riserva DOCG (min 65% Nero di Troia) in 2011 to give an identity to Nero di Troia wines.

Nero di Troia is a grape variety sometimes called the “crazy horse” due to its challenges in both the vineyard and the winery. It is a grape variety that is very sensitive to heat and sunshine and needs to be protected with good canopy management during the summer. This difficulty arises from its high tannin content, low acidity, and the extended time it often requires to mature on the vine. However, when done well, it is a grape that gives elegant and complex wines with longevity.

Wineries to look out for in the Daunia area of Puglia are, for example, Rivera, Botromagno (in Gravina), Mazzone, Antica Enotria, Caiaffa, Borgo Turrito, Terre di Maria, Agricola Paglione, Bonizio, and D’Alfonso del Sordo.

Azienda Agricola Mazzone

In Ruvo di Puglia, Mazzone Winery was established by Domenico Mazzone in the 1970s after he inherited land that included vineyards, olive groves, and orchards. Today, the winery is run by the brothers Francesco and Giuseppe Mazzone and Francesco’s wife, Luciana di Terlizzi. They are a small, artisanal winery with approximately 10 hectares of vineyards and have been organic since 2016.

Nero di Troia is the grape variety with a big G in this part of Puglia near Castel del Monte and a stone’s throw from the sea. The soil is calcareous and white, Francesco Mazzone tells me, which gives a nice freshness to the wines. However, Francesco is also very focused on making premium white wines with native grapes such as Immensus Malvasia Bianca IGP Puglia, Terre Bianche Bombino Bianco IGP Murgia, and Surlié Malvasia Bianca IGP Puglia, Surlié does both fermentation and maturation in tonneaux giving it an added structure. Dandy, their Nero di Troia rosé wine, is a delicious bestseller featuring good acidity, minerality, and a full body with a structure that resembles a red wine more than a rosé.

Francesco Mazzone says that Nero di Troia wines in his area have a clear terroir-driven identity with notes of red fruit, violet, tobacco, cinnamon, and maquis. The Nero di Troia wines have long aging potential and have, by some, been described as wines with a “Nordic” style. Mazzone’s Filotorto Nero di Troia IGT Murgia, made only in the best vintages, is a good example of an expressive and elegant Nero di Troia wine with great longevity. I recently tasted his Filotorto 2015, a beautiful and structured wine with darker fruit, spices, maquis, round tannins, length, and overall elegance.

The Central Part of Puglia

Primitivo is probably the most well-known grape from Puglia and is grown mainly in Gioia del Colle and Manduria. Primitivo is believed to have its home in Gioia del Colle, where the local priest Francesco Filippo Indelicati identified a grape in the late 18th century that matured earlier than other local varieties. He named it Primitivo, from the Latin word “Primativus”, which means “first to ripe”. The Primitivo grape originated outside of Puglia. DNA studies conducted in 2008 have shown that Primitivo is native to Montenegro and is related to the Kratošija grape.

The Primitivo in Gioia del Colle, Puglia, is known for its freshness and elegance. This is primarily due to the higher altitude of the hillside vineyards, which are situated at around 250-500 meters and benefit from a wider diurnal temperature range, as well as winds from both the Ionian and Adriatic Seas.

The Primitivo di Manduria, on the other hand, is generally a richer, sweeter, and more powerful wine with higher alcohol levels, even if smaller wineries, to some extent, have been working towards a fresher style.  Massimo Tripaldi, an oenologist in the Manduria area, observes that Primitivo di Manduria has “a higher concentration both in aromas and taste.”

In the central part of Puglia, we find wineries such as Fatalone, Tenute Chiaromonte, Giovanni Aiello, Masseria Mita, Varvaglione, Masseria Cuturi 1881, Melissa Wines, and Tenuta Eméra of Claudio Quarta, I Pastini, and Lasorte & Cuadra.

Masseria Cuturi 1881

Masseria Cuturi is an organic winery located in the heart of Manduria. It was re-established by Camilla Rossi Chauvenet and her family, who also own Massimago winery in Valpolicella, Veneto. The Cuturi estate and its vineyards date back to the late 19th century when Tommaso Schiavoni Tafuri di Manduria owned them. It is said that Countess Sabini di Altamura brought her Primitivo vines to Cuturi when she married him in 1881.

In the 19th century, the estate comprised 100 hectares of vineyard with the alberello training system. Today, they have 40 hectares, as most of the vines had gone lost when the Rossi Chauvenet family arrived in 2007. This area has often been referred to as the Conca d’Oro of Manduria because of its fertile soil and access to water from the aquifers of the Chidro River. The soil is of dark, red clay with certain areas that contain more marl and silt. The estate is surrounded by forests, which contribute to the rich biodiversity.

Cuturi produces, for example, the two Manduria DOC wines Monte Diavoli Primitivo di Manduria Doc (fermentation in steel and maturation for 24 months in 10 hl oak barrels) and Chidro Primitivo di Manduria DOC (matures for 6 months in 10 hl oak barrels). They are rich wines with notes of mature red fruit (such as cherry and plum), floral, spices, smooth tannins, and powerfully elegant. Monte Diavoli has more influence from the oak with a touch of vanilla, while the varietal traits emerge more in Chidro.

Southern Puglia, the Salento area

Negroamaro, or Negro Amaro, is a grape of Greek origin like so many other southern Italian grape varieties as a result of the Greek settlers in that area some centuries BC. According to Ian D’Agata, the first written documentation about this grape only dates to 1872, when it was mentioned in a local letter about parasite control.  (See Ian D’Agata, Native Wine Grapes of Italy, p. 365). It is a grape most common in the Lecce, Brindisi, and Taranto areas and can even be found in Basilicata and Campania.

Negro Amaro is, for the most part, blended with other grape varieties such as Malvasia Nera or international grapes. It has been written that monovarietal Negro Amaro wines can be boring and hard to drink. The grape’s high acidity and tannins are often considered to be best tamed by blending it with another grape. Its typical traits, along with notes of graphite or shoe polish, sometimes with meaty undertones, and the tannins and saltiness, make it suitable for monovarietal wines. Negro Amaro rosé wines are renowned for being very gastronomical thanks to their freshness, saltiness, minerality, fruit-forwardness, structure, tannic side, and slightly bitter finish.

The southern part of Puglia is a vast area, including wineries such as Conti Zecca, Tenuta Corallo, Coppola 1489, Palamá, Apollonio, Bonsegna, Duca Carlo Guarini, Cupertinum cooperative, Garofano, and Paolo Leo.

Cantina Fiorentino

Cantina Fiorentino in Galatina was acquired in 2014 by Pierantonio Fiorentino, a local entrepreneur in the renewable energy sector linked to the local territory. It incorporates the historical Folonari Plant that, in the early 20th century, sold blending wine to northern Italy and Cantina Valle Dell’Asso of the Vallone family (acquired in 2016), which dates back to 1920. The winery is organic and focused on sustainability, including reducing energy consumption to a minimum.

I visited Cantina Fiorentino some time ago in Galatina, and I had the opportunity to take a walk in one of their Negroamaro vineyard plots. The winery comprises 100 hectares of vineyard with the Folonari and Valle Dell’Asso estates combined. Their flagship wine is Piromafo, 100% Negroamaro, which was already the highlight of the Valle Dell’Asso winery for many years. It is a wine that embodies the history, soil, terroir, climate, and culture of this most southern part of Puglia. Piromafo refers to "fighting the fire" in areas affected by heat, drought, and arid climates during summer. 

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When I visited the winery, we had a vertical tasting of the vintages 2016 to 1999 of Piromafo. It was a didactic experience in the evolution of these wines, where 1999 was still going strong and a beautiful expression of Negro Amaro. The freshness, saltiness, complexity, and typical notes of graphite, tobacco, citrus fruits, and smooth tannins made it feel more vibrant than several of the later vintages.

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