Wine Region: Puglia, Italy

Known as the “heel of Italy’s boot”, Puglia has a longstanding winemaking tradition, as it is one of Italy’s largest wine producing regions and produces the very popular Negroamaro wine.

A delightfully warm climate, beautiful green landscapes, stunning architecture and majestic views of the Ionian and Adriatic Seas complement the region’s extremely fertile soils and vast sea life, making Puglia home to some of Italy’s best food and wine.

Puglia is best known for three red grapes: Nero di Troia (also called Uva di Troia), grown primarily in the north around Bari; Primitivo, from two main areas in the centre; and Negroamaro, in the south, on the Salento peninsula (the real heel).

The Salice Salentino region is named for the Salento Peninsula located on the backside of the heel of Italy’s “boot” that extends into the ocean. Salice Salentino is made from the Negroamaro grape, which in Italian means “black bitter.” Dry red wine made from Negroamaro has flavors of ripe plum, baked raspberries, and spice-cabinet notes like anise, allspice and cinnamon. Even though Negroamaro is full bodied it is not too tannic or acidic, and instead leads with bombastic fruit which makes it easy to chug, especially alongside meatballs or pizza.

Negroamaro Wine is a great example from the Puglia region

If you’re searching for a richer, fuller-bodied red with abundant weight look towards Puglian Primitivo. Primitivo tastes of dark fruit like fresh figs, blueberries and baked blackberries. There’s a distinct dried fruit-leather character to it as well. The word Primitivo doesn’t mean primitive in Italian, but actually means early ripening since these grapes accumulate a lot of sugar early in the season. The early ripening means resulting wines are big, luscious and full of fruit. However, what’s fascinating about Primitivo is that sometimes the grape bunches ripen unevenly, so green grapes will get harvested along with the ripe ones.