Puglia in Rosé and Primitivo

I first met Caterina Baldini, Co-founder and project manager of Associazione Puglia in Rosé and Lucia Lettis, Co-founder of Associazione Puglia in Rose’ and Technical Director, at a Puglia in Rosé Master Class at the Leopard at Des Artistes in Manhattan a few months ago. Lucia spoke about the association and Caterina spoke about the region of Puglia. This Monday they invited me to a Zoom tasting of 6 wines, four were rosato and two were primitivo.  Caterina was the very well-informed host and, since I was the only guest, we were able to have a one-on-one conversation about Puglia.

Caterina said the producers’ association purpose is to promote the Apulian Rose’ Wine Brand in the USA and the world. Apulia is the largest producer of rosé wine in Italy with a 44% share. She said that they would like the producers to put Rosato on the label so the wine will be recognized as Italian, but some producer still use Rosé. Apulia Rosato comes in made shades from light pink to light red.

The Rosato

Puglia Rosato IGP “Maglida” 2020 Cantine Barsento made from Malvasia and Negroamaro. The soil is clay and limestone.There is are selection of the grapes at harvest. Fermentation takes place at a low temperature in stainless steel tanks.  Maceration on the skins for 10 hours and then the skins are soft pressed. The wine is aged in steel for 3 months and in bottle for 1 month before release. The wine has hints of strawberries, raspberries and a hint of cherry.

Puglia Rosato IGP Selva della  Rocca 2020 Cantine Le Grotte made from 100% Nero di Troia from Apricena and Gargano. The vineyards are at 70/90 meters. Harvest takes place the last week of September. The wine is in contact with the skins for 5/6 hours at a controlled temperature. The wine remains in stainless steel for 5 months and is bottled in March following the harvest. The wine is coral in color.  It has hints of red and black fruit with a touch of blackberry and a hint of spice.

Puglia Rosé IGP “Forme” 2021 Cantine Massimo Leone. Made from 100% Nero di Troia. The soil is Karstic and clayey. Fermentation takes place at a controlled temperature and skin contact is for 8 hours. Pink in color with coral reflections with hints of black fruit, red roses and a touch of spice. Caterina  said the “scratches” on the label are that of a lion (Leone) because of the name of the winery.

Rosato IGP “Cattedrale”  2020  Società Agricola D’ Alessandro  made from 100% Sangiovese. The soil is limestone. The wine is in contact with the skins for 6/8 hours followed by a soft pressing of the skins. Temperature controlled fermentation is in stainless steel tanks. Aging is in stainless steel for 4 months and then in bottle before release.  Caterina said the producer had in mind young people when he made this wine because it is an easy drinking wine with a deep pink color, fruity aromatic aromas with hints of strawberries and raspberries.  She also said the picture on the label represents the window of the  cathedrals of Puglia. They use a darker bottle to protect the color of the wine.

All of the Rosato wines are well under $20 a bottle

The Primitivo

Puglia Primitivo IGP “Soffio”  2019 Cantine D’Alessandro made from 100% Primitivo. The soil is clayey limestone. There is a preselection of grapes. Temperature controlled fermentation is in steel with the must and 20 days of skin contact. The wine remains in steel for 6 months and in bottle for 6 months before release. The wine has hints of blackberry, blueberry and prune. $20

Puglia Primitivo IGP  Selva della Rocca  2019 Cantine Le Grotte made from 100% Primitivo. The vineyards are located at the foot of the Gargano and the soil is calcareous rich in minerals. The exposure is southwest. Manual harvest. Vinification is in temperature controlled steel tanks. Maceration lasts for 15 days. Aging is in new French barriques for 12 months and then 3 months in bottle before release. Ruby red in color with violet reflections. It has hints of small red berry fruit, prune and a note of spice. $15

Puglia in Rose’ Master Class

I have visited the Southern Italian region of Puglia a number of times and I was the Wine Director and Sommelier for I-Trulli, an Apulian restaurant in Manhattan, so I have a fondness for the wine and food of the region. A few months ago the Association of Puglia in Rose’ arranged for me to interview some of their producers on Zoom and taste the wines with them.  Recently I received an invitation from the Association to attend a tasting of the wines of Puglia at the Leopard at Des Artistes in Manhattan, one of my favorite Italian restaurants.

Gianfranco Sorrentino, the owner of the Leopard introduced the first speaker.  Lucia Lettis, founder of Associazione Puglia in Rose’ and technical director. She said it is a producers’ association dedicated to Pugliese Rose’ wines. Their purpose is to promote the Apulian Rose’ Wine Brand in the USA and the world.

Puglia in Rosé is the first Association of producers dedicated to rosé wines of Puglia and was created to share, together with the Apulian wineries and commercial and institutional partners, the path of enhancement of rosé wine Pugliese.

To achieve this goal, the Association organizes events and prepares promotional activities aimed at trade in national and international markets. The objectives are to:

• to qualify the image of Puglia’s  wines as Made in Italy products of excellence;
• promote business opportunities abroad for Apulian operators;
• give impetus to the international promotion activities of the Puglia brand

Caterina Baldini, Co-founder and project manager of Associazione Puglia in Rose’ spoke about the region.

Puglia, the ‘two seas land,’ is surrounded by the Ionian Sea and Adriatic Sea. This makes the region a perfect place for growing vines and olive trees. Puglia is 55% flat and 45% hilly and extends for over 359 kilometers between the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. In general the soil is clayey-limestone. 

Rose’ wines have a long history in Puglia. The first winemaker to popularize the wine was Don Piero De Castris in 1943 when he produced a rose’ from the negroamaro grape at his winery in Salice Salentino. His first production was put in beer bottles and called “Four Roses” but soon, with the improvement in the bottling line, it became the first rose’ bottled in Italy and sold in the USA.

Today Puglia is the largest producer of Rosè wine in Italy. 40% of the national production comes from here.

The native red grapes which produce Rose’ are: Bambino Bianco, Aglianico, Negroamaro, Nero di Troia, Malvasia Nera and Primitivo.

Susannah Gold, a wine professional, spoke about the wines. She said the wines were arranged according to producer. There were 7 wines in all: 3 Rose’ wines,  3 red wines, and one white wine all from Puglia.

The Le Grotte Winery

Spumante Brut Rosè NV made from 100% Nero di Troia. The soil is very mineral and an abundance of limestone due the near by marble quarries. The grapes are soft pressed and fermentation takes place in autoclaves for two months. The wine is light pink and it is fruity with hints of strawberry, raspberry and floral notes. 

Puglia IGP Rosato”Selva Della Rocca” made from 100% Nero di Troia from Apricena and Gargano. The wine is in contact with the skins for 5/6 hours at a controlled temperature. The wine remains in stainless steel for 5 months and is bottled in March following the harvest. The wine is coral in color.  It has hints of red and black fruit with a touch of blackberry and a hint of spice.

Nero di Troia IGP “Petrata” Made from 100% Nero Di Troia. Temperature controlled maturation in stainless steel. The wine has black fruit aromas and flavors with hints of blackberry and blueberry.

D’Alessandro Winery

Puglia IGP “Cattedrale” made from 100% Malvasia Nera from Turi and the Itria valley. The soil is of medium texture with loamy clay. Harvest is manual.  There is skin contact for 15 days at a controlled temperature. The wine remains in stainless steel for four months and in bottle for two months before release. The wine has hints of red fruit, pomegranate and raspberry with a long fruity finish.

Terre Carsiche Winery

Vedeca Bianco “Agora” made from 100% Verdeca Bianco. The soil is Karstic formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. Harvest is in September. Fermentation is in steel tanks at a controlled temperature for 15 days. Aging takes place in large French durhast barrels for about three months and in bottle for 6 months before release. This is a wine with citrus fruit flavors and aromas with floral notes and a touch of spice.

Murgia Rosè IGT made from Bambino Nero and Malvasia Nera. Fermentation is in temperature controlled steel tanks. The wine has hints of red fruit, raspberry and strawberry and a note of spice.

Primitivo Gloria Del Colle Riserva “Fanova” made from 100% Primitive from the Castellana Grotte and Acquaviva Delle Fonti area. The training system is the Apulian goblet. The vines are at 33/350 meters. Harvest takes place the third week of September. Fermentation is in steel tanks at a controlled temperature for 15/20 days. Aging in big French durhast barrels for about 12 months and another 12 months in bottle before release. This is a wine with hints of sour cherry, blackberry, prunes and  a touch of spice.

Puglia in Rosé

Recently I was contacted by Caterina Baldini, president and co-founder of Puglia in Rosè, a producers’ association dedicated to Pugliese rose’. She asked me if I would like to sample some wines and meet some producers via the Internet of Puglia rose’.

Caterina explained that Puglia in Rosè, based in Bari, is the first producers’ association dedicated to Apulian Rosè wines. The aim of the association is to make Apulian rose’ wine better known and appreciated by wine professionals and consumers in both the national and international markets.

Rosè wines have a long history in Puglia. The first winemaker to popularize the wine was Don Piero De Castris in 1943 when he produced a rosè from the negroamaro grape at his winery in Salice Salentino. His first production was put in beer bottles and called “Four Roses” but soon, with the improvement in the bottling line, it became the first rose’ bottled in Italy and sold in the USA.

Puglia is one of Italy’s largest and best producers of Rose and the wines come in different styles and colors ranging from a pale pink, to salmon to dark pink. Some are so dark that they could be mistaken for a red wine and there is a rosè from Puglia for every occasion and taste. When l was the wine director and sommelier at I Trulli, a Pugliese restaurant in NYC, we had a large selection of roses from Puglia and they were very popular.

Caterina arranged for me to receive some samples and we made an appointment for our first meeting.

On Zoom, Caterina introduced Maria Viola Petroni, the owner of Donna Viola, a division of Petroni Vini. She is the fifth generation in her family to be involved in wine, a tradition that goes back to 1865. She told me that she follows every step of production from the cultivation of the grapes to marketing.

The Donna Viola winery is located on the most elevated hills of the Alta Murgia in Puglia. They have 10 hectares of vineyards and they are very traditional. They only make wines that are monovarietal, 100% of one variety, using only indigenous grapes.

THE WINE:

Donna Viola “Tramonto” (Sunset) IGP Puglia 2019 made from 100% Bombino Nero. There is a very low temperature controlled fermentation, which lasts for 12 to15 days to preserve the delicate aromas and flavors of the wine. The color is a light pink with orange reflections. Bombino Nero is a very delicate variety to work with but it is well suited to make rosè wines. It has been in Puglia for a long time but might have come from Spain.

I asked Maria how they arrived at the color that they want and she replied, “Unlike the maceration method which gives some time for the juice to be in contact with the skins, our rosè wines are made from the immediate pressing of red skin grapes without any maceration time. We work our red grapes in a soft press for 1-2 hours. Through a glass, we can see the color of the juice and when we think the color is perfect for us, we transfer the juice into steel tanks. This is the better method to make rosè wine, because with the soft press we choose only the best quality of juice to produce top quality rosè wine.”

The wine remains in stainless steel for 6 months and is bottled in the spring following the harvest. The wine has hints of cherry, strawberry, raspberry, wild roses and a touch of almonds and is fresh and soft on the palate. Maria said the wine should always be between 12 and 12-1/2% alcohol to keep its fresh flavors and aromas. The wine matches well with seafood, white meat, antipasto and fruit.

I will be talking to more producers of Puglia and will keep you posted on my findings.