Puglia - Land of Wine (and Food...,and Olive Oil)

Written by Freddie Herring

The Italian region of Puglia produces evermore popular wines that the UK just can’t get enough of. Usually on the richer and fruiter side of things and at very good value you can get a pretty high-quality, serious wine for under £20. What you can get for under £14 can arguably only be matched in Europe by possibly some wines from Sicily and parts of Spain. So I went to go and have a look.

While Puglia is often described as the ‘heel of Italy’ it is in fact quite a bit more than that and actually stretches well up the calf. The ‘heel’ is the Salento peninsula and this southern half is almost a different country to the north and is the area most famous for wine. A flat-ish dry and hot land that has been a centre for olive oil (over 40% of Italy’s) and wine production for millennia, and has therefore been fought over and occupied by various Mediterranean civilisations for as long. A surprisingly fertile place considering how hot it gets and dry it can be (etymology of Puglia is “lack of rain” apparently, though certainly did while I was there), the Salento is a limestone peninsula with a layer of iron rich topsoil and with its Mediterranean climate vines have taken to it like the proverbial. Where there is little to no topsoil there are olive groves and so the entire area is a patchwork of a few vineyards here but then stopping abruptly where the topsoil does and suddenly you have several acres of olive trees there before back into vines.

Like many more rural wine areas with a lot of subsistence agriculture every family had a few vines and made there own wine for personal consumption. The tradition was still (NOT fortified) red wines with an alcohol level of up to 17%, maybe chill it slightly in the 35-40 degree summers… With industrialisation in the north of Italy and the appearance of the Phylloxera catastrophe that wiped out most of Europe’s vines in the mid-late eighteenth century a desperate need of cheap wine was required in the north and also France. Puglia provided and produced bulk wine in quantities with ripe grapes at a competitive price and that is a lot of what they have done for the last 150 years. However in the late twentieth century the advent of as cheap but better quality New World wine provided competition and like so many European bulk wine producing regions Puglia had to adapt to a focus on better quality.

Where you have lots of small growers you tend to have co-operatives. Produttori di Manduria was founded in 1928 and is now owned by 400 local families farming 900ha of vines, the “Maestri del Primitivo”! It essentially covers the Primitivo di Manduria DOC that surrounds the pretty old town of Manduria, itself conveniently located in the middle of the Taranto-Brindisi-Lecce towns triangle. This is a co-operative that has undergone big changes in the last 25 years with a real focus on quality and sustainability, the former in particular for their export markets. While some traditions still exist, hand-harvesting, a local member bringing his grapes to the co-op on the back of an old truck, a mix of old and young vines and varying soil types blended together, technology and quality have come to the fore. There is proper vineyard management by the Produttori who decide what is picked and when, pretty much all the vineyards are practicing organic viticulture, and while the grapes may get delivered on the back of a clapped out Iveco truck each batch, each tank undergoes vigorous chemical analysis in the onsite laboratory. There is a lot of sun in Puglia and not a lot of rain so the winery is run off solar power and the DOC regulations stipulate no irrigation, all things that help the balance between scale of production and sustainability.

Puglia is also the land of food, a place where diets go to die. It is so simple, so fresh, so tasty, and there’s a lot of it. And where there’s food there’s wine, and vice versa. It is red wine that dominates down here and while varieties such as Negroamaro , Malvasia Nera, Nero di Troia and Susumaniello are plentiful there is one that rules them all, Primitivo. This really is one of the ‘in’ grapes of the moment offering ripe fruits, soft mouthfeel and a weight and richness to the body. A grape that produces highly satisfying wines at a highly satisfying price and that are just made to go with food. Now although quality is key at the Produttori and the international markets important Puglia is still the most important place with three times as much of their wine sold here than in their largest overseas market (Germany). The vast amount of what is sold locally though is Table Wine, simple juice that the members drink by the gallon, literally. As you enter the triple height nave of the winery on the left is what only can be described as a series of petrol pumps and a constant stream of older gentlemen with demijohns going for their weekly fill. We don’t get that, we get Lirica. With grapes coming from bush vines up to 50 years old this wine is made with some of the co-op’s best juice, and when you’ve got a few hundred hectares of vines the best is very good. Matured for six months in large, old Slavonian oak casks that gently softens the wine without imparting much oakiness, the wine has an abundance of freshness to the ripe cherry and plum fruit flavours with hints of spice and herbs. A wine that treads with aplomb the tightrope of approachability and interest and complexity.

Try with:

Focaccia, not the one you’re thinking of but Puglian focaccia which uses potato in the dough and is topped with cherry tomatoes.

Orecchiette, the local pasta, almost shell shaped and quite thick and firm served with broccoli and cooked in the water of the broccoli, widely grown in Puglia.

Sausages, Puglian ones tend to be a mix of beef and pork so are denser and meatier than ours.

And vegetables in general as is the case with a lot of poorer regions vegetables take centre stage and Puglia does vegetables very well, in particular wilted chicory, maybe on a broad bean puree. Properly yum.

But we can’t drink red all the time, well we can but occasionally it’s nice to have something from the fridge, so sticking with Primitivo we have the Rosato, the Produttori’s Aka. This time when the Primitivo grapes arrive at the winery after a gentle pressing the juice is left in contact with the skins so a wonderful deep pink hue is imparted along with gentle tannins. A wonderfully refreshing wine with loads of juicy red fruit flavours and crisp acidity. While the de rigueur is ultra pale Provençal rosé it is great to see some producers sticking to their guns and making deeper, darker, fruiter styles that are more in keeping with their grapes and region, though still dry on the palate.

Try with:

Seafood Risotto, while Risotto was historically a northern Italian dish it is now a national staple and with Puglia’s wealth of seafood it’s a great match.

Tiella Pugliese, a traditional layered potato, risotto and muscle stew from the region.

Bread dumplings, an ancient though still common dish made with stale bread, and one of the most popular versions is made with fresh local ricotta cheese.

And what about white. Yes, it is made in Puglia and still mainly with grapes local to the south of Italy. Fiano is more commonly associated with Campania a few hours drive west of Manduria though is found throughout the south. The Produttori’s ‘Zìn’ Fiano is a wonderfully dry, crisp, zesty and tangy example that can not only work as an aperitivo but is a great food wine. Why call it Zìn? On the southern coast of Puglia a treasured delicacy lives, sea urchins. These are immensely popular and a treasured food served raw, or maybe in a little pasta, through the summer. They have been described as a true taste of the sea and “in comparison the best clams taste like car tyres”. Called ricci di mare, or alternatively zìn, this Fiano is a perfect accompaniment.

Also try with:

Tagliatelle with asparagus

Linguine ai datteri, consisting of razor clams, fresh parsley, oregano and garlic.

Cozze alla Tarantina, mussles in a spicy tomato sauce

Butter and lemon plaice fillets

If you haven’t been to Puglia and you appreciate your food and wine, or simply the beach, it is worth a visit and is pretty easy to get to with international airports at both Bari and Brindisi. The historical city of Lecce is certainly worth a trip if you are down there. Be prepared though to eat and drink like there’s no tomorrow!

Produttori di Manduria are doing it right and are a successful co-operative supporting 400 growers each with an average of only two hectares of vines. We are very pleased with our trio of wines from them and hope you enjoy them too.

See our full collection of wines from Puglia here…