Making wine in Apulia: The Leone de Castris Estate
Salice Salentino is a small rural town that lies just off the Salentine peninsula, the ‘heel’ of boot-shaped Italy. The region is Apulia (Puglia), the southernmost part of Italy and with the blazing summer temperatures to prove it. It is the end of August and we are standing among vineyards that extend to the olive trees on the horizon. It is 9am but the sun is beating down and the heat is intolerable. Teams of workers are moving down the rows of vines that have yielded the first of the summer grapes. They start at dawn and work until 10am. After that, only a tortoise or a lizard could survive the heat. All around the earth is packed hard, dry and cracked. It is a scene of great aridity, but then we look at the grapes and wonder how they could be possible. Instead of the wizened fruit you would expect, they dangle in great bunches, weighing down the vines, huge and glossy black, or a gleaming golden colour. The indigenous negroamaro grapes, in their almost ludicrous perfection, look unreal as they hang numerously from ancient vines pruned to look like little trees.
We are in one of the many vineyards maintained by the house of Leone de Castris, hosted by Piernicola Leone de Castris, who gives no sign of wilting in the blistering heat. He shows us the new vines he has planted – chardonnay, pinot, sauvignon, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. They augment the estate’s ancient vines and old varieties – negroamaro, malvasia, verdeca, bianco d’Alessano, moscato, aleatico and primitivo. The spreading vineyards are the source of the two million bottles of Leone de Castris wine that will be made from grapes picked over the next two weeks and exported the world over. The house of de Castris has been making wine in Apulia for 350 years, and the family are the honorary seigneurs of Salice Salentino. Their history in this ancient rural town starts with the Aragonese domination of Apulia, and the arrival from Aragon in the mid-17th century of the duke Oronzo Arcangelo Maria Francisco de Castris, Count of Lemos. In 1665, he founded the first winery in the area, returned to Aragon, sold his holdings there, and came back to settle permanently in Apulia. He bought 5000 hectares of land, on which he planted grape varieties that were new to the region, olive trees, and wheat. His descendants continued to produce ‘raw’ wine, eventually exporting it to North America, France, Germany and northern Italy, until the early 20th century, when the move towards quality estate wine began. From the 18th century onwards, members of the de Castris family intermarried with those of the Leone Plantera family, another notable house in the Salento. In the early 20th century, Piero Leone Plantera married Donna Lisetta de Castris, the sole heiress to the de Castris wine-making house. Leone Plantera gave new impetus to the business, planting new vines, adopting the technology of the day, and putting in an efficient management structure. Yet it was Donna Lisetta, after whom one of Leone de Castris’ best wines – Donna Lisa – is named, who thought out the change of direction that would eventually make Leone de Castris one of the most significant producers of quality wine in southern Italy. The future of Leone de Castris, she realised, lay in the production and bottling of quality wines, and no longer in industrial bulk production. The first such wine – Donna Lisa, as it happens – was bottled in 1925.
The Leone de Castris estate was taken over by Piero and Lisetta’s son Salvatore, who concentrated on expanding export markets. Now his son Piernicola is taking it forward again as international interest surges in wines from ‘unusual’ parts of the Old World.
Five Roses rosé wine
This famous glowing pink wine, with which the Leone de Castris estate is indelibly associated, was the first rosé ever bottled in Italy. It owes its English name to a purchase order from an American general in command of Allied troops billetted in Salice Salentino in 1943, when the Allies took southern Italy from Fascist control. The general in question was headquartered at one of the family’s two 18th-century baroque palazzi – the Palazzo Leone and the Palazzo de Castris. He placed a large order for rosé wine for his officers, but stipulated that it should have an American name. And so Five Roses was born to enduring success. It is named after a contrada, or rural zone, in the fiefdom of Salice Salentino, called Cinque Rose, literally ‘five roses’. The contrada got its name because, for several consecutive generations, each member of the de Castris family had five children.
Salice Salentino
This ancient fiefdom was founded by Prince Raimondo Orsini Del Balzo, at the end of the 14th century. It took its name from the many willow trees (salice) that grew in the area at the time. The prince built a residence which is still known today as la casa del re, or the king’s house. The fiefdom passed from one noble family to another over the next two centuries, until successive invasions and changes in the ruling order led to greater autonomy. Salice Salentino remains very rural today, and its economy is wholly dependent on agriculture, mainly wine and olive oil. Salice Salentino wine has DOC status (Denominazione d’Origine Controllata).
The Greek influence in Apulia
Before the rise of Rome and its empire, Apulia was part of Magna Graecia, and many of the towns and villages in the region still bear Greek names like Calimera and Gallipoli, or of Greek origin, like Lecce. The original people of the place were Greek, or Illyric, and three thousand years later there are still people in Apulia who speak Griko, a form of Greek that developed in isolation in much the same way that Arabic developed in Malta. The Griko dialect is replete with words of ancient Doric origin, indicating that its roots are in the Doric branch of Ancient Greek, and not in Modern Greek, which evolved from the Hellenistic branch. There is another Griko-speaking community in neighbouring Reggio Calabria, which was also part of Greater Greece. The Griko-speaking people of Salento in Puglia live mainly in nine small towns – Calimera, Martano, Castrignano de’ Greci, Corigliano d’Otranto, Melpignano, Soleto, Sternatia, Zollino, and Martignano – which have a total of 40,000 inhabitants. The Griko community of Salento is recognised by the Italian government as an ethnic and linguistic minority.
The history of Apulia
After the fall of the Roman Empire, Apulia was briefly under the rule of Byzantium. Then came the northern Lombards and Franks, and after that, the Saracens. Byzantine forces pushed out the Saracens in the 10th century, but by the 11th century, Norman lords were beginning to take an interest in this coastal territory. In 1059, the Norman Robert il Guiscardo occupied the region as Duke of Apulia and Calabria, and put it under the rule of the Kingdom of Sicily, of which Malta also formed part. The Normans gave way to the Swabians, and these to the French house of Anjou and then to the Spanish house of Aragon. The region suffered all the evils of deprivation, warring overlords, and a harsh feudal system until, in the 18th century, some improvement took place under the rule of the French royal house of Bourbon. The French built roads and ports, and carried out limited social and land reforms. In 1860, Apulia became part of the Kingdom of Italy. Because of this variegated history and the different languages spoken there, dialects differ greatly across the region. They include a rare dialect of the French-Provencal language, called Faetar. It is spoken in the towns of Faeto and Carlantino and in some villages. The Arbereshe dialect has been spoken in Apulia since Albanian refugees settled there in the 15th century, after the invasion of the Balkan territory by the Ottoman Turks.
Wine in Apulia
Apulia, one of the most fertile parts of Italy, rivals Sicily as the largest producer of wine in the country. The reason area produces enormous amounts – almost twice as much as the whole of Australia. Apulia has vast tracts of territory given over to vineyards, besides olive trees, and tomatoes which are dried for export. The region has 25 DOC-classified wines, made from a sizeable number of grape varieties. The Salentine peninsula is the source of the most noteworthy among them. The Salentino area is blessed with soil and climatic conditions that are perfect for grape-growing, and improvements in the irrigation infrastructure over recent decades have alleviated the problems caused by intense heat and natural aridity. More than 60 per cent of wine produced in Apulia is red. Most of these red wines are made from the negroamaro grape, sometimes blended with malvasia nera, Montepulciano, Sangiovese, and others. The Salento DOC wines that are gaining most notice are Salice Salentino, Copertino, Leverano and Alexio. The primitivo grape variety, which is native to the region, is flourishing. White wines from the Salento area cover a wide range of varietals, including malvasia, trebbiano, verdeca, bombino, and the internationally ubiquitous chardonnay, sauvignon and pinot blanc. For years, Apulia produced wines, must and concentrate that were used to strengthen northern Italian and even French wines.
Some people still think of the region – and this opinion has been outdated for years – as being mainly a bulk producer of middling quality wine. Pugliese whites were produced mainly as blending wines for the vermouth produced in Piemonte. But over the second half of the 20th century all that began to change. The last few decades have seen the emergence of wines of significant quality. Long-established wineries from the north of Italy and even from California have begun to invest heavily in Apulia.
The negroamaro grape
This black grape is indigenous to southern Italy. It is grown almost exclusively in Apulia and particularly in the Salentine peninsula. The name is a combination of the Latin and Greek words for ‘bitter’ – negro and maru. The wine made from this grape is a very deep red. Negroamaro wines tend to be rustic in character, combining a delicious scent with an earthy bitterness. The grape produces some of the best red wines of Apulia, particularly when blended with the highly scented malvasia nera, as in the DOC wine Salice Salentino.
Other grape varieties in Apulia
Bombino bianco is the most widely planted white grape in the region. Verdeca is high in acidity and produces a neutral wine. Primitivo is the genetic ancestor of the American grape zinfandel. It produces wines that are high in alcohol content and with a deep red colour. It is thought to have originated in Greece, which is a likely story given the region’s history as part of Magna Graecia, and its later association with Byzantium. Malvasia nera is a dark-skinned grape related to the lighter malvasia. In southernmost Apulia, it is usually blended with negroamaro. Uva di Troia (literally, the Trojan grape) is indigenous to Apulia. It is used mostly in the red wines of Castel del Monte.
Tasting notes
Taste’s new wine consultant, Bernard Muscat, has the details on some of the best wines from the Leone de Castris estate. In all cases, the country of origin is Italy, and the region is Puglia.
Messapia
- Area of production:
- Salice Salentino
- Appellation:
- I.G.T.
- Grape variety:
- Verdeca
- Vintage:
- 2005
- Alcohol:
- 12.5%
This wine displays a pale lemon-green core with a watery white rim. On the nose, it has pronounced aromas of a developing nature of citrus, lemongrass and a slightly herbaceous hint. The wine is dry, low-medium acidity, light-medium body, and has medium pronounced flavours of lemongrass, and citrus with a vegetal hint. This elegant buttery-textured wine is made from hand-picked grapes. It has medium alcohol content, leaving a fresh crisp finish. The wine is ready to drink but can age for 18 months. Messapia can be drunk as an aperitif or with simply cooked fish dishes, seafood pasta, and shellfish. Drink it at 8-10C.
Imago
- Area of production:
- Salice Salentino
- Appellation:
- I.G.T.
- Grape variety:
- Chardonnay
- Vingtage:
- 2004
- Alcohol:
- 12.5%
This wine has a pale intensity with a lemon-green rim and core. It displays medium intense aromas of a developing mineral nature, with hints of green apples and pineapples. This dry Chardonnay has low acidity, medium body and a good combination of alcohol and fruit, with a short length. It is ready to drink now, but can age for 24 months. It is good as an aperitif or with hors d’oeuvres, seafood, fish in creamy sauce, or creamy cheeses. Drink it at 10-12C.
Five Roses
- Area of production:
- Salice Salentino
- Appellation:
- I.G.T.
- Grape variety:
- Negroamaro 90%, Malvasia 10%
- Vingtage:
- 2005
- Alcohol:
- 13%
This was the first rosè wine to be bottled in Italy, consequently achieving a certain renown. It has a medium intense pink rim and core, with medium long tears coming down the side of the glass, which shows the alcohol content coming from the hot climate and the negroamaro grape. It displays a vibrant bouquet of medium intense aromas. It is dry, low-medium acidity, with low tannins, medium body, and medium pronounced flavours of red berries. Five Roses is a well-structured wine, with good alcohol presence. The wine is ready to drink now but can age for 12 months. It is good with fish, particularly tuna, vegetables with olive oil, and grilled meat. Drink it at 8-10C.
Villa Santera
- Area of production:
- Manduria
- Appellation:
- D.O.C.
- Grape variety:
- Primitivo (Zinfandel)
- Vingtage:
- 2004
- Alcohol:
- 14%
This wine displays a deep ruby rim and core, with long slow legs revealing the high alcohol content. It is made from the grapes of 40-year-old vines, and after a long maceration period the pronounced aromas vary from liquorice, oak to blackberries and black currants, with undertones of a herbaceous character (cabbage and sauerkraut). On the palate the wine is dry, of medium-full body and with pronounced flavours of liquorice, oak and intense black fruit. Villa Santera is a rich and velvety wine with good acidity, high alcohol content, and a long-lasting finish. It is aged in oak for seven to eight months. It is ready to drink now, but could develop further over another four years. Serve it in large glasses for airing, at 17-18C. Drink it with strongly flavoured meats, grilled or roast beef, or strong cheeses.
Salice Salentino Reserve
- Area of production:
- Salice Salentino, Veglie, Guagnano, Campi Salentina, San Donaci
- Appellation:
- D.O.C.
- Grape variety:
- Negroamaro 90%, Malvasia Nera of Lecce 10%
- Vingtage:
- 2005
- Alcohol:
- 13%
This wine displays an intense deep ruby core with a purple rim. It is made from select grapes taken from 40-year-old vines. Its pronounced developing aromas are of blackberries, black cherries, oak and hints of cinnamon and vanilla. Salice Salentino Reserve is macerated in stainless steel tanks at a controlled temperature of 26-28C for eight-12 days, and matured in oak barrels for about 12 months. It is further matured in the bottle and released after two years, which gives rise to a rich and complex medium-to-full-bodied dry wine of medium acidity, medium tannins and medium pronounced flavours. It gives a lengthy sweet-and-spicy finish. The alcohol, fruit and acidity levels will keep the wine for a good three-and-a-half years. Drink it at 17-18C, with slow-cooked game and other meats with strong sauces, or with aged cheeses. Salice Salentino Reserve must be decanted at least three hours before serving, and then poured into large glasses.