When I first visited Puglia on a family vacation some 18 years ago, travel media were already calling the long, skinny heel of Italy’s boot “The New Tuscany.”
Puglia has indeed become a hot destination, attracting millions of visitors annually to its vast beaches on two seas, its historic medieval and Baroque towns, its vestiges of ancient culture and its vineyards.
Still, it remains Pugliese. Geographically, it’s closer to Greece than Florence. And with its laid-back southern vibe and whitewashed port towns, it feels it.
Puglia’s wines have long been dominated by jammy, potent reds—particularly Primitivo (aka Zinfandel) and Negroamaro—that were traditionally shipped to northern climes to give a ripe punch of alcohol to those blends. But the complexity, nuance and quality of the wines has continued to grow, thanks to some smart, historic wineries, dedicated locals and outsiders from places like … Tuscany.
What’s the appeal to these winemakers? Though mostly flat as a pizza, Puglia has a compelling mix of sedimentary soils, constant sea winds to cool the area, brilliant sunshine and ample sources of spring water.
In early fall, I returned to the lower part of Puglia known as Salento to meet a couple of producers with noteworthy Tuscan connections.
“The style of the winery is more Tuscan—based on elegance,” says Alessandro Falvo of Masseria Li Veli, the latest Puglian winery to earn a spot on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of the year. In 2022, the Masseria Li Veli Susumaniello Salento Askos 2020 (90 points, $23) ranked No. 63 on the list.
(For anyone wondering, the first Puglian wine on the Top 100 came from another Tuscan project: Antinori-owned Tormaresca’s Primitivo Salento Torcicoda 2008 ranked No. 61 in 2011, scoring 90 points and priced $22.)
Masseria Li Veli, about 12 miles south of the medieval port town of Brindisi, is one of Puglia’s most historic wineries, developed in the 19th century by a Puglian marchese. The farm was abandoned for almost half a century, until 1999, when it was purchased and renovated by the Falvo family—founders of Tuscany’s legendary Vino Nobile di Montepulciano producer Avignonesi.
In 2008, the family sold Avignonesi, and one camp of younger Falvos—brothers Alfredo and Edoardo—bought Li Veli to bring a new vision to Puglia.
The winery itself is a stunner—three stories of massive, vaulted stonework, looking over vineyards and pine groves to the Adriatic Sea on the horizon.
The Falvo brothers’ plan included a new line of wines called Askos, based chiefly on rare or endangered grape varieties. “Susumaniello was born as an experiment,” says Alessandro Falvo, 36, general manager of the estate and cousin of the owners. “The project was to make quality wines with something other than Primitivo and Negroamaro.”
Susumaniello is a naturally high-yielding grape variety whose name in local dialect refers to a “little donkey.” The Falvos began their experiment by limiting the vine yields and using gentle, modern winemaking techniques.
Starting with about 400 cases in the 2009 vintage, their production of Susumaniello has rocketed to 7,000 cases of red and 2,500 cases of rosato annually.
Medium-bodied, juicy, long and spicy, the red version is fermented in oak vats, then aged about a year in oak barrels, casks and—starting with the 2022 vintage—partly in clay amphorae.
“Now we are known in the U.S. for Susumaniello,” says Falvo, calling it “a democratic wine—easy to drink but not simple.”
About 30 miles further south, a new boutique winery is taking an opposite approach by using Bordeaux varieties instead of local ones. Tenuta Liliana has brought on Montalcino-based enologist Carlo Ferrini as lead winemaker.
“It is curiosity that pulled me here,” says Ferrini at the state-of-the-art winery, built in an antique stone quarry.
This isn’t Ferrini’s first project in Puglia. In the early 2000s, he had consulted for a more traditional winery that went belly up. But he yearned to return. “I’ve had this desire to do another project in Puglia—not quantity but quality,” he says. “I am convinced that, in these soils with the sun and wind and the water here, you can do something great.”
Tenuta Liliana’s first release is a single-vineyard bottling called Ladame Cabernet Sauvignon Salento Contrada Specchia; aged in oak barrels, it blends Cabernet with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. About 2,000 cases were made of the 2021 vintage, and it retails in Italy for around $125.
“My idea is to make a wine with structure, but with elegance,” says Ferrini. “I can’t stand excessive tannins, excessive wood or excessive alcohol.”
Tenuta Liliana was created by Milan businessman Antonio Intiglietta, who moved from Puglia as a child. More than a decade ago, he bought a former country villa of a noble family, located six miles inland from Puglia’s west coast on the Ionian Sea, and restored it.
In successive years, he watched a devasting bacterial blight kill olive orchards in the area and slowly creep northward. More than 20 million trees have been infected and there is no surefire cure, though some trees have been replanted to resistant varieties.
“I couldn’t stay here and just watch everything die,” says Intiglietta. “I wanted to valorize what we have.”
He bought stony, difficult-to-plant olive groves with the idea of clearing them and repurposing them as vineyards. After sampling his soils, he asked for advice on what to plant from Pierre-Marie Guillaume of Burgundy’s Guillaume Vine Nursery.
“We weren’t out to make the Screaming Eagle of Salento,” Intiglietta quips. “But Guillaume said, for the most complete wine and interpreter of the terroir, to use this Bordeaux blend.”
Intiglietta began planting five years ago, farming organically, and now has 30 acres under vine. He crowd-funded a small percentage of the operation (Lilinia has nearly 300 investors, who have contributed from $500 to more than $10,000) to build a community around the winery.
Next, he is planning a white blend, led by Sauvignon Blanc and made in Georgian amphora-like clay qvevri, which he has already imported.
Puglia’s wine scene is becoming more and more interesting on a lot of fronts. The region doesn’t need to be the next Tuscany, but it does deserve a more prominent place on wine lists.
For more on Puglia’s wine scene, read Camuto’s post on Gioia del Colle Primitivo.
