The Winery Messapi of Puglia

Discovering the wine region of Puglia

Puglia (Apulia to many English speakers) is a Long, slender wine region in the extreme Southeast corner of Italy's "boot". To use the shoe analogy often used to illustrate the shape of Italy, Apulia extends from the tip of the heel to the mid-calf, where the spur of the Gargano Peninsula juts out into the Adriatic Sea. The heel (the Salento peninsula) occupies the southern half of the region and is of great importance for the identity of Puglia. Not only are there cultural and geographical differences from Northern Puglia, but the wines are also different.

While the north is slightly more hilly and more linked to the wine-making customs and practices of Central Italy, the south is almost entirely flat and retains a strong link to its Greco-Roman past. The only factor that unites northern and southern Puglia is the choice of crops: olives and grapes, in that order. The region is responsible for almost half of Italy's total olive oil production and has long had a reputation as a prolific source of (mainly red) wine. This has had Serious economic consequences for Puglia's winemakers and for the reputation of the region's wines; when the world began to demand higher quality wines, the mass-produced blended wines in which Puglia specialized lost their value.