Wine Tastings, Winery Visits and Wine Tours in Salento

Wine tasting in Salento: which wineries to visit

Salento is the southernmost part of Puglia (Apulia), the heel of Italy between the Adriatic and Ionian seas, and its wineries are spread across the province of Lecce and those of Brindisi and Taranto. This page lists nearly 20 wineries around Lecce, Brindisi and Manduria and in the far south. Over three in four tastings last one to two hours, usually with 3 or 4 wines, and guests have left more than 100 reviews on Winedering. The grid also includes about 20 experiences in the Itria Valley, further north around Ostuni and Martina Franca.

Which wineries should you visit in Salento?

Among the most booked on Winedering over the last two years:

• Cantina Petrelli, in Carmiano: a picnic among vines and olive trees with 2 bottles of your choice, friselline crackers and puccette buns. Stay until closing and take home the leftovers.
• Tenuta Corallo, near Otranto: vineyard, winery and barrique cellar, then 3 wines, usually white, rosé and red, with taralli, cheese and cured meats.
• Castel di Salve, in Depressa, a village of Tricase: wine has been made here since 1885, in a 19th-century industrial building; then at least 4 wines with taralli.
• Conti Zecca, in Leverano: 5 wines with tarallini, friselline, pecorino and capocollo.

Lecce, Brindisi, Manduria or the far south: which area should you choose?

It depends where you stay: from Lecce, Manduria is about 45 minutes' drive and Tricase just under an hour.

• Around Lecce: Leverano, Carmiano, Guagnano and Monteroni lie about 20 minutes west of the city, in Negroamaro country. Feudi di Guagnano pours 3 wines in its barrel cellar, a Salice Salentino rosé, a Negroamaro and a Malvasia Nera, with a marenna, a Salento afternoon snack.
• Around Brindisi: Tenute Rubino serves 4 wines, from Verdeca to Primitivo, with fruit juice and games for children. Cantine Risveglio shows its 1960s masonry tanks before its sommelier pours 5 wines.
• Manduria and the Ionian coast, in the province of Taranto: Primitivo di Manduria country, with about ten experiences around Manduria, Torricella and Pulsano.
• The far south, around Otranto, Tricase and Salve: besides Tenuta Corallo and Castel di Salve there is Masseria Fano, near the Pescoluse beaches, with 2 wines outdoors when the weather allows.

Five wineries in these four areas host you in a masseria, one of Puglia's old farm estates, including Fano, Jorche, Borgo dei Trulli and Torleanzi.

Where can you taste Primitivo in Salento?

Above all between Manduria and the Ionian coast, but it is poured at about half the tastings in Salento, around Brindisi too. Primitivo di Manduria has been a DOC since 1974 and the sweet Dolce Naturale a DOCG since 2011. Primitivo and Zinfandel are genetically the same grape.

• Soloperto, in Manduria: a small museum of old bottles, the barrique cellar and 4 Primitivo di Manduria DOC wines.
• Antica Masseria Jorche, in Torricella: Primitivo from the barrique, then from the bottle, then the Dolce Naturale with pezzi duri, hard almond sweets, and finally dinner at the masseria.
• Masseria Borgo dei Trulli, also in Torricella, 2 km from the Ionian Sea: Primitivo vineyards, ceramic amphorae from Grottaglie for ageing, and 3 wines.
• De Quarto, in Pulsano: with a member of the family, you choose 4 organic and natural wines, including an extended-maceration wine and, if you like, Primitivo.

What wine is Salento known for?

Two reds above all, Negroamaro and Primitivo, plus rosé, made here mostly from Negroamaro. Salice Salentino, a DOC since 1976, requires at least 75% Negroamaro in its red and rosé, and the town itself has bottled rosé since 1943. The "Two Kings" tasting at Masseria Torleanzi, in San Pietro Vernotico, compares the two reds: 4 wines, from a Negroamaro rosé to a Primitivo di Manduria. Look out, too, for Malvasia Nera and, at Tenute Rubino and Cantine Risveglio, for Susumaniello, a Brindisi grape rescued from near extinction.

When is the best time for wine tasting in Salento?

August and September are the busiest months, with about a third of the bookings on this page (Itria Valley included), and the harvest starts then: early-ripening Primitivo is picked between late August and early September, and Negroamaro ripens between late September and early October. April to October brings more than eight bookings out of ten, and on the last weekend of May participating wineries all over Italy open their doors for Cantine Aperte. Many of these tastings can be given as a gift: whoever receives the voucher picks the date.