GAEL ARTHUR EXPLORES THE WINE ROADS OF ITALY - PUGLIA ©

It’s true: all roads lead to Rome. But those same roads lead away, the super-highways gradually giving way to the curving, confusing wine roads that make Italy one of the best places to explore, invariably encountering fascinating people who lead you to wonderful food and wine.

The classic wine tour for Italy starts in Tuscany, but for fun, start in the south.
There are no big gun wines here, but some of the greatest strides in high quality affordable Italian wines are found in Puglia, along the southeast coast, down into the heel of the boot.

The vines on this narrow strip of land benefit from the maritime influences of the Adriatic Sea on the east and the Gulf of Taranto on the west. Light, albeit hot, winds blow across the vineyards and keep the vines from shutting down in the brutal summer heat.

Puglia doesn’t have a Capri or Venice to draw the tourists. Other than Bari and Brindisi, city names are unfamiliar. But it has something else – Puglia is home to the most highly evolved antipasto culture in Italy.

Go for a drink and five or six plates of things to nibble appear on your table. Peanuts, sure, but when the little deep fried meat stuffed olives, artichokes and little sandwiches start arriving, you may need to rethink your meal plans.

When you order the house antipasto in a restaurant, make sure you are really hungry. We actually regretted ordering pizza one night, as the antipasti kept coming, nine in all – for two of us – including a selection of salamis and olives, grilled artichokes and eggplant, smoked salmon wrapped around buffalo mozzarella, fresh lightly battered and deep fried zucchini and a delicate pea purée for dipping bread.

Puglia has a reputation in Rome and the north of Italy as a region producing heavy red wines. In fact, the summer heat inspires some terrific rosé wines and full-flavoured but still refreshing and aromatic whites. It’s a land of variety, dominated by the indigenous grapes that have served since the seventh century Greeks used the area as their garden. Negroamaro and Primitivo are the main red grapes, with a bit of cabernet and merlot occasionally bringing suppleness to these big dark wines.

The most common whites are Fiano and, when viticulturists can find the right locations, Chardonnay and Malvasia.

Puglia’s tourist attractions are not well known internationally, but they should be.
The innocuous sounding Grotto de Castellana is a prime example.

Grotto means cave, but the name omits a critical detail: These caves rank among the most spectacular in the world. The 3 kilometre walking tour through countless caverns takes about 90 minutes, with the high point being an amazing cavern of pure white stalagmites and stalactites, along with the less common formations that take thousands of years to evolve, calcium slowly forming deposits in a perfectly controlled atmosphere.

Just down the road, the “trulli” are famous white cone-shaped stone houses dotting the landscape in and around Alberobello, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

As a town to walk around, it gets high marks for both its coffee and its market. While it is hard to find a bad cup of coffee in Italy, some places seem to have exceptional service to accompany the steaming espresso or lightly foamed cappuccino.

In the case of Alberobello, the cafes also boast exceptional gelato. As for the market, well, suffice to say that the baggage allowance started to be a concern way too early on the trip.

Before leaving Puglia, make sure you stock up on a few of the premium wines. The selection outside the region (whether in Rome, London or back in Canada) seems to focus on the “value” wines, that is, the least expensive in the category.

 

The reality is that the real values are in the top wines of Puglia, which can compete on the same playing field as wines that cost twice as much.

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Report by Gael Arthur ©