APULIAN WINES HISTORY

Puglia has a wine-culture of the most ancient tradition. Apulia's plains have been a sanctuary for the vine and the olive tree since the time of the Phoenicians and Greeks. Homer himself reported that the region was a place where "spring was eternal" and these particular climate conditions have favoured the abundance and the variety of fine wines. Cultivation of vineyards goes back to as long ago as the colonisation by the ancient Greeks in the 8th century B.C.. Successively, in the time of the ancient Romans, Apulian wines had their true moment of glory, until the eventual fall of the Roman Empire signalled the inevitable decline of Apulia's wine-making.
The 17th century heralded a rebirth in wine-culture and the return of autoctonic vines but they were completely destroyed by the fillossera disease at the end of the 19th century. In the re-cultivation that followed, the emphasis was placed on quantity of production, not on quality.
Today, Apulia produces more wine than almost any other region in Italy. Even if much of Apulia's wine is used as "vino da taglio" (filler wine) to reinforce weaker wines (only a short time ago wine makers spoke of Apulia as the "cantina d'Europa" - the wine cellar of Europe), recently numerous producers have begun to invest in the quality of their wines and we can find, especially in the reds and rosés, notable examples. The range of Apulian wines is dominated by the reds, among them the autoctonic primitivo wine, that matures precociously, and the malvasia nera of Greek origin, from which full bodied vintages that go well with meat and flavourful fish are produced.
Apulia is located in the heel of the boot of the Italian peninsula. This coastal region – the 7th largest in Italy - has more vineyards than any other region, except for Sicily.
In terms of production, the region is the leading producer in Italy.