Salice Salentino
Hot Mediterranean
Warm, generous reds from Negroamaro, the backbone grape of Puglia's Salento peninsula, softened with a little Malvasia Nera.
Overview
About Salice Salentino
Salice Salentino sits further south than Manduria, deep in the Salento peninsula, and is built on Negroamaro — 'black bitter', a nod to its dark colour and slightly savoury edge — usually softened with up to 10% Malvasia Nera. The reds are full, warm and food-friendly, historically shipped north in bulk to add body and colour to thinner wines from elsewhere in Italy.
A rosato (rosé) version, often released early, is also widely made and is one of Puglia's best-known pink wines.
Salice Salentino is marked on the map.
Italy
Shaded: Lecce. Map units are states, provinces or départements, so a smaller place appears as the larger area that contains it.
The land
Climate & terroir
Climate
Hot Mediterranean
Hot, dry and sun-drenched, cooled by breezes from both the Adriatic and Ionian coasts that flank the narrow peninsula.
Terroir & soils
What the vines grow in
Red terra rossa clay over limestone, typical of the Salento peninsula, well-drained and heat-retentive.
Go deeper
Rules, years & producers
Leone de Castris
A historic estate credited with bottling Italy's first commercial rosé, in 1943.
Agricole Vallone
A long-established, well-regarded Salice Salentino producer.