2003 Negroamaro Puglia IGT 2003

This gold medal-winning Negroamaro comes from Salento in the southern region of Puglia. A rich, dark and fruity Italian red wine. Simply delicious.

Negroamaro is an ancient grape variety, which has dominated the vineyards of the southern part of Puglia since the 6th century BC. The name comes from dialect, meaning black-bitter, although it doesn’t taste bitter at all. About 37,000 hectares (92,000 acres) of vineyards are planted with Negroamaro in Puglia. Growers like it because it is resistant to draught and diseases and capable of producing a good quality wine. In all of Puglia, however, Negroamaro performs the best in the Salento province, spanning from Taranto to Brindisi to Lecce up to the eastern city of Otranto. It can express very well on its own and can be a great rival of the better known Primitivo.

Tasting Notes
Deep ruby colour, almost black and soft and smooth on the palate. It is very fruity with hints of jam, wild fruit, dry prunes and black pepper. This wine has extraordinary balance and harmony.

Food Matching
A fine match for spicy pasta dishes, lamb chops or grilled hamburgers and Indian cuisine. Serving temperature: 18°-20° C (64°- 68°F) in balloon glass.

Winemaking Notes
After de-stemming, the grapes are not crushed so the berries remain intact, assuring softer tannins and greater colour extraction. Selected yeasts are added, and the fermentation starts at a controlled temperature of 22-25° C (70-75° F) for about ten days. The wine is left in contact with skins for about another ten days, after which it’s racked. Then the selected bacteria are added and the malolactic fermentation takes place, which lasts about six days.
About a third of the wine is aged in small two-year-old French barriques for four months and the remaining in stainless steel tanks. The wine is then slightly filtered and separated from the residual yeasts and sediments, before bottling. Then aged for three months in the bottle before release.