If you want fruit-forward, sun-soaked reds that deliver serious bang for your buck, Puglia wine is the place to look. This southern Italian region has long been a secret source of incredible value — ripe, full-bodied bottles that punch well above their price tag. With a sunny, dry climate and a focus on grapes like Negroamaro and Primitivo, Puglia turns out red wines that are bold, approachable, and ridiculously food-friendly.
Puglia Is Italy’s Secret to Value Wine
Puglian wine is the product of a diverse landscape. Puglia produces nearly half of Italy’s olive oil in its dry, sun-drenched heat. The warm climate and fertile soil make it easy to grow almost anything. Water surrounds Puglia on three sides, allowing cool breezes off the Mediterranean to moderate vineyard temperatures.
Two wines dominate shelves from Puglia: Salice Salentino and Primitivo.
Salice Salentino: The Salice Salentino region gets its name from the Salento Peninsula, on the backside of the heel of Italy’s “boot” that extends into the ocean. Winemakers craft Salice Salentino from the Negroamaro grape, which in Italian means “black bitter.” Negroamaro reds burst with flavors of ripe plum, baked raspberries, and spice cabinet notes, like anise, allspice, and cinnamon.
Negroamaro delivers full body without heavy tannins or acidity, leading with bombastic fruit, making it easy to enjoy, especially alongside meatballs or pizza.
“Negroamaro leads with bombastic fruit which makes it easy to enjoy, especially alongside meatballs or pizza.”
Primitivo: If you’re searching for a richer, fuller-bodied red with abundant weight, look towards Puglian Primitivo. Primitivo packs in dark fruit—fresh figs, blueberries, and baked blackberries. There’s a distinct dried fruit-leather character to it as well. The word “Primitivo” doesn’t mean “primitive” in Italian, but actually means “early ripening,” since these grapes accumulate a lot of sugar early in the season. Because Primitivo ripens early, it produces big, luscious, fruit-filled wines. However, what’s fascinating about Primitivo is that sometimes grape bunches ripen unevenly, so pickers often harvest green and ripe grapes together.
“Sound like a grape you’ve heard of before? Primitivo is the same grape as California’s Zinfandel.”
Bombino Nero: Beyond the main grapes of Negroamaro and Primitivo, many other local wines are made. In the area around Castel del Monte, winemakers utilize Bombino Nero to craft rosés and red table wines that burst with fresh, lively fruit. Puglian growers turn the rare Verdeca grape into aromatic, characterful whites.
“Bombino Nero is the explosive fruit-bomb rosé of Puglia.”
Map of Puglia’s Major Wine Regions
The map above doesn’t include all the regions of Puglia, but it does include all of the ones you might want to know if you’re a Puglia drinker. Regions in bold are known (and available) internationally for their big, bold, lusty wines.
Puglia Wine and Food
Puglian wines elevate a wide range of foods. A Southern Italian trattoria would be incomplete without regional wines. The raw elements of Southern Italian cuisine suit bright, easy-drinking reds like the ones from Puglia. The ripe, big flavors of Puglian wine easily complement fresh vegetables, juicy tomatoes, and peppery olive oil.
Puglian food showcases vegetables first: fava beans, eggplants, and bell peppers. They all find their way into pastas, gratins, and stews. Stuffed aubergines, lamb and pea stew, and orecchiette pasta with turnip greens are a few examples. For people looking to explore summer’s abundance and cook or grill lots of vegetables, Puglian wine is a perfect complement.
Need Recipe Inspiration? Saveur Mag went to Basilicata and found a mind-bending recipe for sun-dried sweet-hot peppers, with bread crumbs, pasta, and olive oil. It’s out of this world. Pasta con Peperoni di Senise
Primitivo is Zinfandel
Zinfandel/Primitivo is originally from Croatia, where locals first called it Tribidrag (or Crlenak Kaštelanski, pronounced “Kjell-nak Cas-tell-lansky”). At some point in history, it was brought across the Adriatic Sea (the water between Croatia and the boot of Italy) and was planted in Puglia, where it took root surprisingly well.
The Southern Italian immigrants, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, brought their native grapes with them to California. The newly named Zinfandel became a classic grape for wines, both sweet and dry, in America, too.
Few sayings describe Puglian wine better than ‘wine is bottled sunshine.’ There’s no better place to look when you’re in a hurry at the store and you’re looking for an inexpensive, delicious wine that can deliver a little warmth into your day.