Leverano

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• Tertiary and quaternary sediments rest unconformably on the Cretaceous carbonate basement, while the formations of the area include the Calcari di Altamura of the upper Turonian–Maastrichtian.
• The formations found in the area, from oldest to most recent, include the Pietra Leccese and the Calcareniti di Andrano of the Burdigalian–Messinian, and the Calcareniti di Gravina of the middle Pliocene–lower Pleistocene.
• Also present are the Argille Subappennine of the lower Pleistocene and the Terraced Marine Deposits of the middle and upper Pleistocene.
• The soils bordering the commune of Veglie are most often deep and clayey, while those towards Copertino and Carmiano are deep but tend towards sandy.
• The soils closest to the Ionian coast of the Salento, towards Porto Cesareo and Nardò, are often shallower and reddish, and are mainly given over to olive cultivation.

• Local producers came together in 1976 to preserve and reinvigorate the wine sector of Leverano.
• Two historic producers, already from the 1960s onwards, were producing red and rosé wines based on Negroamaro and Malvasia Nera, giving rise to the Leverano DOC appellation.
• The Apulian bush-trained vine (alberello pugliese), a traditional training system with a planting grid of 1.60–1.80 m between rows and 1.00–1.10 m within the row, applies to vineyards that are on average mostly more than thirty years old.
• Negroamaro, the principal grape variety of the Leverano DOC, was long paired ideally with Malvasia Nera di Brindisi and Malvasia Nera di Lecce, while over the last twenty years Primitivo, Sangiovese, Cabernet, Merlot, and Syrah have also been introduced into the ampelographic range of the IGT Salento production zone.

• The production regulations indicate that all wines of the appellation display balanced physico-chemical characteristics across all wine types produced.
• On the nose and palate of the wines, the prevailing aromas are those typical of the grape varieties used in their production.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in Italy

Sources

• eAmbrosia register (EU) — File number PDO-IT-A0563