Negroamaro di Terra d'Otranto

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The landscape of the Arco Jonico derives from frequent, brief transgressive-regressive sedimentary cycles that, since the mid-Pliocene, have given the area a stepped appearance, with coastal dunes and back-dune depressions.
• The climate of the Arco Jonico is Mediterranean in character, with fairly mild winters, a mean minimum temperature of 6–7 °C, and warm summers with a mean maximum temperature of 25–26 °C.
• Rainfall in the Arco Jonico averages around 650 mm per year, concentrated mainly in the winter months.
• The Salentine Peninsula alternates gently undulating surfaces with calcareous ridges (serre salentine), and in its southernmost portion these ridges consist of narrow, elongated calcareous or calcareous-dolomitic formations interrupted here and there by flat erosional furrows.
• In the western part of the area, deep clay-loam soils predominate, becoming sandier and shallower towards the coastal zone, limiting root penetration.
• Along the coastal strip, very shallow clay-loam or sandy-loam soils prevail, with bedrock within 25–50 cm, poorly suited to root development beyond 50 cm.

• The Negroamaro variety was introduced in the distant past: as early as the sixth century BC, the vineyards of the southern part of Puglia were planted almost exclusively with this grape.
• The traditional training systems are the Apulian bush vine (alberello pugliese), with a planting density of 1.60–1.80 m between rows and 1.00–1.10 m within the row, and the trellis system, now more widespread, with short-pruning methods such as spur-cordon and Guyot.
• The alberello pugliese, once accounting for 90% of the planted area until the 1980s, today represents at most 20% of the surface, having been replaced by the trellis system, which allows for greater mechanisation.
• In the mid-nineteenth century, modern grape-pressing and winemaking facilities were established near the railway to facilitate the commercial trade of Puglian wines.

• The production specification states that the physical-chemical parameters of the wines are well balanced across all styles, while on the nose and palate the characteristic aromas of the grape varieties predominate.

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-A0557