Terra d'Otranto

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Accessory grape varieties

Terroir

• The landscape of the Arco Jonico is terraced in character, formed by a series of scarps descending toward the coast, where a dune system with extensive back-dune depressions is found.
• The climate of the Arco Jonico is Mediterranean in type, with fairly mild winters (average minimum temperature 6–7 °C), warm summers (average maximum temperature 25–26 °C), and annual rainfall of approximately 650 mm concentrated mainly in winter.
• The Salentine peninsula, jutting out into the sea, has a more humid climate than the rest of Puglia, where the Apennines instead reduce the moisture carried by westerly winds.
• In the Salentine peninsula, the humidity does not increase precipitation but alters the perceived temperature, with muggy summers in the southernmost areas and mild winters that feel bitterly cold in the presence of wind.
• In the western part of the production area, deep clay-loam soils predominate, becoming sandy and shallow along the coastal strip, allowing only limited root penetration.

• The Negromaro variety, the principal grape of the area, was introduced in remote antiquity: from the sixth century BC onward, the vineyards of southern Puglia were characterised almost exclusively by this variety.
• Over the last two decades, trellis training has supplanted the traditional alberello pugliese, which today accounts for at most 20% of the vineyard area compared with 90% in the 1980s.
• Under Frederick II, in the twelfth century, new grape varieties spread throughout the area, and in the seventeenth century the zone became the cellar of Europe, at the time of the Compagnia delle Indie based in Brindisi.

• The production regulations state that all wines display well-balanced chemical and physical characteristics across all styles, with the varietal aromas of the grape varieties prevailing on both the nose and the palate.

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-A0572