Cantele Salice Salentino Rosso Riserva DOC 2019 (750ml)

Gambero Rosso

Tre Bicchieri

2023

Puglia

 

Intense ruby red.  On the nose, candied fruits and spices that evolve into clean underbrush, tea, and amber notes.  The tannins and fresh acidity work in counterpoint to create a balanced, soft

wine.

 

Cantele Salice Salentino Rosso Riserva DOC 2019

 

The village folk still call it Niuru Maru:  Negroamaro, meaning bitter black (red).  In another era, Negroamaro was grown solely to ship to the north of Italy where the colder climate made it challenging to obtain the desired color and alcohol levels in the wines they produced.  But in recent decades, more and more Salento wineries have looked to the variety as one of the most noble expressions of Pugliese viticulture.

 

Tasting Notes

 

Intense ruby red.  On the nose, candied fruits and spices that evolve into clean underbrush, tea, and amber notes.  The tannins and fresh acidity work in counterpoint to create a balanced, soft wine.

 

Alcohol:  13.5

 

Food Pairings

 

Best paired with red or white meat, lamb, ragù, and aged cheese.

 

Vineyard & Production Information

 

Vineyard Location:  Salice Salentino DOC

 

Vineyard Size:  Various

 

Green Status:  Sustainable

 

Soil Composition:  Calcareous, Clay

 

Training Method:  Spurred Cordon

 

Elevation:  40 m asl

 

Vines/hectare:  4500 Ha

 

Exposure:  Various

 

Vine Age:  20-45 Years

 

Harvest Time:  First Half September

 

First Vintage:  1991

 

Production:  93,000 Bottles

 

Winemaking & Aging

 

Varietal Composition:  100% Negroamaro

 

Fermentation Container:  Stainless Steel Tanks

 

Maceration Technique:  Must macerates for 7-10 days

 

Type of aging container:  French Barriques

 

Length of aging:  6 Months

 

Length of bottle aging:  2 Months

 

Puglia Wine Region

 

Situated in the heart of the Mediterranean, Puglia is a land of rare beauty, where vast plains alternate with gentle hills.  Salento, the long narrow strip that forms Puglia’s southern peninsula, extends between the Ionian and Adriatic seas.  It’s an area rich with ancient olive groves and vines, enchanting beaches and jagged rocky shoreline, classic grottos and some of Italy’s best farmland.

 

 

Cantele

 

Estate owned by:  Cantele Family

 

Winemaker:  Gianni Cantele

 

Total acreage of wine:  140 Ha

 

Winery Production:  95,000 Cases

 

Region:  Puglia

 

 

 

Every one of has a story to tell, just like a wine.

 

The story of a wine can be told through generations, seasons, memories, hopes, and vines.  And our eyes never seem to stray from those vines as they bask in the sun and we contemplate the heavens and the cycles of life.

 

This land existed long before anyone left a footprint on its soil.  Its memory stretches back thousands of years.  It’s the same land where our grapes ripen, year and year, in the sunshine of summer, just like they have for millennia.

 

You could call our story a love story, one that our family has lived since the end of the Second World War.  A story that interweaves passion and memory in the cradle of Italy’s south, a story that has Puglia’s beautiful Salento peninsula as its backdrop.