Wine Sediments

Negroamaro is an ancient red wine grape variety in the South of Italy. In particular it’s widespread in Salento, the region in which I live. But it’s usually to see it in all Puglia, the southern region within Salento is. We are talking on the tacco d’Italia, that is to say the heel of Italy.

It’s very nice to understand also the differencies in naming it between the villages. We call it Arbese, but in another villages it’s called Albese, in anothers Jonico, and so on till we have something like a dozen of pet names: Abruzzese, Nicra amaro, Uva Cane, Nero Leccese, Mangiaverde, Niuru maru. Anyway, it’s always the same: Negroamaro. Probabily the name is a combination of two words to refer to the same concept in two different languages: the latin word niger and the ancient Greek word maru.

Nowadays Negroamaro variety is one of the most important in southern Italy, but it’s basically used to obtain blend wines. This red wine grape is exclusively used for the vinification, rarely in purity. Usually added to other wine grapes like Malvasia Nera, Sangiovese or Montepulciano. One of the best combination is with the first to have Salice Salentino DOC, the most important wine for the region. This is a combination of 90% of Negroamaro and 10% of Malvasia Nera.

Some features
Grapes are usually ready to be cut in september, their vigour is good and their productivity is abundant and constant. Their average weight is around 300-350g and their shape is almost oval. To have an idea on their coluor you can see the picture above: black-violet. In addition, they are very strong to resist to the hot summer temperatures Salento has.

Negroamaro with olive oil are a kind of regional symbols and I use to drink both, but this is another story. [You DRANK olive oil?? - ed]