Apollonio, Salice Salentino Rosso, DOC, Puglia, Italy, 2021

Producer Profile

The wines of Puglia have never received as much interest as they do now. Tasting Apollonio’s wines shows that attention is now justified.

Great care is taken to produce wines of uniquely southern Italian character from local varietals. Ageing typically takes place in barrel and then bottle for extended periods before release. Powerful and complex, the wines have flavours of ripe, dark fruits and leather, attractive weight, richness and balanced tannin. They brilliantly represent the terroir and climate of Puglia, beautifully elegant in their structure and style.

Viticulture

30 year old bush vines. Trunks are kept short, around 40 cm high with few buds (6-8) in order to ensure high quality yields. The temperature is mild thanks to the influence of the sea, which offers long, sunny summers. The cold season is short and mild. The region of Salice Salentino mostly flat areas dotted with a few low hills and calcareous structure in the soils.

Winemaking

The harvest is all hand picked after the grapes are fully ripe. In order to obtain a good structure, harvest is delayed so as to concentrate the sugars and flavours. Vinification, maceration and malolactic fermentation in big oak tanks.

Oak Ageing

Time: 6 Months
Type: French Barriques 225l
% wine oaked: 100
% new oak: 100

Tasting Note

A robust wine with a velvety, harmonious balance and a persistent fruity finish. Deeply ruby red in colour with intense, elegant fragrances of blackberries and plums. On the palate it is pleasant, well-structured but with a good vinous and ethereal acid balance. Firm yet soft tannins.

Food Matching

Particularly suited to red meat dishes, fish soup or fermented hard cheese.

Awards