Salento Wines. Photos from the big tasting in Verona

Salento Wines with Primitivo di Manduria, Salice Salentino and Brindisi DOP

During the days of Vinitaly, the tasting event Salento Wines - Verona meets Primitivo di Manduria PDO, Salice Salentino PDO and Brindisi PDO, which is part of the Radici Virtuose social and environmental economic regeneration project created as a response to the spread of Xylella Fastidiosa on the Ionian-Salentine territory. The event was hosted in the spaces of the Winter Garden of the Crowne Plaza in Verona, financed by Mipaaf (Ministry of Agricultural Food and Forestry Policies) and promoted by Dajs (Distretto Agroalimentare di Qualità Jonico Salentino) to redevelop and enhance the protected geographical indication olive oil "Puglia" and the three protected designations of origin.

The program included a masterclass dedicated to trade, press and professionals, which was led by Marco Sabellico, editor of the Vini d'Italia guide, together with Lorenzo Ruggeri, deputy editor, and a tasting dedicated to the different expressions of Primitivo di Manduria DOP, Salice Salentino DOP and Brindisi DOP, flanked by the gastronomic offerings of Max Mariola (talent chef of Gambero Rosso Channel) and Giovanni Mandara, pizzaiolo and owner of Piccola Piedigrotta in Reggio Emilia (awarded Tre Spicchi by Gambero Rosso's Pizzerie d'Italia guide).

The masterclass

During the evening, a selection of gastronomic products from the Puglia region included tastings of the products by Benedetto Cavalieri, Bakery Fumarola, Caseificio Stella and Le primizie del Salento. The water poured at the event was Acqua Panna - S.Pellegrino.

Tasting

The evening's gastronomic proposal:

Max Mariola

Fried cod fillet with puttanesca sauce and Maccheroni alla Genovese

Giovanni Mandara

Pizza Cosacca; Pizza Margherita; Pizza Cime di rapa e salsiccia

Fumarola Bakery

Almond pastries; Taralli fennel; Taralli with raisins and onion; Puccette with leccino olives

Dairy Stella

Caciocavallo cheese

The Primizie of Salento

Baked almond dried figs

Wine of Manduria, Brindisi and Salento

Puglia has been able to prove that quality and quantity can go hand in hand, with products that have established it in the international wine world. This success is also linked to the creation of the Consorzio di Tutela Primitivo di Manduria DOP, the Consorzio di Tutela Vini DOP Salice Salentino and the Consorzio Tutela Vini DOC Brindisi.

"In the most important international restaurants we show the many facets of Manduria Dop", said the Consortium President Novella Pastorelli, "The wine reflects the territory like a negative photographic image, which is why it is so important both to preserve its environmental and landscape context and to be able to tell the consumer about it through our labels. We have the primordial task of making our realities, small and large, known in organisation and participation, and not least, stimulating demand through an increasingly differentiated offer."

Complex, structured, with multifaceted aromaticity, Puglia wines fill the glass with scents and flavours that lead directly back to the land from which they originate. From the soft, rich notes of black fruits, jam and raisins of Primitivo di Manduria, to the elegant, deep tones of Negroamaro, which plays a starring role in Brindisi Dop Rosso and Salice Salentino. "To talk about this wine is to tell the story of a peasant class, to retrace an ancient story that has its roots in the heart of Salento viticulture", says Damiano Reale, president of the Consorzio di Tutela Vini D.O.P. Salice Salentino.

"The Apulian wine sector is demonstrating extraordinary vitality with these appellations that are the spearhead of regional oenology", says Marco Sabellico "For some time the spotlight has been on this wine-growing area, and Gambero Rosso has been in the forefront in promoting the region's excellence, on the back of work on the territory that we have been doing for 30 years now. We were the first to have picked up on these signals. Today, wineries are carefully reinterpreting these appellations, taking into consideration nature and territory with production of wines of great international success."

PROGRAMMA DI RIGENERAZIONE ECONOMICA, SOCIALE E AMBIENTALE DEL TERRITORIO JONICO – SALENTINO COLPITO DA XYLELLA FASTIDIOSA, RADICI VIRTUOSE”, FINANAZIATA A VALERE SULL’AVVISO MIPAAF N.10900 DEL 17.02.2020 “CONTRATTI DI DISTRETTO XYLELLA