The Wine Media Guild held its monthly luncheon earlier this month at Felida restaurant. This month's theme was wines from the Italian region of Puglia, which ranks second overall in Italian wine production, with a 13% share in total, and 6% in DOC/DOCG (quality wine categorization). These figures represent a significant growth in the quality wine arena. In the past year, fine wine production in Puglia has grown from 28% to 35% of Puglia's total production.

Our guest speaker for the afternoon was Charles Scicolone, noted expert on Italian wines. My previous experience with Charles was as a participant many years ago in a pizza making and wine tasting class he presented at I Truli restaurant.

According to Charles, Pliny the Elder spoke highly of Puglian wines, placing them on par with those of Campania, which were widely recognized at the time. While less recognized today, wine came to Southern Italy early on with the Etruscans and Greeks teaching the Italians to cultivate grapes and eventually make wine. In fact, Italy was originally called Oenotria — land of the trained vine.

As 2% of the area is mountanous, the majority of vines are planted low to the ground. A tendone canopy was traditional, but has lost favor, whereas the bush method of vine training is coming back into vogue.

Puglia achieved its Golden Age during the Norman occupation from the 11th century through 1250. Centuries later, during phylloxera, its vines were wiped out. Accordingly, most of the currently planted grapes are not indigenous to the region as many might think.

For a long time during the more modern era, the focus of Puglian wines was on quantity, not quality. The wines were made to emphasize high alcohol and sugar and many found their way to Northern Italy and France, to beef up the wines made in these more northerly (and thus, cooler) climates. Today, the emphasis has shifted toward quality with more balanced wines produced.

Some foreign investment has started to trickle into the region with Kendall-Jackson and Mano a Mano. Pierro Antinori also came in from Northern Italy and produces its Tormaresca brand here.

For the future, Charles sees both the whites and reds continuing to improve, but cautions that the bargains may be disappearing as greater investments are made, quality improves and the Euro maintains its strength. Yet, compared to many other Italian wines, these wines should still seem relatively inexpensive to the U.S. consumer.

Also in attendance at the luncheon, Francesa Mancareli of Candido wines, provided us with some history about her wine brand, which had its first vintage in 1929. We had the opportunity to taste Candido's Aleatico 2002, Salice Salento red, dessert wine, which was beautifully balanced. Candido is between importers, but anticipates a return to the U.S. in March 2009.

Grapes grown in Puglia today include: Negroamaro, Uva di Troia and Primativo, among the reds. White wines include Greco and Malvasia. We were advised that Primativo, while frequently considered to be descended from the same Croatian ancestor as Zinfandel, might actually originate from the Eastern U.S. This controversy remains.

Quality wine appellations include: Primativo di Manduria, Salice Salentino, Brindisi, Leverano and Castel del Monte with regional wines (IGT): Salento, Murgia and Puglia.

My favorite white wine of the day was the Botromagno, Gravino Bianco, 2007, which was a blend of 60% Greco and 40% Malvasia, Gravina Bianco DOC. The wine has floral and citrus aromas with ripe fruit flavors of pineapple and other citrus and long length. ($11.00 from Winebow)

I didn't have the opportunity to taste more than a handful of the red wines and admittedly, my notes are somewhat sparse. However, I was particularly impressed with the following two wines:
Taurino, Patriglione, 1999 (old-vine Negroamaro), $70.00, Winebow
Vallone, Gratticiaia, 2003 (Negroamaro), $60-70, Liberty
While they were different from one another, both possessed notes of concentrated, dried fruits with layers of complexity.