• Masseria Altemura

Masseria Altemura

Masseria Altemura lies in the heart of the Salento Peninsula, halfway between the Seas that lie off Puglia’s shores, the Ionian and the Adriatic, and benefits from the breezes of the one – more open towards the Mediterranean – and the salinity of the other. The result is a zone that is extremely luminous: it almost dazzles one, in every sense, to look at it, seeing that in the sunniest periods the white rock that crops out to the surface between one row of vines and the next acts as a mirror for the sun’s rays. These are the same rays that contribute to the ripening of the grapes, because in this area everything is in harmony. The estate lies within the production zone of the Primitivo di Manduria DOC, one of the terroirs most suitable for making top-quality wines in Italy. Here there are 130 hectares of vineyards, a paradigm of authenticity and of the Salento winemaking tradition: only indigenous grape varieties are used to make wines whose role is to give voice to their region of origin. Primitivo, the now famous (and indeed iconic) Puglian grape variety, originated towards the end of the 18th century and – in spite of being a cultivar that was for long overlooked – is currently enjoying great success both in Italy and abroad because of its typical characteristics and longevity, not fearing any comparison with the more celebrated reds of Europe or the New World. Increasingly up-and-coming and attracting ever greater interest is the white grape Fiano, which originated here in Puglia and in Campania, where it has been known since the time of Frederick II of Swabia and Charles I of Anjou and where it was widely planted during the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In the 130 hectares of the estate’s vineyards the indigenous Negroamaro and Aglianico varieties are also grown.