Region: Salento, Puglia, Italy

Varietal: 100% Negroamaro

Tasting notes: Elegant, intense and exceptionally complex for a wine with such a modest price tag. This wine is pleasantly fruity, with a nose of red berries, floral notes and hints of spice. Round, soft, perfumed with a beautifully persistent and clean finish. It’s shockingly good given both the region it comes from and the price it sells for. This is a low risk, high reward bottle that’s worth having around the house at all times!

Producer: In the southernmost part of the heel of the "Italian boot", otherwise known as the Salento Peninsula of the Puglia region, the Perrini family has been growing grapes and making wine for generations. For many years, most of their fruit was sold off to négociants, as the means and finances to estate-bottle were prohibitive. Current generation Vito and his sister Mila Perrini set about changing that in the 1990's, building an underground cellar and converting their fifty hectares to certified-organic viticulture--neither of these steps being the norm for a bulk-production-oriented region accustomed to heavy-handed, high-alcohol red wines.

Vineyard and Winemaking: Perrini's Negroamarro comes from estate vines averaging 30-35 years old, with some getting up to 60 years, with full southern exposure on flat and slightly hilly sites. The soils are a mix of sand, limestone and clay, with a rockier nature on the slightly higher-elevation sites. The farming is certified organic.  The well-ripened but not overly ripened fruit is harvested by hand into small baskets and whisked to the winery to cool down. The grapes are pressed and the juice fermented with natural yeasts in stainless steel tanks with maceration lasting 12-14 days. The wine is aged in steel tank. Most unusual for Puglia are an underground cellar; manual harvest; and natural yeast fermentation. Perrini wines are remarkably balanced, light-handed and savory compared to the usual Puglian fare, especially at their very modest price level.