Apulia

The southern portion of the region is a flat and fertile peninsula that forms the characteristic heel of the Italian "boot". In ancient times only the northern part of the region was called Apulia while the southern peninsula was known as Calabria, a name later used to designate the toe of the Italian "boot".

Apulia produces more wine than any other Italian region usually making up around 17% of the national total. It also competes with Sicily for first place as grape producer. For a long time much of the wine made here was shipped north to Turin were it was used to make Vermouth, or to France where it was used to give structure to French wines when the local harvest was either poor or insufficient.

The region was settled by several Italic tribes and by Greek colonists before it was conquered by Rome in the 4th century B.C. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Apulia was held at alternate times by the Goths, the Lombards and the Byzantines. After the Norman conquest of Sicily in the late 11th century, Apulia became then a province, first of the kingdom of Sicily, then of the kingdom of Naples and the Two Sicilies. The Turks and the Venetians later occupied the coastline alternatively until 1861, when the region joined the unified Kingdom of Italy.

Apulia is mostly a plain, but the mountainous Gargano Peninsula breaks through its low coast to the north. The north central part of the region is mountainous.

Apulia counts 25 DOC wines including the Primitivo di Manduria, a red named after the grape proved to have the same DNA as the American Zinfandel, and a special mention should be made of Salice Salentino, a powerful red produced in the Lecce province. It is made primarily with Negro Amaro and has gained an enthusiastic following abroad because of the excellent quality-to-price ratio.