According to the poet Horace (I century BC) the long springtime and mild autumn seasons in the area of Taranto produced fertile vineyards and such generous wines that the merum tarentinum could easily bear comparison with the more famous Falerno.

When the Roman empire fell the Salento region became once again a meeting point between the West and the Byzantine East. As in the rest of the country, it was the monks who kept alive the practice of vine growing. With the arrival of the Normans and Suevians, the natural inclination of Apulia to exchange and merge with other civilisations increased. The Basilian monks, of Byzantine rite, carried on the tradition, and in their hermitages, in Gallipoli as well as Ostuni, they continued producing white and red wines which Lebanese and Syrian merchants traded in the Eastern markets through the ports of Taranto, Brindisi and Otranto.

A watch-tower in the
Reserve of Santa Caterina