A BACKGROUND - Messapia, land between two seas - Between the East and the West - Defense walls, protection walls |
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An ancient rural settlement in Salento |
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JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH At the end of the age of Enlightenment Salento became the most important wine producing region of Europe, although true development arrived only in the first decades of the following century. The land, freed from feudal restrictions, was planted with traditional vine stocks: Negramaro, Primitivo, Nero di Troia. The arrival in France of the scourge of phylloxera, the insect that destroys the roots of vines, generated a rapid growth in the export of wines from Apulia and above all from Salento. To face the increasing demand vines were planted in the Lecce plateau, along the two coasts and in the most southern part of the region. The demand for intensely coloured wines, rich in extracts and alcohol, led to the cultivation of varieties suitable for blending, principally Negramaro and Primitivo. The wines from Salento therefore gave colour, body and alcohol to French wines; it is not unusual if at a conference in 1884 on the crisis of the wine sector due to phylloxera, the oenologist Nicola Fione stated that wines from Apulia, although in their first year have no particular perfume - which makes them perfect for blending - in the second and more so in the third year acquire the same perfumes of a Bordeaux.
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