Cantine Paolo Leo

Paolo Leo's Salice Salentino vineyard includes 4 hectares of interplanted Negroamaro and Malvasia Nera vines, all trained using the typical "Alberello Pugliese" method (free-standing bush training) . The vineyard lies near the town of Salice Salentino, about 9km from the Ionion Sea. Capable of producing high quality wines and considered a very active and dynamic company, the Paolo Leo winery is well known for its quality range of wines which it produces wines for everyone to enjoy.

A full bodied ruby red coloured wine, which is both rich and powerful. The nose is complex with aromas of over-ripe cherries, raspberries, redcurrants, plum spices and chocolate. On the palate, there are flavours of dried fruit, slight raisin character, plums, damsons, garrigue and a hint of spice. The finish is rich and full with good, sweet fruit flavours in an excellent balance.

A superb accompaniment to red meat dishes and cheese.

In mid August when the grapes reach perfect maturity, the grapes are slightly dried. The grapes are left to dry for about 12 days and thus ensuring a natural drying process. They lose about 25-30% of their weight. Such a a process allows the concentration of flavours and antural sweetness of the grapes. After destemming, the grapes are gently pressed, allowing the sking to remain intact and optimizing colour extraction. Fermentation takes place at a controlled temperature of 22-25°C for 8-10 days. Frequent remontage and delestage are carried out in the early stages of fermentation in order to achieve soft extraction of aromas and gentle tannins. After racking, malolactic bacteria are added to induce malolactic fermentation.

Jane MacQuitty, The Times, 26th November 2022: "One and the same as zinfandel, this mouth-filling Puglian primitivo, made from dried appassimento grapes, is a good festive-food friendly standby. Carlomagno is a bold, yet easy-quaffing, juicy, chocolate and black cherry-spiced joy, part aged in French and American oak barriques." Brian Elliott, Daily Record, 2020 "While buying groceries online is commonplace now, there seems more reluctance to buy wine that way. That’s a pity because wine like this excellent primitivo could so easily be speeding its way to your door. By using appassimento techniques (drying grapes before fermentation) it provides rich, dense red wine with ripe plum and blackberry fruit, smooth tannin, touches of tarragon, allspice and chocolate but an edge of sweetness too."