Lecce Wine and Food Tasting

Lecce, Puglia, Italy. Saturday 23-May-2026.

After parkrun we did a little wandering around Lecce centre and a deliberately light lunch because we had booked a wine and food tasting at La Strada del Vino. Obviously, we are well acquainted with the main grape varieties of Puglia, but it is always nice to find new producers. Our host gave us a bit of background on each wine including where the grapes are grown but unfortunately we did not take any notes.

The food tasting was a platter of antipasti, each one chosen to go with a different wine.

1. Flaminio Verdeca Bianco IGP Salento from Vallone.

Verdeca is currently our preferred white wine so it’s nice to try yet another. This was paired with three different cheeses. More info on the wine...

2. Flaminio Rosé Wine Negroamaro D.O.P. Brindisi 2025 from Vallone.

This is made from the Negroamaro grape which makes a classic Puglian red. The rosato is made by allowing the juice to remain in contact with the skins for only a couple of hours before vinification to extract a modest amount of colour. Apparently the grapes for this are grown near the sea and hence, according to our host, it has a slightly salty taste. We could definitely detect a pleasant minerality. More info on the wine...

This was paired with a very tasty bruschetta with olives, tomato and capers. Mary is always a fan of anything with capers!

3. Versante Rosso Negroamaro IGP Salento 2025 from Vallone.

Same grape, same producer, same vintage but this time a longer skin contact gives us the full red version. This was paired with a spicy salami. This red really brought out the spiciness in the food. More info on the wine...

4. Neprica Primitivo 2024 from Tomaresca.

I was pleased to see this Primitivo in the tasting as it is I my preferred grape variety; often high in alcohol and sugar. Puglia is a big producer of almonds so they decided to pair it with almond biscuits. Not hard crunchy ones like cantucci but something a little softer. More info on the wine...

We also learned that Marchesi Antinori (a company and a dynasty), better known for their Super Tuscans, acquired the Tormaresca winery in 1998 which says something of the high esteem in which they hold this winery and area.

We had a very pleasant chat with Grace and Jill on the next table who were on their first visit to Puglia and seemed to be suitably impressed. We came away having had a pleasant time with a couple of producers to look out for and more background on the Puglian wine industry.