Everyday Differences in Puglia: Unfinished Wine

Puglia Differences: an occasional series on things that strike this Brit as so very Italian. 

Over many years we have noticed that the Italians are generally moderate wine drinkers. Nowhere is that more apparent than in a restaurant. We have more than once seen a group of four share a bottle of wine and leave some in their glasses. This may not be so true of the younger generation of Italians from seeing them in the bars where they hang out; they do seem to have developed more of a taste for alcohol.

Recently we were in a restaurant where a table of six all left some unfinished wine. Such a waste.

Likewise, the couple on the table behind us left some in their glass. 

That just would not happen in the UK - people would make sure they finished the wine that they paid for. Maybe it's to do with the cost of wine or our respective nations attitude towards alcohol - although to be seen to be drunk would still be a "brutta figura" round here.

UK Road Trip, June 2026

London / Penrith. Wednesday/Tuesday 10/16-June-2026.

This whole road trip was triggered by a biannual face-to-face meeting of the Friends of Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths. Video meetings are all very well but there is no substitute for meeting in real life. So we booked ourselves a flight and train to come back for a short trip. Originally planned as a five day trip it was extended when we learned that Keb' Mo' was appearing in London the day before we were due to fly. Full write up of that gig on the blog at Keb Mo at Union Chapel 2026.

You couldn’t call it a relaxing trip - we had a packed agenda for the week and it was a great opportunity to catch up with lots of friends.

Wednesday 10th:

Drive to Bari: given the cost of a taxi to and from the airport, it was much cheaper to book ourselves into long-stay P3. What we had not counted on was their over booking policy. We arrived to find that every single slot was occupied. Fortunately, a Fiat 500 is such a dinky little car we were able to do some creative parking on the end of a row. There was another guy circling the car park and then phoning the office to complain about what the hell was he supposed to do?

Flying from Bari to London: we had allowed plenty of time because we had heard horror stories of long delays due to the new EES system. However, we could not drop off our luggage until two hours before the flight so arriving early was pointless. As it turned out, the airport was very quiet and the automatic gates were not working so we had to queue anyway and were quickly seen by the border guard, no problems.

The train from Gatwick to London was uneventful. We dropped our bags off at the not-so-budget Premier Inn near St Pancras and went for a delicious, light supper at Morr in Islington. Recommended.

Keb' Mo' concert at Union Chapel: 

The concert was excellent. Hardly surprising as Keb Mo is one of our favourite artists. This was the sixth time we had seen him and I really like his laid-back Americana style. 

Thursday 11th:

Because our original flight was for the Thursday, we had booked a train for early evening back to Penrith. The cost of changing the train time was so exorbitant that we decided we would spend the day in London and fit in a number of other activities. 

M. C. Escher exhibition at Somerset House: First was an excellent exhibition at Somerset House featuring all Escher's greatest hits well curated with explanation boards and interactive exhibits plus examples of his influence on other artists, filmmakers and pop culture. 

Interactive exhibits included this one where your could put yourself in Escher's place and take a selfie.

An optical illusion thanks to sloping walls and floors.

Classic M. C. Escher.

When you get up close the detail is astounding for something carved by hand into a wooden block.

One of his impossible buildings.

Mary took the opportunity, as she often does when we are passing through London, to visit Fiona at Hebe in the Strand for a trim. Mary has known Fiona longer than she has known me! On the way to the hairdressers we passed another Paddington so there had to be a photo.

My siblings and I like to meet up for a meal several times a year, sometimes just the three of us, sometimes with partners. A habit that we started when dad and mum were getting old and in care homes and needed coordinated care from the three of us. I am so grateful and so lucky that we all get on so well and are so supportive of each other.

We then went shopping for clothes for Mary and on the way we passed Bedford Street Wines that were offering two-for-one on glasses of champagne. How could we refuse?

We then went up to Euston in good time for our pre-booked 18:30 train back to Penrith. Multiple cancelled trains on the board was not a good omen. It turned out that a vehicle had hit a bridge somewhere in the midlands dislodging a great lump of parapet. Inspections were required which meant no trains were running on that line. We did eventually board our train which set off 45 minutes late. It then was forced to do two detours plus some other delays. 

At Preston we were informed that, due to the very late running of the train, the staff at Penrith would have gone home and we would not be stopping there. We overshot and detrained at Carlisle well after midnight and were taxied back to Penrith where we eventually fell into bed at nearly 1am. The journey normally takes just over three hours, on this Thursday it took more than six! 

Friday 12th:

We had been wanting to do the Settle to Carlisle train journey for sometime. They occasionally run steam trains excursions along this route but at an exorbitant price. Then Northern Trains were offering a deal and we got two returns for £9.10 in total. It’s all about the journey, not the destination as the line passes through some beautiful countryside. 

It was just a shame that it was the day after our nightmare journey up from London. Despite not fully catching up on our sleep, we had to get up early in order to get the train up to Penrith to pick up this journey. It was worthwhile though - lovely scenery and cute stations all along the line.

When the trolley came round I ordered a cup of tea and a biscuit but the lady persuaded me that I had to have parkin as we were in Yorkshire and very tasty it was too.

We have friends who we met in Cisternino and live in Skipton. They drove up to Settle to meet us for lunch. After lunch they kindly took us to the amazing Courtyard Dairy cheese shop (and adjacent Natural Wine Company wine shop). We came away with several lumps of cheese and a couple of bottles of wine.

The smell was amazing as was the selection of cheeses. They have a slick operation. You are assigned your dedicated assistant who makes recomendations and lets you taste every cheese.

We then drove over to Malham Cove for a short stroll. I last visited this cove in 1990 when working in Bingley. It reminded me of our first cat, Cleopatra who we acquired in 1990. The company immediately assigned me a project at Bradford & Bingley Building Society. To avoid disrupting the kitten’s life I relocated up to Skipton with Cleo and Mary came up most weekends. 

Since I was staying in “the Gateway to the Dales” I thought I would try this walking malarkey and bought my first ever pair of hiking boots thinking they would last me a lifetime. How wrong I was! They were Brasher boots, much lighter than the traditional heavy leather variety, and the write up from Chris Brasher said “the first time I tried these on I gambolled like a Spring lamb“.

We parked up in the village and walked up to the cove.

Close up it is an impressive cliff. Halfway up there is a little red dot which is a climber.

Looking a bit windswept.

Back on the train to Carlisle we missed the connection to Penrith by about a minute. It was sitting on the adjacent platform, but its doors were already locked for the off. Plan B the 104 bus back to Penrith followed by a relaxing supper of our just-purchased cheese and wine at home.

Saturday 13th:

Saturday was parkrun as always. Mary was feeling tired and possibly coming down with the lurgy so volunteered as Marshall.

Penrith 13/06/26 31:09 [256/365]

Lunch with friend Ann. We went to Tebay services which has a great café and we got a window table so we could look out over the pond and the occasional duck.

In the afternoon Mary had a Chiropodist appointment in between rearranging the furniture in the house to optimise the dining room. This meant a full domino effect as bookcases and hi-fi systems were rearranged to suit.

To relax after the furniture disorder, we had a couple of beers at Fell Bar and an Italian meal with friends Andrew & Sarah

Sunday 14th:

Finally the social event which was the trigger for this whole trip - BBQ and meeting with the Friends of Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths. It was well attended and it was great to meet our fellow volunteers in real life, have a chat and get an update on the progress that has been going on behind the scenes. All very encouraging!

Home for a couple of beers at Fell Bar with other friends followed by more cheese and wine at home working our way through our purchases from the Settle cheese and wine shops.

Monday 15th:

Various health & beauty appointments for the both of us followed by coffee and a catch up with friend Nigel. The afternoon was cleaning the house ready to receive guests whilst we are away.

Tuesday 16th:

A long but uneventful trip - Penrith > London > Cisternino. We had bought an Itsu picnic supper to eat on the plane but ended up saving it until we got home and ate it with a couple of glasses of wine.

And so to bed. [Pepys].

Keb Mo at Union Chapel 2026

Islington, London. Wednesday 10-July-2026.

Is it really 10 years since we last saw Ken Mo? The blog does not lie: we last saw him at Union Chapel back in 2016. He is one of our favourite artists and a regular on our playlist. We missed a couple of previous gigs in London because we were in Italy. This year we had already booked a flying visit back to the UK when we discovered this concert scheduled for the day before we were due to fly. So we brought our flight forward by a day and booked ourselves a Premier Inn so we could make the gig. 

The support act was a very creditable Robbie Cavanagh who played a relatively short set including a slightly bizarre interlude where he made himself a cocktail when he could have sung one more song. He commented on the fact that the audience were there for his set as normally they are in the pub until the main act comes on. This was a sold out show with unreserved seating which was obviously an incentive for people to get there early.

Keb came on to a rapturous reception and proceeded to to perform a solo set; no band unlike last time, just him. He played for a good hour and a half with songs we knew well including the encore of “Put A Woman In Charge”. He kept the roadie busy by swapping guitars for almost every song.

The audience also knew the songs well as they were singing along to several of them which I find slightly irritating as I go to a concert to hear the artiste not the audience. Fortunately they generally kept the volume down. However Keb clearly appreciated the feedback with the audience and was lifted by it.

As we had been up early for our flight we skipped the usual beery nightcap and went straight back to the hotel to catch up on our sleep.

Wine Tasting - Albea 2026

Alberobello, Puglia, Italy. Wednesday 03-June-2026.

We first went to Albea for a tasting back in September 2022. This return visit was prompted by having some friends to stay who wanted to do wine tastings. Our previous visit focused more on the mechanics: sourcing of the grapes and the production of the wine. This time, with a different host, we learnt much more about the history of the company.

A quick visit to the barrel room where our host, Nico, explained a bit about the history and current ethos of the company. 

Some long while ago we were told that the French used to import large quantities of southern Italian wine to boost their own production. We had thought it was to make their poor quality wines fruitier, higher in alcohol and more saleable. As a result of this tasting we learnt a more nuanced story. It actually goes back to the late 1800s when phylloxera ravaged the French vineyards but hadn’t made it down south. With ravaged vines in France, the vignerons looked to southern Italy to augment their production.

Albea was founded in 1905 and was deliberately positioned next to the railway line for ease of logistics, shipping tankers full of wine up north to France. Apparently, other Puglia wineries did the same. As French vineyards gradually recovered by replanting vines on American root stock the demand for their wines dropped but a new market opened up in northern Italy for making vermouth. 

In the 80s that market started to get a little more challenging so they decided to switch away from bulk wine to bottles. At the same time they started on a program of working with twelve selected farmers to improve the quality of the grapes. Previously Farmers were paid by sugar content or redness of the grapes - a payment mechanism that encouraged high yield probably at the expense of quality.

We had also been previously told that a number of other producers such as Leone di Castris also decided to go down the quality route at that time. If I were cynical, I could posit that it was as much driven by changing the market forces as it was a desire to improve quality as there was a market for well produced wines.

That was followed by a quick trip through the museum (it was hot!) and we ended up in a large function / tasting room.

1. Odegitria White Metodo Classica Pas Dosé 12.5%.

sparkling.

2. Il Selva DOC Locorotondo Superiore.

The Locorotondo DOC is an appellation created in the 1980s based upon the mix of grapes grown in the area, predominantly Verdeca. Aged in barrique following fermentation for eight months then in bottle for another six. Some of the wine was matured in clay pots and blended to get the best wine they could.

3. Petrarosa Primitivo Rosato IGP 12.5%.

I don’t know whether it is my imagination, but I think I see a shift in the great varieties used for Rose. When Susumaniello started appearing in its red form that was swiftly followed by the rosé version. We are now seeing rosé made from the more intense red varieties such as Primitivo and Negroamaro.

4. Lei Bianco D'Italia 13.5%.

They produce two ranges of wine. We were tasting the top tier wines. Their second range is called Due Trulli at a more affordable price point. What one winemaker in Australia euphemistically described as “lifestyle wine”.

5. Susumaniello Puglia IGP 13.5%.

The current raising star grape variety.

6. Petranera Primitivo IGP 14.5%.

My favourite Puglian great variety coming in at a hefty 14.5%.

7. Sol Primitivo IGP 15%.

An interesting compare-and-contrast with the previous Primitivo. If I recall correctly, we preferred the Petranera.

6. Lui Nero Di Troia IGP 14%.

Another single variety wine. They don’t seem to be going in for blends apart from the Locorotondo DOC. We all liked this wine and tought it a much more complex and interesting than the other reds.

Line up at the end (minus the sparkling).

A very interesting and enjoyable tasting. It just goes to show that doing a repeat is worthwhile.