Negroamaro

Negroamaro is a red wine grape native to southern Italy. It is grown almost exclusively in Apulia and above all in the Salento peninsula, which is often pictured as the heel of the Italian boot. It yields deeply coloured wines with a rustic character, and it forms the base of many of the region's reds and rosés.

History

The grape’s origins are lost in a long and poorly documented past. Its name is debated. Negro comes from Latin and Italian and means black, while amaro may come from the Italian word for bitter or from the ancient Greek mavro, also meaning black. According to one theory, that Greek root shares an origin with merum, a wine thought to have been brought to Apulia by Illyrian colonists before the Greeks arrived. These are plausible ideas, but none has been proven.

In Roman times the area had a recognised winemaking tradition. Horace and other Roman writers mention the mera tarantina of Taranto, and Pliny the Elder describes Manduria as full of vineyards. It is uncertain whether any of those wines were made from Negroamaro, though it is possible. After the fall of the Roman Empire, viticulture shrank until it survived mainly in monasteries: Benedictine houses in Murgia and Greek Orthodox monks in Salento, who kept vines and winemaking knowledge alive.

Genetic research has added some clarity. RAPD analysis suggests a loose relationship with Verdicchio, also known as Verdeca, and with Sangiovese. A precocious form, Negroamaro precoce, has recently been identified as a distinct clone, which points to variants that ripen at different times.

Outside Italy the grape has spread only modestly, and its international presence is recent. A frequently cited example is Chiarito Vineyards in Ukiah, Mendocino County, California, regarded as the first American producer of Negroamaro. Its presence beyond Europe remains small compared with its presence in Italy.

Culture

To speak of Negroamaro is to speak of Salento. In this area the grape sits at the centre of local wine production, and many wineries and cooperatives have worked with it for generations. Because it is grown exclusively for winemaking, it is not eaten fresh. Its everyday presence comes through the glass and through the identity that the region’s wines have built over time.

In the vineyard, the vine is vigorous and high-yielding. It prefers calcareous, limey soils but adapts to others, copes well with the hot summers of Puglia and resists drought well. Its bunches weigh around 300 to 350 grams and carry oval, medium-large berries with thick, black-violet skins. It ripens in mid-season, from late September to early October.

In the glass, Negroamaro is usually made as a varietal, though it is more often the dominant partner in a blend. The best-known combination is with Malvasia Nera in Salice Salentino, where the highly aromatic Malvasia adds perfume to the earthy structure of Negroamaro. Other common partners include Sangiovese and Montepulciano.

The grape appears in many denominations across the provinces of Lecce, Brindisi, Taranto and Foggia, including Alezio, Copertino, Squinzano, Leverano, Lizzano, Matino, Galatina and Rosso di Cerignola. It also features in geographical indications such as Salento, Valle d’Itria and Daunia. The permitted proportions vary widely from one denomination to another, from 15% up to 100%.

The range of styles is broad: reds, rosés, some whites, and sparkling or lightly sparkling versions. Rosés are gaining ground, and some denominations offer young reds alongside longer-aged riserva wines. This variety explains why Negroamaro is now so visible in the winemaking of Puglia.

Trivia