Puglia

Sun-scorched seaside

Puglia, or Apulia, runs along the Adriatic coastline in Italy’s extreme southeast, and its hot and dry climate—its name comes from the Roman a-pluvia (“lack of rain”)—lends itself to ripe, rich, robust wines from local varieties like Primitivo and Negroamaro. While much of the region’s prodigious output (roughly tied with Sicily for second in Italy, behind the Veneto) ends up blended anonymously into grape concentrate, or as a base for vermouth, a small fraction is bottled as DOC wine, and in the right hands these can be ruggedly evocative, bursting with a sun-soaked sense of place.