Galatina is a DOC of the Puglia wine region in south-eastern Italy. One of the region's youngest DOCs, it is also one of the most southerly at a latitude of 40 degrees north. It was introduced in 1997 to cover red, rose and white wines from the vineyards around Galatina town, a few miles inland from the Gulf of Taranto coast on the Salento peninsula. The DOC's catchment area covers the land between Copertino and Alezio, five miles to the north-west. These are Italy's most easterly vineyards. Hot, flat, fertile and densely planted with vineyards and olive groves, this is typical Puglia countryside.
Puglia produces almost 50% of Italy's national olive-oil output and has long also been known as a prolific wine generator. High grape yields and the flat, baked wines which they bring about led Galatina and its neighbors to have a reputation for favoring quantity over quality. This started changing in the past few decades, in response to the increasing market demand for high-quality, origin-specific wines. The region is now home to a number of winemakers producing remarkably balanced wines with all the extract of their forebears and a certain freshness and acidity. The wines are said to have been praised for these qualities by various historians and poets such as Pliny, Horace and Tibullus, although no doubt the wines were very different in their time (nearly two millennia ago).
The Galatina DOC covers red, rose and white wines, the former by far the most widely represented. Negroamaro, Malvasia Nera, Sangiovese and Montepulciano are the red varieties of choice here, as they are all across the 'heel' of Italy. Chardonnay features in the majority of the whites.
Despite being wedged between the Adriatic Sea and the Gulf of Taranto (at the northern edge of the Ionian Sea), the climate here is hot and dry. Puglia's name derives from the Latin phrase a pluvia, meaning 'without rain'. Southern Italy has been nicknamed Il Mezzogiorno, meaning 'the midday', due to its long, hot summers (le Midi in southern France has precisely the same meaning and origin). With 300 sunny days each year and mid-summer afternoon temperatures regularly surpassing 40C, the grapes which grow here develop high levels of sugar over the growing season. The wines which are made from these grapes are subsequently high in alcohol, and it is one of the key challenges for Galatina winemakers to harness this and craft balanced, attractive wines.
