Ostuni is a wine DOC of the Puglia region in south-eastern Italy. The wines of Ostuni town were awarded DOC status in January 1972, two years before their famous Primitivo-based cousins from Manduria on the other (Ionian) coast of the Salento peninsula.
The DOC, and the wine to which it refers, are named after Ostuni town, an ancient settlement on the Adriatic coast of southern Puglia, Italy's 'heel'. The town is famous for its white-washed houses, similar to the trulli (stone structures) of Locorotondo and Martina Franca just to the north and west. In its early days the town was home to the Messapii people, and subsequently those Greeks who migrated across the Ionian sea to begin colonizing Italy.
Like its Puglia stablemates Moscato di Trani and Gravina, Ostuni is free of any association with red wine, which is uncommon in Puglia. Instead it covers both Ostuni Bianco (the standard white wine) and Ostuni Ottavianello (a rosé wine made with Cinsaut, known locally as Ottavianello).
Ostuni Bianco is made from Impigno grapes, which may constitute 50–85% of a blend, and Francavilla, which fills in the rest. It is locally respected as a fantastic accompaniment to fresh seafood dishes and is typically consumed within two years of harvest; the lightly aromatic wine can lack complexity in hotter vintages if not well handled. Ostuni Ottavianello has a different character: Ottavianello is the Italian name for France's Cinsaut, and is used here to make edgy rose wines full of floral, spice-tinged notes. If Italy has its own microcosm of Provence, with seafood platters washed with tangy rose, it is here in Ostuni. The presence of Puglia's workhorse red-grape varieties, Malvasia Nera and Negroamaro, rapidly ground the wines back in their Salento homeland.
Ostuni lies at the eastern edge of the Itria Valley, which closely traces the Colline Joniche Tarantine hills which mark the transition between northern and southern Puglia. The Itria is not technically a valley, but rather a topographical depression whose formation and presence are vital to the existence of Italy's 'heel'. The combination of sandstone, limestone and clay soils here is of particular importance to the terroir in two ways. First, and most obviously, this dictates the chemical composition of the soil, as well as its heat retention and drainage properties. Second, the topography here (the depression itself) was created by karstic phenomenon over many thousands of years. Karst topography occurs when a particularly soluble rock type is progressively eroded away, leaving the more durable rocks behind. This occurs even without the presence of visible rivers and lakes, due to subterranean water courses.
