The wineries in Puglia that open their doors to visitors are spread along nearly 250 miles of heel, from the Nero di Troia hills around Castel del Monte to the Negroamaro flatlands south of Lecce. Few of them run a tasting room the way Napa or Tuscany does: you book ahead, a family member walks you through the cellar, and lunch tends to arrive with the wine. These eight tastings can all be booked online, and they cover all four of the region’s wine areas.
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In this article
- How we chose these wineries in Puglia
- What a Puglia winery visit is actually like
- Castel del Monte and the Murge: Nero di Troia country
- Gioia del Colle and the Itria Valley: the high ground
- Manduria: Primitivo on the Gulf of Taranto
- Salento: Negroamaro country
- Booking, timing and getting back
- Where this fits in a Puglia wine trip
How we chose these wineries in Puglia
GetYourGuide and Viator list a few dozen wine experiences in Puglia, and a good share of them are not winery visits at all: wine bars in Lecce’s old town, aperitivo tastings in Polignano, cooking classes with a glass on the side. Three rules cut the field to the eight below.
You taste where the wine is made. Every visit on this list takes place at a named estate that grows and bottles its own wine, with a walk through the cellar or the vines before the glasses come out. We left out tastings in town, however good, and one Gioia del Colle tour whose operator picks the winery after you book.
The whole region, not just the trulli. Puglia wine country breaks into four areas, the same ones we use in our Puglia wine country guide: Castel del Monte and the Murge in the north, Gioia del Colle and the Itria Valley in the middle, Manduria on the Gulf of Taranto and the Salento peninsula at the tip. The Itria Valley gets only one entry here, because it is the area most visitors already know.
Bookable today, with free cancellation. All eight can be reserved online and cancelled for a full refund up to 24 hours before. Several are new to the platforms and have few or no reviews yet; we say so in each box rather than leave them out, since some of the best family estates are the newest to online booking.
What a Puglia winery visit is actually like
Expect something closer to a home visit than a tasting bar. Most estates here are family businesses, the person pouring is often the owner or a son or daughter, and the format is a cellar walk of 20 to 40 minutes followed by a seated tasting with food: taralli, local cheese, cured meats, sometimes a full plate of fried and baked specialties. Two hours is normal, and few places will rush you.
The grapes are what make the trip worth it. Primitivo dominates the middle and the south, Negroamaro is the backbone of Salento, and Nero di Troia belongs to the north. Smaller names turn up everywhere: Susumaniello, Verdeca, Bianco d’Alessano, Malvasia Nera. A good Puglia winery will pour at least one grape you have never seen on a wine list at home.
Castel del Monte and the Murge: Nero di Troia country
1. Cantine Colle Petrito, Minervino Murge
The north of Puglia is the least visited wine area in the region and the one with the most distinctive red: Nero di Troia, firm and dark, grown on the limestone plateau of the Alta Murgia. Colle Petrito sits outside Minervino Murge, about half an hour from Castel del Monte, and is the one estate in this corner with a visit you can book on a platform.
There are three levels. The basic visit is a short cellar walk with two glasses; the Gold option starts with a walk through the Nero di Troia vines and a glass poured among the rows, and ends with a guided tasting that includes their Dodicesimo, a 2013 Nero di Troia aged three years in tonneaux. It is new to GetYourGuide, with no reviews yet, and the listing offers Italian only: go with some Italian, or ask in advance whether an English-speaking host is available.
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Gioia del Colle and the Itria Valley: the high ground
2. Casa Vinicola Coppi, Turi
Turi sits on the limestone plateau around Gioia del Colle, where Primitivo grows on higher, cooler ground than anywhere else in Puglia, and Coppi is one of the old names of the area. The visit starts in the vineyard next to the winery and goes down into the historic cellar of 1882, where the old underground cisterns now hold barrels and barriques.
The full tasting covers four native grapes in one sitting, Primitivo, Negroamaro, Susumaniello and Malvasia, with tarallini, farm cheeses and cured meats and an almond sweet at the end. Only four reviews so far, all of them glowing about the host. It is a good stop on a day between Bari and the Itria Valley, and the winery ships bottles abroad if you buy more than you can carry.
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3. Tenute Girolamo, Martina Franca
The one Itria Valley estate on this list, and the most reviewed tasting in Puglia wine country on either platform. Tenute Girolamo farms the high limestone ground between Martina Franca and Noci, among the trulli, and is best known for its reds.
The visit is a short guided walk through the fermentation area and the barrel cellar, then a long table and a light lunch of focaccia, cheeses and cured meats with four wines. Reviewers say the pours are generous and sometimes go beyond the four on the menu; a few found the cellar tour hard to hear. It is the easiest booking here if you are staying in a trullo or a masseria in the valley.
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Comparing more wineries in Puglia? GetYourGuide lists tastings from Bari to the Salento, including small-group and private visits.
All Puglia wine tastings in one search, filtered and ready.
Manduria: Primitivo on the Gulf of Taranto
4. Jorche, Torricella
Manduria is where Primitivo became famous, and Jorche, on the red earth outside Torricella a few miles from the sea, is the most complete way to taste it on this list. The visit is built as a progression: a welcome glass of two local whites, a walk through the cellar, Primitivo di Manduria drawn straight from the barrique and compared with the finished bottle, and a sweet Primitivo di Manduria Dolce Naturale with almond pastries to close.
It is sold through a Puglia travel agency rather than by the winery, which explains the tidy format and the optional add-on: a traditional lunch in an 18th-century olive mill. No reviews on Viator yet. If Primitivo is the reason you came to Puglia, this is the visit that explains it best.
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5. Soloperto, Manduria
Soloperto is a Manduria institution in the middle of town, and the family says the Primitivo di Manduria appellation was born in its cellar in 1972. The visit takes in the winery, the barrel room and a small museum of farm tools and old bottles of Manduria going back to 1970, then moves to the wine bar for a tasting with local products.
It is booked as a private visit for your group only, which is unusual at this price, and the owners lead it themselves. The listing is translated automatically from Italian and has no reviews yet, so confirm the language when you book. A good choice for a couple who would rather talk with the family than share a table with strangers.
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Salento: Negroamaro country
6. Feudi di Guagnano, Guagnano
Guagnano sits about twelve miles northwest of Lecce, in the heart of the Salice Salentino and Negroamaro vineyards, and this visit shows the old way of growing them: low bush vines, the alberello, with no wires and no trellis. The tour starts at the winery in town, then drives out to the vineyards and to an odd local landmark, a hermitage built in the style of Gaudí by a painter from the village.
Four wines close the visit, with a platter of cured meats and cheeses and a sommelier to talk you through them. You need your own car for the vineyard leg, and there are only four reviews so far. It is the most expensive visit on this list and the one that spends the most time outdoors.
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7. Castel di Salve, Depressa
The oldest estate on this list: Castel di Salve was founded in 1885 by the Winspeare family, who still run it in the fourth and fifth generation, in Depressa near the southern tip of the Salento. They work native grapes only, Verdeca, Negroamaro, Malvasia Nera di Lecce and Primitivo, on about 31 hectares (some 75 acres).
The visit goes from the vineyard to the old cellar, then to a tasting of five wines chosen by season. Every one of its 25 reviews gives five stars. Depressa is a quiet village, so this pairs well with a day on the coast at Santa Maria di Leuca or Castro, and is an easy drive from the masserie of the lower Salento.
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8. Tenuta Merico, Frassanito
Tenuta Merico is a few minutes inland from the beaches north of Otranto, which makes it the easiest winery to fit into a seaside stay in the Salento. The visit follows the wine through the production rooms, from the arrival of the grapes to bottling, then sits you down for five wines: a white, a rosé and three reds.
The food is the reason people remember it: eggplant parmigiana, potato pizza, burrata, four cheeses and four cured meats, enough to count as lunch. A couple of reviewers missed seeing the vines; a vineyard walk can be requested when the weather allows. Book a midday slot and skip breakfast.
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Booking, timing and getting back
Book a few days ahead, more in summer. Most of these estates host a handful of visits a day and confirm by hand, so last-minute requests often go unanswered. All eight offer free cancellation up to 24 hours before, which makes it painless to reserve early.
Spring and fall are the best seasons. In July and August the Salento fills with Italian vacationers and the afternoons are too hot for a vineyard walk; September brings the harvest, when some cellars are busy and others are at their liveliest. Late April to June and late September to October are easier everywhere.
Plan the driving honestly. Public transport does not reach any of these wineries, and the distances are real: Minervino Murge to Depressa is about three and a half hours by road. The legal limit in Italy is 0.5 grams per liter, lower than in most US states, and a two-hour tasting with lunch will take a driver past it. Pick one area per day, use the spit bucket, or book a driver through your hotel.
Prices here are per person unless stated. Both platforms convert into your own currency at checkout. Prices are indicative and set by our booking partners.
Where this fits in a Puglia wine trip
Base yourself in one area and the wineries come to you. In the Itria Valley, a farm stay from our list of wine masserie in Puglia puts Tenute Girolamo and Coppi within half an hour. For the Salento, our picks on where to stay in Salento cover the countryside around Feudi di Guagnano and Castel di Salve, and the best hotels in Lecce make the city a base for both.
Manduria works as a day out from either side, and the north is best combined with a visit to Castel del Monte itself. For how the four areas fit together, start with the Puglia wine country guide; for the practical side of driving between them, see renting a car for a wine trip in Europe.
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Staying in Puglia for more than just today? A rental car makes it easy to reach the wineries of Manduria and the Salento at your own pace.
Rent a car from Bari, filtered and ready.
