Puglia
Est. 1998 
13 wines 
Tastings
Tours
Booking required 
Wine area
Salice Salentino and Brindisi
The northern Salento DOCs around Brindisi and the northern Lecce border.
Tormaresca
Tormaresca is the Antinori family's estate in Puglia, begun in 1998. It farms three properties. Masseria Maime sits on the Adriatic coast at San Pietro Vernotico, and gives the pale pink Calafuria and the Salento reds. Tenuta Bocca di Lupo lies inland below the Castel del Monte hills, and is farmed organically. Tenuta Carrubo grows Primitivo near Manduria. Only Bocca di Lupo takes visitors, and its cellar tours and tastings are booked online in advance.
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Wines from Tormaresca
About Tormaresca
Piero Antinori went looking for land in Puglia in the mid 1990s with Renzo Cotarella, the family's winemaker. The grapes they found there, Primitivo, Negroamaro and Fiano, had been grown for bulk wine rather than for bottles worth keeping. The family bought in during 1998 and set out to prove the other case. Tormaresca is what came of it, and the Antinori family still owns and runs it.
The home farm is Masseria Maime, on the Adriatic coast at San Pietro Vernotico. Vines cover about 500 football pitches, with olive groves in between. The rows run on until they meet the sea. New trellised rows sit beside old alberello bush vines. Puglia has trained vines that way for centuries: it keeps the plant low and its thirst small. At the centre of the farm is a walled seventeenth-century courtyard. Grain was stored there and wine was made there. A small chapel stands just outside the old wall. The working cellar, Cantina Tormaresca, opened in 2009.
North of there, Tenuta Bocca di Lupo sits at Minervino Murge, inside the Castel del Monte DOC. The vines are up at about 300 metres on thin stony ground, with the old Vulture volcano on the western skyline. Winters here are hard and the temperature swings a long way. The estate is farmed organically. It gives the Aglianico that carries the Bocca di Lupo name, the Pietrabianca Chardonnay and a Fiano. The third property, Tenuta Carrubo, grows only Primitivo on red soil near Fragagnano, in the Primitivo di Manduria zone.
Most of what British merchants stock comes off the Salento vines. Calafuria, a pale pink Negroamaro, is the wine people look up most. Torcicoda is the Primitivo and Roycello the Fiano. Masseria Maime is the top Negroamaro, named after the farm. Fichimori is a light red the estate tells you to serve cold. The Neprica pair, one Primitivo and one Negroamaro, is the everyday bottle. The plain Puglia Chardonnay is the white sold most widely here, and the estate makes a point of how fresh it stays for a southern white.
Only Bocca di Lupo takes visitors, and Tormaresca says so plainly: the other two estates are closed to the public. You walk the winery and then the barrel room, which sits deep inside under a double vault of local tuff brick. From the balcony above, the vines run out to Minervino on the far hill. Every visit ends with a tasting. The ninety-minute one adds a board of local food, and one tour rides an e-bike through the vineyards first. Visits run Monday to Friday between 11am and 3pm, in Italian or English, and are booked online.
Plate I · PUGLIA
Tormaresca on the Puglia wine atlas
Winery
Tormaresca
San Pietro Vernotico, BR · Salice Salentino and Brindisi
Denominations Produced
Grapes Used
Visit & Experiences
3 bookable experiences at Tormaresca
2 tastings and 1 tour, checked by our editors.
Tasting & Tour
Tenuta Bocca di Lupo, Minervino Murge
Incontro: one-hour cellar visit and tasting
1 hour
Paid on booking, not refundable
Italian, English (Incontro in English)
One hour at Tenuta Bocca di Lupo, the estate near Minervino Murge in the Castel del Monte hills. You walk the working cellar and the barrel room, then the balcony that looks out over the vineyards. It ends with a tasting of three Castel del Monte wines: Pietrabianca, Trentangeli and Locone. Guided in Italian or in English. Booked and paid online, and the payment is not refundable.
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on tenutaboccadilupo.it
Tasting & Tour
Tenuta Bocca di Lupo, Minervino Murge
Percorso: ninety minutes with a local food board
1 hour 30 minutes
Paid on booking, not refundable
Ninety minutes at Tenuta Bocca di Lupo, near Minervino Murge. The longer walk through the same cellar, barrel room and panoramic balcony. Four wines are poured, the estate's own Bocca di Lupo among them, with a board of local food. Guided in Italian or in English. Booked and paid online, and the payment is not refundable.
Book this tour
on tenutaboccadilupo.it
Vineyard Tour
Tenuta Bocca di Lupo, Minervino Murge
E-bike ride through the vineyards
2 hours
Paid on booking, not refundable
Two hours at Tenuta Bocca di Lupo, near Minervino Murge. A guide leads the ride on electric bikes between the vines. You come back for a drink, the cellar and barrel room, and the balcony over the vineyards. Two Castel del Monte wines are tasted with a board of local food. Guided in Italian or in English. Booked and paid online, and the payment is not refundable.
Book this tour
on tenutaboccadilupo.it
Not seeing the estate you want? Estates without an online listing are reachable directly, and their phone and email are in Plan your visit.
Plan your visit
Strada Provinciale 86 per Torre San Gennaro, 72027 San Pietro Vernotico (BR), Puglia, Italy
What Tormaresca makes
Tormaresca's current bottle selection is led by Primitivo di Manduria DOC. The clearest grape signal comes from Negroamaro and Chardonnay.
Common questions
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The Antinori family, the Florentine wine family. They bought land in Puglia in 1998 and still own and run the estate. Tormaresca is its own company, with its own vineyards, cellar and address at San Pietro Vernotico, near Brindisi.
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