Wine route
Itria Valley Whites
1 to 2 days · 5 stops
Open the drivePuglia · DOC
Ostuni DOC The White City's Wine, from Impigno to Ottavianello
Ostuni is the White City, and it keeps two rarities. Its bianco leads with Impigno, a grape grown almost nowhere else. Its red is Ottavianello, Italy's only denomination built on Cinsault. Both come from the olive-silvered hills between the town and the Adriatic. They are made in tiny and stubborn quantities.
2
Wines live now
£11-£21
Price range today
3
UK retailers
Decode the label
What the label tells you
One word on the front changes the ageing, the strength and the price.
On the label
Bianco
Impigno's saline white
11% minimum alcohol
50-85% Impigno
The aperitivo answer under the White City's walls.
No bottles in stock right now
On the label
Ottavianello
Italy's only Cinsault DOC
11.5% minimum alcohol
85%+ Ottavianello (Cinsault)
Chill it lightly and pour it with the bombette.
In stock from £10.95
The boundary
Where it is
Everything on this page, the estates, the bottles, the sub-zones, sits inside this line.
Ostuni DOC zone
Wine route in the zoneOutside the zone
The zone drapes over the last limestone folds before the Adriatic: Ostuni, Carovigno, San Vito dei Normanni and San Michele Salentino entire, with parts of Latiano, Ceglie Messapica and Brindisi. Millennial olive groves dominate the plain; the vines take the rises, close enough to the sea that salt rides every breeze.
Inside the zone
1972
the DOC's founding year
7
communes of Brindisi province
85%
minimum Ottavianello in the red
11.5%
Ottavianello's minimum alcohol
Towns worth knowing
Ostuni
Carovigno
San Vito dei Normanni
San Michele Salentino
The White City's enoteche are the realistic place to taste both wines.
In the glass
What it tastes like, by style
One profile at a time, never blended into a single set of bars.
Lemon
Green Apple
Almond
Cherry
Redcurrant
White pepper
The disciplinare
The rules that define it
The same table on every denomination page, straight from the production rules.
Grape & its role
Share of the blend
050100%
Solid means the rules demand it. Striped means optional, up to that amount. The words on the right say the same rule.
Italy's Cinsault lives here Ottavianello is the French grape under a Puglian name, protected nowhere else in Italy.
Two grapes the world forgot Impigno and Francavilla survive almost entirely inside this DOC.
Seven communes by the sea from Ostuni and Carovigno to the edge of Brindisi, between olive groves and the Adriatic.
Ageing and alcohol minimums per tier are in the label guide above.
Editor's cellar
Bottles to try, and what Ostuni costs in the UK
Every live Ostuni listing, cheapest to dearest
2 wines · 3 retailers
Live prices, compared across 3 UK retailers.
Vintage provenance
Why there is no vintage chart
No vintage chart exists for Ostuni: volumes are tiny, the wines are drunk young, and quality follows the handful of cellars that bottle them.
What to check instead
The producer: quality here is tracked estate by estate rather than year by year.
How Ostuni is made
The bianco is built on Impigno, at 50 to 85 per cent. Francavilla, another local survivor, takes 15 to 50 per cent. Bianco d'Alessano and Verdeca can add up to 10 per cent between them. The wine must reach 11 per cent alcohol. The Ottavianello needs at least 85 per cent of its namesake grape. That is the Cinsault of southern France, under a Puglian name. Negroamaro, Malvasia Nera, Notar Domenico and Susumaniello share the remainder. Minimum alcohol here is 11.5 per cent. Neither wine carries an ageing mandate, so both are made to drink young. The zone takes in seven communes of Brindisi province. Ostuni, Carovigno, San Vito dei Normanni and San Michele Salentino are covered entire. Parts of Latiano, Ceglie Messapica and Brindisi itself make up the rest.
In depth
Ostuni DOC was recognised in 1972. It shows what a denomination looks like when it protects memory rather than market share. Impigno and Francavilla are grapes the wider world never planted. They are kept alive between the olive groves that dominate this coast. Ottavianello arrived, the story runs, from Provence. It came by way of the nineteenth-century Marquis of Bugnano's estate at San Vito dei Normanni. That makes this the one corner of Italy where Cinsault has legal standing. Production is small enough that the wines rarely leave the province. A few cooperative cellars and estates around the White City bottle them. The buyers are the trattorie that pour them with orecchiette and fava purées. That scarcity is the buying advice. On the route through the Itria valley, Ostuni's old town earns the evening. If the wine list offers the local Ottavianello, order it, lightly chilled, with the grilled bombette. No shelf in Britain will offer it twice.
On the table
What to eat with Ostuni
The home country leads; global pairings that genuinely work follow.
In-depth guide
Ostuni, answered
The Puglian name for Cinsault, and Ostuni's red. The DOC requires at least 85 per cent of it, which makes this Italy's only Cinsault denomination. Expect a pale, spiced, cherry-bright red that takes a light chill.
Impigno at 50 to 85 per cent, with Francavilla at 15 to 50 per cent. Both are local rarities. Bianco d'Alessano and Verdeca can add up to 10 per cent. The wine is light and dry, with a salty edge, at 11 per cent minimum.
Rarely. Production is tiny, and most of it is drunk in Brindisi province. It is a wine to order on the spot, in the White City's restaurants, rather than to hunt on British shelves.
Explore more Puglia
Same region only: the denominations Ostuni drinkers reach for next.
