Tuscany
4 wine routes
All 4 Tuscany drives
Puglia · DOC
Ostuni DOC The White City's Wine, from Impigno to Ottavianello
The White City keeps two rarities: Ostuni DOC's bianco leads with Impigno, a grape grown almost nowhere else, and its red is Ottavianello, Italy's only denomination built on Cinsault. Both come from the olive-silvered hills between the town and the Adriatic, in tiny and stubborn quantities.
1
Wines live now
£15-£21
Price range today
2
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 £15
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
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
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.
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 percent, making this Italy's only Cinsault denomination. Expect a pale, spiced, cherry-bright red that takes a light chill.
Impigno at 50 to 85 percent with Francavilla at 15 to 50, both local rarities, plus up to 10 percent of Bianco d'Alessano and Verdeca. Light, dry and saline at 11 percent minimum.
Rarely: production is tiny and mostly drunk in Brindisi province. It is a wine to order in situ, in the White City's restaurants, rather than to hunt on British shelves.
Explore more Puglia
Same region only: the denomination Ostuni drinkers reach for next.
The one to know · DOC
Primitivo di Manduria
Old-vine Primitivo from Salento's red soils, ripened by the Ionian sun. Primitivo di Manduria DOC spans southern Puglia communes like Manduria, Sava and Avetrana. The disciplinare requires minimum 85% Primitivo and.
36
Wines in stock
13.5%
Min. alcohol