Taurino in Apulia
Two years ago, My wife and I flew into Rome and rented a car and drove to Apulia. When I looked on mapquest to see how far a drive it was, I guess I didn’t really pay attention. I thought the ride was about five or six hours, it turned out to be about eight and a half. Mind you, this was after flying all night. We were on our way to meet the Taurino family at their winery. When we finally arrived, they were all waiting for us, wondering what took so long. After we told them we flew into Rome, they all wanted to know why we didn’t fly into Brindesi. At this point they wanted to take us to their beach house, which was located about forty-five minutes away at Porto Cesareo in Lecce. We were exhausted and couldn’t believe we had to get back in our cars and drive again. When we arrived at their beach house, ( it was more like a beach villa ) we were given the red carpet treatment. The house was stocked with wine for us, we were told to help ourselves to anything we needed. It was probably about six pm by then, we were told to take a nap or have a bite to eat and we would meet at about nine thirty to have dinner in the center of Lecce.
My parents immediately lay down and took a nap, my wife and I decided to take a drive around and get some food for the house and have a snack. We never did grab a nap, and did we regret it later. We finally arrived in Lecce center and after circling the center about three times were able to get a parking spot. The place was packed with people out enjoying the evening. We arrived at Antonio and Rosanna’s friends restaurant about ten pm. Antonio is a great guy, and a lover of food and wine. He proceeded to order about half of the menu for our table. The waiters literally filled our table with platters of food. It was amazing, we had this seafood stew in a tomato broth that immediately made me think of Christmas at my Nana’s, when she would make this giant bowl of perrywinkles in tomato broth. The aroma was identical. My Dad and I couldn’t eat the stew fast enough. After eating as much food as humanly possible, and drinking some great wines from Taurino, we were thinking of our beds back at the beach house. Now, Antonio lets us know that the brick oven pizza is the best in Lecce and has us all order pizza’s. We literally couldn’t believe it. We ate one slice apiece and took the rest to-go, I thought we were going to burst.
As we were walking out of the restaurant, Antonio informs us that he’s now going to take us on a walking tour of Lecce. I’m thinking at this point that their poor children are sound asleep in their carriages and probably want to go home and go to bed even more than we do at this time. We walked around till about two o’clock in the morning seeing the history and ruins of Lecce. It was beautiful and definitely worth it. We got back to the beach house about two forty-five in the morning and crashed. The crazy part was that we had to be back at the winery at nine-thirty in the morning, in order to see the harvest in action. We arrived at about ten and they were all standing there looking fresh as a daisy, while my mother, father, wife Sherri and I looked like death warmed over. Antonio and Rosanna, were telling us to hurry if we wanted to see the harvest. By about eleven or twelve it gets too hot and the pickers go home. I’ll tell you what, we had so much fun in the vineyards, we picked grapes, tasted all the varietals grown that went into making their wines and had great photo ops.
I look back on this visit to Apulia and smile everytime I think about it. We had such a great time, the food was amazing and ridiculously plentiful. We went out on their boat and toured the coast along the Ionian sea, we spent a day at their private beach club( and of course ate a seafood feast that might have outdone our first night’s feast). The thing that really sticks out in my mind was, just how good the wine was. You think of Southern Italy and you tend to think table wine. The Negroamaro wines along with Malvasia Nera blends were incredible. Taurino makes a Salice Salentino wine that drinks as good as any wine produced in Tuscany at the same price point. Just an outstanding bottle of wine. They also produce a wine called Notarpanaro, which is made from 100% negroamaro, in additon they make a wine called Patriglione, which is a single vineyard negroamaro from the Patriglione parcel in the area of Salento.
When I returned from this trip, the first thing I did was to write the Taurino family and thank them for an experience of a lifetime, the second thing I did was to buy these three wines and put them on my wine list. I can’t believe how many people have come to Varano’s and enjoyed these wonderful wines. It’s an honor and a pleasure to introduce someone to one of these wines for their first time.
The sad part of this story is that they make three or four other great wines that aren’t available in the United States. I guess they hold some back to force us to go back and visit again. I can’t wait.
My parents immediately lay down and took a nap, my wife and I decided to take a drive around and get some food for the house and have a snack. We never did grab a nap, and did we regret it later. We finally arrived in Lecce center and after circling the center about three times were able to get a parking spot. The place was packed with people out enjoying the evening. We arrived at Antonio and Rosanna’s friends restaurant about ten pm. Antonio is a great guy, and a lover of food and wine. He proceeded to order about half of the menu for our table. The waiters literally filled our table with platters of food. It was amazing, we had this seafood stew in a tomato broth that immediately made me think of Christmas at my Nana’s, when she would make this giant bowl of perrywinkles in tomato broth. The aroma was identical. My Dad and I couldn’t eat the stew fast enough. After eating as much food as humanly possible, and drinking some great wines from Taurino, we were thinking of our beds back at the beach house. Now, Antonio lets us know that the brick oven pizza is the best in Lecce and has us all order pizza’s. We literally couldn’t believe it. We ate one slice apiece and took the rest to-go, I thought we were going to burst.
As we were walking out of the restaurant, Antonio informs us that he’s now going to take us on a walking tour of Lecce. I’m thinking at this point that their poor children are sound asleep in their carriages and probably want to go home and go to bed even more than we do at this time. We walked around till about two o’clock in the morning seeing the history and ruins of Lecce. It was beautiful and definitely worth it. We got back to the beach house about two forty-five in the morning and crashed. The crazy part was that we had to be back at the winery at nine-thirty in the morning, in order to see the harvest in action. We arrived at about ten and they were all standing there looking fresh as a daisy, while my mother, father, wife Sherri and I looked like death warmed over. Antonio and Rosanna, were telling us to hurry if we wanted to see the harvest. By about eleven or twelve it gets too hot and the pickers go home. I’ll tell you what, we had so much fun in the vineyards, we picked grapes, tasted all the varietals grown that went into making their wines and had great photo ops.
I look back on this visit to Apulia and smile everytime I think about it. We had such a great time, the food was amazing and ridiculously plentiful. We went out on their boat and toured the coast along the Ionian sea, we spent a day at their private beach club( and of course ate a seafood feast that might have outdone our first night’s feast). The thing that really sticks out in my mind was, just how good the wine was. You think of Southern Italy and you tend to think table wine. The Negroamaro wines along with Malvasia Nera blends were incredible. Taurino makes a Salice Salentino wine that drinks as good as any wine produced in Tuscany at the same price point. Just an outstanding bottle of wine. They also produce a wine called Notarpanaro, which is made from 100% negroamaro, in additon they make a wine called Patriglione, which is a single vineyard negroamaro from the Patriglione parcel in the area of Salento.
When I returned from this trip, the first thing I did was to write the Taurino family and thank them for an experience of a lifetime, the second thing I did was to buy these three wines and put them on my wine list. I can’t believe how many people have come to Varano’s and enjoyed these wonderful wines. It’s an honor and a pleasure to introduce someone to one of these wines for their first time.
The sad part of this story is that they make three or four other great wines that aren’t available in the United States. I guess they hold some back to force us to go back and visit again. I can’t wait.
