Castel di Salve - Azienda vitivinicola

Welcome to the world of wine at Castel di Salve.

The world of Negroamaro, Primitivo, Malvasia Nera di Lecce and sweet Aleatico. Great attention is given to the varieties of grape, and wines with a strong character are created in the continuous quest for unusual new tastes.

Here two young gentlemen farmers, childhood friends, both with long and important noble family traditions, following their dreams have been making wine together since 1990. Francesco Marra and Francesco Winspeare and their wine growing and producing company: their passion for the wine, their vineyards and their wine cellar, dwell in the heart of the most beautiful and magic Salento. This area situated in the South Eastern Italian region of Puglia, has a great wine-growing and producing tradition. Between Capo d’Otranto and Capo di Leuca, between the Ionian and the Adriatic.

In the village of Depressa, near Tricase, wine tourists from all over the world arrive at the Castel di Salve wine cellar every day. The wine tastings transmit the flavours and history of the great indigenous species of vines, which can be captured by skilfully tasting and distinguishing between several labels, from Armecolo to Priante. Labels and bottles whose class and style complement the flavour of the wines and have enabled them to circulate around the world in the best wine shops and restaurants.

Then there is the annual appointment at the wine fair in Verona Vinitaly and Prowein in Dusseldorf and prizes and recognition from all over the world.

The winery is in Depressa, in the ancient wine cellar which had been abandoned for many years. It was built towards the end of the nineteenth century in the village just down the road opposite the Winspeare family castle. A small monument of industrial architecture, with cross vaults in Lecce stone, following local building tradition. An example of industrial space, elsewhere wiped out during the first half of the twentieth century by the use of cement, which preserves the attraction of a building on a human scale, in harmony with its surroundings.

The restoration, which involved adapting the wine-making process to modern methods, has been skilfully and tastefully carried out with minute attention to detail and this is greatly appreciated by the wine tourists who arrive here daily. They are welcomed in the tasting room after a tour following all the phases of the transformation of the grapes into wine which leads to the antique barrel cellar where Cento, Lama del Tenente and Priante are matured and refined in small oak barrels.