CORATO (Province of Bari) here wasn’t a proper winter in this area, warm weather started early, in August Tthere was rain. The vines bloomed and flowered early. It was necessary to irrigate the vineyards. High quality of grapes and of wines. Roberto Perrone Capano owner Azienda Agricola Santa Lucia (Castel del Monte DOC):”This is an extraordinary vintage for red wine. We are happy. Grape yield was lower for all varietals. There was no need for green harvest nor for leaf removal in order to expose the clusters. We irrigated the vineyards. Grapes were flawless. The 2007 wines are full-bodied, have a lot of structure, they are powerful and have a good alcohol percentage. The alcoholic fermentation finished without problems. The harvest was one month early for the red varietals and 20 days early for Fiano..Our new vineyards are in production….”

UGENTO (Southern Salento – Province of Lecce) he climate was very irregular in this area. There was rain at the beginning of June and no more rain after that. Temperature during the summer was very high with peaks over 45 degrees Celsius on the 26t h of July and on the 22n d – 23r d of August. Although there was decrease in grape yield for Negroamaro, this did not affect the quality of the grapes nor of the wines. Francesco Marra agronomist of Masserie Pisari (Salento IGT Rosso and Rosato): “The grape yield of Negroamaro was lower than normal, but the quality of the wines is extremely high and they are very concentrated. There was no decrease in grape yield for Primitivo and also the quality of these wines is high. We harvested Negroamaro 10 days early starting on the 20t h of September. We started picking Primitivo on the 10t h of September…..”