Wishing all of our friends, across the world, a happy holiday season from all the families at the Cantele family winery!
Thanks for being here in 2019. We look forward to seeing you in 2020!
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95 points for Teresa Manara Chardonnay from Daniele Cernilli and Doctor Wine!
We were thrilled to receive news that the Cantele 2016 Late Harvest Chardonnay Teresa Manara was awarded 95/100 points by Daniele Cernilli, one of the world’s great Italian wine experts and critics, founder and longtime editor of the Gambero Rosso guide to Italian wines and now editor of an immensely popular online wine portal, Doctor Wine.
The score will be officially presented in October of this year when he presents Doctor Wine’s new guide to the wines of Italy.
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Varius, a new blend: Susumaniello and Negroamaro
After a two-year hiatus, we are celebrating the return of Varius, a wine that represents an on-going “experiment” in the Cantele portfolio. As its name reveals, it is a “variation” of traditional Pugliese blends. We had taken a break from this label because it was time. Starting in 1999, the blend has included Negroamaro, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Montepulciano. In one of the last blends, Merlot took the place of Montepulciano. And the final “variation” was a wine made solely from Merlot grapes.
In this new version from the 2016 vintage, Varius is a blend of Negroamaro, the king of Pugliese grapes, and Susumaniello, a variety that originated in the Balkans. Its name comes from the fact that it was once considered a workhorse grape, a somarello or donkey in Italian, thanks to the density of the grape bunches as they ripen. Today, of course, growers keep the yields low but the name has stuck. It’s been a few years that we have been thinking about working with this historic Salento grape variety from, which has been only recently revived by winemakers here. It has a very small berry, with a high concentration of polyphenols and anthocyanins. Rich in color and low in acidity, it’s the ideal partner for Negroamaro (with its lighter color and higher level of acidity). The result is a fresh and youthful wine, aged in stainless steel, with good structure and approachability.
Continue reading Varius, a new blend: Susumaniello and Negroamaro
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The colors of elegance
Cantele and Accademia Sitam Lecce announce a celebration of style and elegance: a new joint-project devoted to the marriage of wine and fashion. The never-ending quest to define beauty and elegance is something that takes shape every day at the Cantele winery, where art and winemaking go hand in hand. Similarly, the young, brilliant designers at the Sitam Fashion Academy, driven by their endless creativity, work every day to give form to their fabrics. It couldn’t be a better fit or a better match.
Color can express a mood. It can be associated with a purpose and with the refinement of living and working together. It occurred to us: Why don’t we tell this story? And this was how the beautiful lines and colors of our labels, created by designer Elisa Costa, became a source of inspiration for the stylists who fashioned these extraordinary designs. Their creations were, in turn, worn by beautiful models for a photo session by photographer Silvio Bursomanno, who took a minimalist approach to the shoot, delivering a robust sense of color and clarity in his images.
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Rohesia: rosè without compromise
The first vintage of Rohesia has been such a thrill for us. And now, this new rosé — vinified from the same grapes used for our flagship wine, Teresa Manara Negroamaro — is in its second vintage. But it’s already become a wine that stands out from the crowd.
The second incarnation has been even more positively received than the previous. It’s thanks to this wine’s strong identity and the fact that it doesn’t compromise on any level: It’s a wine whose integrity has never been shaped by fleeting trends of the marketplace.
The 2014 harvest was challenging. Because of summer rains that affected all of Italy, the weather conditions delivered a wine whose color is less intense than in the previous vintage. Vinification of a rosé wine always requires a technical approach that takes into account the variables of any given vintage. Maceration of the grape must before fermentation takes place at a low temperature. It continues until the desired color is achieved. In the case of Rohesia, this generally takes up to 24 hours. But the process is also closely linked to the desired tannic balance. As a result, the amount of time in which the must is left in contact with the skins varies from vintage to vintage as does the final color of the wine.
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Teresa Manara Chardonnay “Dieci Settembre” (“September 10”)
September 10 was a particularly meaningful date in the 2013 harvest: It was the date we picked the last bunches of our Chardonnay. We harvested them just as they were enjoying the last rays of summer sunlight and the cool mornings that announce the arrival of fall.
This day was also the culmination of a patient wait that had been devoted to the grapes in a small zone in our Teresa Manara vineyard. The area is remarkable for its perfect soil and climate. The limestone-rich earth is medium-compact with great drainage. And so it’s ideal for late-ripening the bunches on the vine, a natural process aided by the wind and carried out with great patience.
The breeze is always an invisible player in the phases that precede the harvest. It’s an essential element in allowing the grapes to reach and surpass their physiological ripeness while still perfectly healthy and intact. It helps to give this wine its unmistakable aromatic character.
Continue reading Teresa Manara Chardonnay “Dieci Settembre” (“September 10”)
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The eleventh vintage and a new label
A tradition of seeking excellence… This is the concept behind the new Fiano Alticelli. With its classic golden yellow color, this wine heralds the arrival of the warmer light of summer. And it serves as a link to the grape’s mysterious but undisputed origins in ancient Greece where it was greatly coveted by the citizens of Athens.
Even though Fiano is more widely associated with Campania, it has always been grown in Puglia where it has enjoyed a rich history among winemakers. But be careful not to confuse it with Fiano Minutolo, a more aromatic grape variety. We focused its efforts on “Pugliese” Fiano, the very same grape that arrived in our region together with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the thirteenth century. It was Frederick himself who introduced Fiano Pugliese in the township of Manfredonia (Foggia province), where the clay-rich and skeletal soils, with their low alkaline pH, made for the ideal terroir to grow this grape. It was an excellent match. The unique soil type gave the wines distinct aromas and flavors, complexity, and nuance. Broom, yellow grapefruit, chamomile, white rose are the descriptors commonly used in tasting notes on the wine.
