Puglia in September 2023 - Porto Cesareo, Cantine and Vincent City

Saturday morning is dedicated to Cantine - wine tasting and buying for the winter back up north. We start off in Leverano at the Vecchia Torre, not far from Porto Cesareo and then move to Conti Zecca, in a park near the centre of the town. Here there are even some special offers. In Leverano we also get petrol since it’s quite cheap.

Our next stop is at Vincent City - the house of the artist Vincent Brunetti, which is near Salice Salentino. There’s nobody around but everything is open so we cautiously drive in and park. We wander around outside and since the door is open, go in. Andrea is fascinated. I’m not. I’ll leave you to look at some photos and make up your own mind.

The morning continues in Manduria where we make two stops, one at Cantolio which we visited last year and where Andrea stocks up on wines he’s been appreciating all year. The second cantina Produttori di Manduria is harder to find but the most organized. There are a lot of people doing tastings and there’s a large area to look around. The museum requires booking.

In all of the Cantine in the area we found a warm welcome and the opportunity to taste the wines for free. The main wines of the area are Primitivo di Manduria, Negramaro and Salice Salentino. By the time we drive back to base for a late lunch we have a collection.

After the second of the tonnetti for lunch, we can’t resist returing to Dolci Tramonti for Spumoni bis. This time one traditional and one pistachio. 

There are fewer people at the cafè, perhaps since it’s Saturday and the last day of September some holiday makers have left. In the ‘square' where there’s the mermaid fountain some local boys are zooming around by bike, braking hard but with a plastic bottle flattened against the wheel so the noise is of a motorbike. What an invention, we have to laugh despite the racket they are making. We wander around, absorbing sunset.

After sunset we go to the Panificio Muci Maria Addolorata and wish we’d discovered it before. The bread is good and she even offers us a couple of free pizzette each. How nice! Then Andrea mentions a few ‘Argentini’ would be nice so we get some of those and in the end eat far too much for supper!